Awareness of Secondary School Students on Various Gender Perspective Programmes Conducted by the University of Dar Es Salam, Tanzania

A ZJER article on gender awareness amongst youths in Tanzania secondary schools.Gender imbalance is a common phenomenon in many educational institutions especially in developing countries. To overcome this imbalance, The University of Dar Es Salaam (UDSM) through its Gender Dimension Programme Committee (GDPC) has introduced gender-biased programmes with the aim of increasing female students’ enrolment at UDSM'. These programmes include Pre-entry Programme (PEP), Female Undergraduate Sponsorship Programme (FUSP) and Lower cut-off points. A cross section study was conducted in secondary schools in Dar Es Salaam region between August 2004 and July 2005 to investigate student awareness of these programmes. A total of276 students from 13 randomly selected secondary schools participated in the study. Self-administered questionnaires and checklists were used and the data were analysed by statistical software Epi Info 2002. The study showed that the majority of the students were familiar with the concept of ‘gender’ but could not specifically define what it was. They were not even aware that the University of Dar- Es-Salaam (UDSM) had gender intervention educational programmes in place. It is recommended that University gender programmes and general information on gender issues should be disseminated to society as a way of improving gender relations

Adverse drug reactions resulting from the use of chiral medicines amoxicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, and ceftriaxone : a mixed prospective-retrospective cohort study

Funding: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The study was part of the EDCTP2 Program supported by the European Union partly under the SMERT project (CSA2016ERC-1432) and ASCEND project (CSA2019ERC-2683); and partly under TMDA.The use of chiral medicines (possessing center(s) of asymmetric carbon) may cause adverse drug reactions (ADRs). The safety assurance of these medicines is critical. We aimed to evaluate registered and commonly used anti-infective chiral medicines circulating in the Tanzanian market to establish their safety profile to protect public health. A mixed prospective-retrospective cohort study was conducted to assess the safety profile of amoxicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and ceftriaxone injection. ADRs causality assessment was conducted by using World Health Organization (WHO)-Algorithm criteria. Data were collected from 7 tertiary hospitals: Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC), Bugando Medical Centre (BMC), Ligula Referral-Regional Hospital (LRRH), Kitete Referral-Regional Hospital (KRRH), Dodoma Referral-Regional Hospital (DRRH), and Mbeya Zonal-Referral Hospital (MZRH). Data were supplemented by those recorded in the WHO-Vigiflow/VigiLyze database within the same monitoring period. Data were analyzed using STATA version-15. The results were considered statistically significant when P < .05. A total of 2522 patients were enrolled in hospitals: MNH (499), KCMC (407), BMC (396), LRRH (387), KRRH (345), DRRH (249), and MZRH (239). Among those, 1197 (47.5%) were treated with ceftriaxone, 585 (23.2%) amoxicillin and 740(29.3%) amoxicillin-clavulanic acid. Out of those, 102 (4.5%) experienced adverse events (AEs), 49 (48%) were due to ceftriaxone, 37 (36.3%) amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and 16 (15.7%) amoxicillin (P-value .012). A total of 443 participants from the enrolled and WHO-Vigiflow/VigiLyze database were experienced with ADRs. The ADRs affected mainly gastro-intestinal system 234 (53%), skin and subcutaneous tissue 85 (19%), nervous system 49 (11%), respiratory thoracic 22 (5%), and general disorders 18(4%). In this study, approximately 90% of reported AEs were ADRs possible-related to the monitored medicines, with few plausible and certain. Ceftriaxone injection caused more ADRs. Amoxicillin-clavulanic acid was associated with more ADRs than amoxicillin alone. The safety profile of these medicines is still maintained; however, comprehensive monitoring of ADRs is recommended to improve patient safety and enhance overall treatment outcomes.Peer reviewe