Movement along the Baton Rouge fault

The Baton Rouge fault is one of two faults (the other being Denham Spring-Scotlandville fault) that traverse the city of Baton Rouge and has long been thought to be active. Structural damages to buildings, streets and sidewalks near the fault have previously been attributed to movement of the fault. Although the presence of the fault has been known for nearly 60 years, previous investigations have failed to determine its rate of movement. This study was aimed at determining the rate of modern movement along the Baton Rouge fault. Using a precise geodetic leveling technique, the current elevations of NGS (National Geodetic Surveying) benchmarks near the fault were determined and the values obtained were compared to 1994 elevations of the benchmarks. The investigation has shown that the Baton Rouge fault is active at the present time with measurable vertical movements still occurring at the land surface. The results of the study have also indicated that the fault crosses the Mississippi River and is currently disrupting it

Case Report on Cattle Pediculosis Outbreak in Jimma University on Cattle Kept for Practical Demonstration and the Control Measures Taken on Time

Lice are permanent host specific skin parasites of animals that cannot survive out of their natural host more than a few days. Cattle affected by both sucking lice and biting lice. The present case was presented to Jimma University open air clinic with chief complaint of itching and weight loss.  The animal was a bull kept in Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine for practical demonstration. It was bought from open market before 2 months of the occurrence of the disease and kept together with other animals in the same house. Upon detailed physical and clinical examination, the bull was rubbing against a pole in the clinic, loss of body weight, anemia, alopecia mainly in the neck region and opening of mouth during itching.  During the detail clinical examination an aggregation small sized blue to black colored lice were found on the neck, face and head region of the animal.  To identify the type of species of lice, sample of skin scraping was taken to Jimma University Veterinary Parasitology laboratory and the species of the parasite were identified with the consultation of Wall and Shearer (2001) veterinary ectoparasites book and found to be Solenoptes capillatus. The bull was treated with a single dose of 1% ivermectin subcutaneously with a dose of 0.2 mg/kg body weight and followed and responded immediately after 3 days.  However; after a week, another bull kept in the same farm near to the infested one was found to be infested with the same parasite species and treated immediately with ivermectin. Following this, the farm was disinfected with diazinon and became free of lice. Lastly, this case report demonstrates that lice are among the most important health constraints of cattle in any part of the tropical countries like Ethiopia leading to important economic losses so attention should be given during diagnosis not to overlook the case and control interventions on animal and farm level should be practiced. Keywords: Bull; Pediculosis; Case report; Jimma Universit

The Attitudes of students, parents and teachers towards the promotion and provision of condoms for adolescents in Addis Ababa

Abstract: A cross-sectional descriptive survey through a self-administered, anonymous and structured questionnaire was conductd from September to December, 1993, in ten high schools in Addis Ababa to determine the sexual behaviour of adolescents, their knowledge about AIDS, attitudes and practices regarding condoms, their attitudes towards the promotion and distribution of condoms in schools, and towards the incorporation of health and sex education into the regular teaching curricula and into the teachers’ training curricula. A total of 910 parents, 755 students and 232 teachers participated in the survey. The results showed that, of the 755 students, 39.8% of the boys and 5.6% of the girls have had sexual experience. Peer pressure (35.2%) and force (21.6%) were the most important factors that precipitated the first sexual encounter. Ten percent of the students had coital contact with a commercial sex worker. Only 42.2% of the sexually active students used condoms on their first sexual encounter, and only 27.7% used condoms continuously on their subsequent sexual encounters. An overwhelming majority in each of the three categories, (92.6% of the students, 98.7% of the parents and 96.1% of the teachers), approved the incorporation of health education into the regular teaching curricula. The idea of sex education in schools was also approved by 80.1% of the students, 90.9% of the parents and 96.1% of the teachers. This study, based upon the findings, recommends that education and health policy makers make relentless effort to commence health and sex education by incorporating them into the regular curricula; the implementation of subsequent surveys to identify the most effective and acceptable routes of condom distribution in school; and implementation of similar surveys in the rural settings to assess the attitudes in a different setting and acquire a more general overview for the whole country. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 1997;11(1):7-16

Food Service Provision Status and Patients’ Satisfaction at Selected Government Hospitals in Ethiopia

The daily provision of hospital patients’ nutritional food dietary intake is still a major problem at the majority of government hospitals found in Ethiopia. this leads to increased recovery time, morbidity, and mortality of lives. This cross-sectional study was designed to investigate the current status and functioning of the health facility concerning daily dietary food provision for patients under health care treatments for various health reasons. The main objective of this assessment was to generate evidence-based information on the current status and functioning of the health facility concerning daily dietary food provision for patients under health treatments for various health problems. A cross-sectional design, with a mixed-method approach (both qualitative and quantitative methods), was conducted from February to May 2019. The qualitative data were collected from key informants and quantitative data were collected through a structured questionnaire. The mean age of the participants was 37.35 (±16.59) and overall, 74.75% of the targeted populations were not satisfied with the food prepared at hospitals and 13.00% of them had no idea about the food prepared for the patients. Insufficient budget allocation, unskilled manpower, and less attention to hospital nutritional foods were common problems among the 13 governmental hospitals. The nutritional food services offered to hospital patients should be improved

Plant community analysis and effect of environmental factors on the diversity of woody species in the moist Afromontane forest of Wodo Genet, Ethiopia

Peer reviewe

Clinical Profile of Neonates Admitted with Sepsis to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Jimma Medical Center, A Tertiary Hospital in Ethiopia

BACKGROUND፡ Globally, over 3 million newborn die each year, one million of these attributed to infections. The objective of this study was to determine the etiologies and clinical characteristics of sepsis in neonates admitted to intensive care unit of a tertiary hospital in Ethiopia.METHODS: A longitudinal hospital based cohort study was conducted from April 1 to October 31, 2018 at the neonatal intensive care unit of Jimma Medical Center, southwest Ethiopia. Diagnosis of sepsis was established using the World Health Organization’s case definition. Structured questionnaires and case specific recording formats were used to capture the relevant data. Venous blood and cerebrospinal fluid from neonates suspected to have sepsis were collected.RESULTS: Out of 304 neonates enrolled in the study, 195 (64.1%) had clinical evidence for sepsis, majority (84.1%;164/195) of them having early onset neonatal sepsis. The three most frequent presenting signs and symptoms were fast breathing (64.6%; 122/195), fever (48.1%; 91/195) and altered feeding (39.0%; 76/195). Etiologic agents were detected from the blood culture of 61.2% (115/195) neonates. Bacterial pathogens contributed for 94.8% (109/115); the rest being fungal etiologies. Coagulase negative staphylococci (25.7%; 28/109), Staphylococcus aureus (22.1%; 24/109) and Klebsiella species (16.5%; 18/109) were the most commonly isolated bacteria.CONCLUSION: Majority of the neonates had early onset neonatal sepsis. The major etiologies isolated in our study markedly deviate from the usual organisms causing neonatal sepsis. Multicentre study and continuous surveillance are essential to tackle the current challenge to reduce neonatal mortality due to sepsis in Ethiopia

Performance of general health workers in leprosy control activities at public health facilities in Amhara and Oromia States, Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease of public health importance and one of the leading causes of permanent physical disability. Nevertheless, the drop in prevalence following multidrug therapy has resulted in the neglect of leprosy. The annual incidence of leprosy has remained the same in Ethiopia since decades with more than 76% of the reported new cases coming from Oromia and Amhara Regional States. This study was aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and skill of general health workers in leprosy control activities at public health facilities in Oromia and Amhara Regional States. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2011 to February 2012 at different public health facilities in selected eight zones in Oromia and Amhara Regional States. A multistage sampling method was used to obtain representative samples. High and low endemic zones for leprosy were included in the study in both regional states. Data were collected from general health workers through a structured self-administered questionnaire and at on-site assessment of their performance. Baseline socio-demographic data, health workers' attitude towards leprosy and their knowledge and skill in the management of leprosy were assessed. Bloom's cut off point was used to describe the knowledge and practical skills of the respondents while Likert's scale was used for attitude assessment. RESULT: A total of 601 general health workers responsible for leprosy control activities at public health facilities were included in knowledge and attitude assessment and 83 of them were subjected to practical evaluation, with on-site observation of how they handle leprosy patients. These included medical doctors (4%), health officers and nurses with Bachelor degree in Science (27%), clinical nurses with diploma (66%) and health assistants (2.8%). The median age of the respondents was 26.0 years and females made up of 45%. Generally the knowledge and skills of the respondents were found to be poor while attitude towards leprosy was positive for the majority of the respondents. The result showed that 519 (86.3%) had poor knowledge. Overall 155 (25.8%) of the respondents had positive attitude towards leprosy while 205 (34.1%) had intermediate (mixed) attitude and 241 (40.1%) had negative attitude to the disease. Among 83 respondents assessed for diagnosis of leprosy only 15(18.0%) diagnosed leprosy correctly. Variation in knowledge and attitude indicated a significant difference (p < 0.05) among different health institutions, professions, gender, in-service training and years of experience. CONCLUSION: The current finding underlines that although leprosy control activities are integrated to the general health services in the country, the knowledge and skills of leprosy diagnosis, treatment and management by health workers was unsatisfactory. Hence, attention should be given to develop training strategies that can improve health worker knowledge and promote better leprosy management at public health facilities. This could be achieved through pre-service and in-service training and giving adequate emphasis to leprosy related practical work and continuous follow- up

Linkages between health and agriculture sectors in Ethiopia: a formative research study exploring barriers, facilitators and opportunities for local level coordination to deliver nutritional programmes and services.

BACKGROUND: In Ethiopia, poor infant and young child feeding practices and low household dietary diversity remain widespread. The Government has adopted the National Nutrition Programme that emphasizes the need for multi-sectoral collaboration to effectively deliver nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific interventions. The Sustainable Undernutrition Reduction in Ethiopia (SURE) programme is one such Government-led initiative that will be implemented jointly by the health and agriculture sectors across 150 districts in Ethiopia. Prior to the design of the SURE programme, this formative research study was conducted to understand how the governance structure and linkages between health and agriculture sectors at local levels can support implementation of programme activities. METHODS: Data were collected from eight districts in Ethiopia using 16 key informant interviews and eight focus group discussions conducted with district and community-level focal persons for nutrition including health and agriculture extension workers. A framework analysis approach was used to analyze data. RESULTS: Few respondents were aware of the National Nutrition Programme or of their own roles within the multi-sectoral coordination mechanism outlined by the government to deliver nutritional programmes and services. Lack of knowledge or commitment to nutrition, lack of resources and presence of competing priorities within individual sectors were identified as barriers to effective coordination between health and agriculture sectors. Strong central commitment to nutrition, increased involvement of other partners in nutrition and the presence of community development workers such as health and agriculture extension workers were identified as facilitators of effective coordination. CONCLUSIONS: Federal guidelines to implement the Ethiopian National Nutrition Programme have yet to be translated to district or community level administrative structures. Sustained political commitment and provision of resources will be necessary to achieve effective inter-sectoral collaboration to deliver nutritional services. The health and agriculture extension platforms may be used to link interventions for sustained nutrition impact