Herbal Medicine Use during Pregnancy: Benefits and Untoward Effects

The use of herbal medicine has been on an increase over time. The most commonly used herbs are ginger, cranberry, valerian, raspberry leaf, chamomile, peppermint, thyme, fenugreek, green tea, sage, anise, garlic and bitter kola. The use of herbal medicine during pregnancy is associated with educational status of women, income level of household and age of women. Herbal medicines were used during pregnancy to treat nausea and vomiting, reduce the risk of preeclampsia, shorten labour and treat common cold and urinary tract infection. Using herbal medicine occasionally causes trouble. Heartburn, pre-mature labour, miscarriage, increase in blood flow, abortion and allergic reactions are the common troubles of herbal medicine use during pregnancy. Using herbal medicine during the first trimester and the third trimester is unsafe for the foetus. Pregnant women should talk to health professionals before consuming any herbal medicines. The unfortunate consequences of using herbal medicine during pregnancy need further study for various herbs. Therefore, clinical trial research should be done to identify unfortunate consequences of herbal medicine use during pregnancy

Effect of intimate partner violence on birth outcomes

Background: Violence by intimate partner during pregnancy has many adverse pregnancy outcomes. Thus, that's why we sought to determine association between intimate partner violence during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes.Methods: A facility based cross-sectional study was conducted among 183 recently delivered women from March 31- April 30, 2014 in public health facilities of Hossana Town. The data were collected through structured questionnaire and record review. Women who were not mentally and physically capable of being interviewed and those admitted for abortion were excluded. Ethical clearance was obtained from Jimma University. Logistic regression analysis was employed to determine the association between intimate partner violence and adverse birth outcomes.Results: About 23 % of women experienced intimate partner violence during pregnancy. The result of this study indicated an association of intimate partner violence with low birth weight of the new born (AOR:14.3,95% CI: (5.03, 40.7). Intimate partner violence was not associated with still birth, pre-term birth and Apgar score less than 7 at 5 minutes.Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that intimate partner violence during pregnancy was associated with a low birth weight of the new born. Health sectors should train health care providers on how to screen, counsel, treat and follow up abused women.Keywords: Intimate partner violence, birth outcomes, Ethiopi

Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control

Cervical cancer is caused by HPV (human papilloma virus). It is the second most common cancer in women living low developed countries. The components of cervical cancer prevention and control comprises primary prevention, secondary prevention and tertiary prevention. Primary prevention of cervical cancer encompasses prevention of infection with HPV. Giving HPV vaccine for girls aged 9–14 years before they initiate sexual activity is one of the interventions of primary prevention of cervical cancer. Screening and treatment is needed in secondary prevention of cervical cancer. Screening of cervical cancer encompasses testing a target group (women) who are at risk for a cervical pre-cancer. Tertiary prevention of cervical cancer comprises treatment of cervical cancer and palliative care. The components of tertiary care comprise surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and palliative care. Community mobilization, health education and counseling on cervical cancer prevention and control is vital to make ownership on cervical prevention. Monitoring and evaluation of cervical cancer prevention and control on key program indicators should be done regularly

Causes of Malnutrition

Malnutrition is defined as deficiency or excess of nutrition consumption. It is can be undernutrition and overnutrition. Malnutrition contributed to more than third of child death. There is no single cause of malnutrition. The causes of malnutrition can be categorized as immediate, underlying, and basic. The immediate-level causes of malnutrition comprise inadequate dietary intake and disease conditions. The underlying-level causes include insufficient household food security, inadequate social and care environment and insufficient health service, and unhealthy environment. The basic-level causes of malnutrition consist climate variability and extremes, sociocultural, economic, and political context. Undernutrition is specifically caused by deficiency of energy, vitamin, and minerals. Overnutrition is specifically is caused by overconsumption of energy and micronutrients. The causes of overnutrition are not clearly put in many studies. Therefore, studies that focus on cause of overnutrition should be done by incorporating both developed and undeveloped countries

Anti-retro viral therapy adverse drug reaction and associated factors among human immuno deficiency virus infected adult patients at Nigist Eleni Mohammed Memorial hospital, South Ethiopia

Background: Recent increases in access to HAART have made the management of drug toxicities an increasingly crucial component of HIV care in developing countries. The aim of this study was to determine prevalence of antiretroviral therapy adverse drug reactions and associated factors among HIV-infected adult patients at Nigist Eleni Mohammed memorial hospital. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted by retrospective review of patients\u2019 medical records. From a total 721 adult patient records, 231 patients record were selected by simple random sampling technique. The study was conducted April15-25, 2015.The association between dependent and independent variables was measured by using OR at 95% CI. P-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Result: About 53(22.9%) patients developed ADRs (adverse drug reactions). Female (AOR=2.72, CI=1.177-6.30), patients with WHO stage III and IV (AOR= 13.06, CI=4.17- 40.90) were found more likely to develop ADRs. Commonly identified ADRs were fatigue (18.1%), diarrhea (7.7%), nausea (6.5%), headache (3.6%) and anemia (2%). Conclusion: Nearly one in five patients develop ADRs. Sex of respondents, WHO stage and functional status were associated with ADRs. The health care providers should give due attention to ambulatory, bedridden, and WHO stage III and IV patients

Effect of intimate partner violence on birth outcomes.

Background: Violence by intimate partner during pregnancy has many adverse pregnancy outcomes. Thus, that\'s why we sought to determine association between intimate partner violence during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes. Methods: A facility based cross-sectional study was conducted among 183 recently delivered women from March 31- April 30, 2014 in public health facilities of Hossana Town. The data were collected through structured questionnaire and record review. Women who were not mentally and physically capable of being interviewed and those admitted for abortion were excluded. Ethical clearance was obtained from Jimma University. Logistic regression analysis was employed to determine the association between intimate partner violence and adverse birth outcomes. Results: About 23 % of women experienced intimate partner violence during pregnancy. The result of this study indicated an association of intimate partner violence with low birth weight of the new born (AOR:14.3,95% CI: (5.03, 40.7). Intimate partner violence was not associated with still birth, pre-term birth and Apgar score less than 7 at 5 minutes. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that intimate partner violence during pregnancy was associated with a low birth weight of the new born. Health sectors should train health care providers on how to screen, counsel, treat and follow up abused women

Prevalence of malnutrition and associated factors in children aged 6–59 months among rural dwellers of damot gale district, south Ethiopia: community based cross sectional study

Abstract Background Malnutrition remains one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality among children throughout the world. This study aimed to assess prevalence of malnutrition and associated factors among children aged 6–59 months in Damot Gale, South Ethiopia. Methods A community based cross sectional study was conducted on 398 children aged 6–59 months in the Damot Gale district. A two-stage cluster sample design was used to select kebele and households. Anthropometric measurements and structured questionnaires were used to collect data. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was done by using SPSS version 20. Results The results of this study indicated that 27.6% of children were under-weight and 9% were wasted. Being male (AOR: 1.90; 95% CI: (1.10–3.32), children with shorter birth interval (AOR:2.89;95% CI: (1.23–6.80), children who had sickness some times for past 2 weeks (AOR:0.42; 95% CI:(0.10–0.93) and children whose mothers attended ANC (AOR:0.29; 95% CI: (0.16–0.52) were associated with underweight. Children whose mother’s main occupation was non-farm (AOR: 7.06;95% CI: (1.31–38.21), presence of diarrhea (AOR:39.5, 95% CI: (13.68–114.30), and children whose mothers attended ANC (AOR:0.18,95% CI: (0 .18 (0.07–0.45) were associated with wasting. Conclusion The prevalence of malnutrition in the study area was high. Health extension workers and stakeholders should give due concern on promotion of proper nutrition in the community

Proximate determinants of fertility in Ethiopia; an application of revised Bongaarts model

Abstract Background World population is growing at about 80 million people each year. Ethiopia is the 12th most populous country in the world. Existing literatures showed that the role of proximate determinants in inhibiting the total fertility has not yet been determined from the DHS data in the country. This study may provide evidence based information regarding the observed changes in total fertility. The objective of this study was assessing proximate determinants of fertility and the role of selected socio-economic variables in influencing fertility in Ethiopia. Methods The EDHS data of 2011 and 2016 were used in our study. A total of 16,515 eligible women included in 2011 and 15,683 in 2016 surveys made up the sample for the study. The roles of each of the four proximate determinants in declining fertility have been determined. The background variables selected for the analysis include: region of residence, educational status, wealth index and place of residence. The Bongaart model is used to explain the observed socio-economic differentials in fertility during the two survey years. Results In 2011, index of marriage inhibited fertility by 37.8%, however in 2016 it inhibited fertility by 34.4%. In 2011, contraceptive use reduced fertility by 28.5% while in 2016 it reduced fertility by 30.7%. The index of postpartum infecundity decreased fertility by 34.7% in 2011 and by 34.5% in 2016. Foetal wastage inhibited fertility by 9.2% in both survey years. The total fertility rate in 2016 was 4.14 whereas the projected total fertility in 2020 will be 3.2 children per woman. Conclusion Among the four proximate determinants of fertility, the contribution of index of marriage was the highest in inhibiting fertility in 2011. On the other hand, the contribution of postpartum infecundability was the highest in inhibiting fertility in 2016. The contribution of the index of contraceptive in inhibiting fertility increased from 28.5% in 2011 to 30.7% in 2016. The index of foetal wastage contributed the least in both 2011 and 2016 survey years. Therefore, strategies have to be designed to promote the contraceptive use and breast feeding practices among the reproductive women

Mortality and morbidity trends and predictors of mortality in under-five children with severe acute malnutrition in Hadiya zone, South Ethiopia: a four-year retrospective review of hospital-based records (2012–2015)

BACKGROUND: Severe acute malnutrition remains one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of this study was to investigate morbidity and mortality trends and factors associated with mortality of under-five children admitted and managed for severe acute malnutrition in NEMMH. METHODS: Four years retrospective cohort study was conducted on 500 under-five children admitted with the diagnosis of severe acute malnutrition. The study population was all under- five children admitted to the inpatient nutrition unit between 2012 and 2015. Data was entered using Epi-Data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 16 for analysis. A Kaplan- Meier curve was also used to estimate survival probability of different types of severe acute malnutrition. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to predict the risk of death among predictor while adjusting for other variables. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULT: A total of 500 children were enrolled into the study. Kwashiorkor was the most frequently recorded morbidity accounting for 43.0%. Pneumonia was seen the commonest form of comorbid disease. It was the most common co-morbidity across all morbidity groups. (27.6% in kwashiorkor, 37.5% in marasmus and 37.7% in marasmic-kwashiorkor). The average length of stay in the hospital was 11 days. Children with new admission were 86% less likely to die than repeated admission given that the children were admitted to paediatric ward (HR: 0.14, 95% CI: (0.06, 0.35). Kaplan Meier survival curves also showed children with marasmus and those with repeated admission had reduced survival rates. The overall mortality rate was 7%. The mortality trends vary irregularly in each year but morbidity trend increased with admission from 2014 to 2015. CONCLUSION: Mortality trends of SAM vary irregularly across the years but morbidity trends increased with admission from 2014 to 2015. An admission type was significantly associated with mortality. Morbidity and co-morbid diseases did not show significant effect on mortality of the children. Health extension workers and stakeholders should give due concern on promotion of proper nutrition in a community