Cow Mastitis in Urban and Pri-urban Small Holder Dairy Farms in Ethiopia

The study was conducted to determine the prevalence of clinical and sub clinical mastitis and to identify the risk factor associated with mastitis in Tigrayn Ethiopia. Clinical examination, CMT and Questioner survey were used for data collection. The overall prevalence of clinical mastitis were 64 (19.5%) out of 382 cows randomly selected from 82 small holder dairy farms. From 264 tested lactating cows for CMT 101 (30.8%) was respond positive for sub clinical mastitis test. From the clinical mastitis positive cows 42 (65.61%) were from urban and 22 (34.38%) were from pri urban. Age and parity as a risk factor for mastitis revealed that, cows with an age range from 5-7 years old were 10 (15.6%) for clinical mastitis range from 8-10 were 16 (23.43%) and cows with an age of more than 10 years old 38 (59.43%) were positive for mastitis. The correlation between age and cow with positive clinical mastitis were 0.946 so this indicates that there is a strong correlation these, as age increases the incidence of mastitis will increase. In relation to parity with mastitis correlation is 0.949 which has highly positive correlation these, as parity increase the occurrence of mastitis is increase. So considering the significant economic losses that could be incurred by both clinical and subclinical mastitis, attention should be paid for further investigation of the cause of the disease. Keywords: California Mastitis Test, Mastitis, Prevalence, Risk Factor

Causes of Abortion and Prevalence of Brucellosis in Small Ruminant in Ethiopia

The study was conducted in Tigray region, kola Tembien wereda, Begashika watershed area in 2010. The main objective of the study was to identify the cause of abortion in small ruminant and to determine the prevalence of brucellosis. Questioner survey and rose Bengal agglutination test of blood sample of sheep and goats were used for data collection. Result from the questionnaire survey revealed that, from 82 respondents 68 (82.9%) of them were complain abortion and 62 (75.6%) of them doesn’t consider abortion as a disease. From 471 sheep and goat found in the watershed 214 (45.4%) them were aborted during the study year. Late pregnant abortion was 51 (62.2%) and 65 (79.3%) abortion occur in young sheep and goat. From the suspected abortion causes, toxic plant and brucellosis were the main. Interviewee which doesn’t consider toxic plant as a cause of abortion were 39 (47.6%) only 3 (3.6%) suspect and believe toxic plant as a cause of abortion the rest respondents doesn’t have information whether it can cause abortion or not. Blood sample from 210 sheep and goat were taken for brucellosis screening test showed that, 72 (34.3%) of the blood sample found to be positive for brucellosis. In general the present study conclude that, abortion of small ruminant in the result in massive loss and provide a negative impact on the small ruminant production. So attention should be given on prevention and control of brucellosis and further investigation on abortion causing disease should be done. Keywords: Abortion, Brucellosis, Cause, Prevalence, Small ruminant

The Effects of Herbal Plants on Quality and Microbial Safety of Cow Milk Produced by Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Northern Ethiopia

Cow milk is a perishable commodity that spoils easily. Its low acidity and high nutrient content makes to be a medium for bacteria growth. The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of five herbal plants (Olea europaea L, Vernonia amygdalina, Solanum schimperianum hochst, Acacia etbaica schweinf, Aoe elegans) on improving the quality and microbial safety of cow milk. Milk samples were collected and poured in to 6 calabash and 6 plastic containers each with 200 ml. Non-fumigated plastic and calabash containers were used as control group. Bacterial load was estimated using standard plate and coliform counts. Effects of herbal plants were assessed on the basis of selected organoleptic (odor and taste) and physical attributes (temperature and pH) parameters. The lowest standard plate (7.8x105) and coliform (4.5x105) bacterial count was obtained from milk samples fumigated by Vernonia amygdalina. The highest bacterial count was recorded from milk samples of non-fumigated containers. Vernonia amygdalina was identified as the best herbal plant in improving the quality of milk. Milk stored in plastic and calabash containers had an excellent taste and odour but did not significantly decreased bacterial load. There is a need to investigate the active ingredients contained in the herbal plants. Keywords: Calabash, Coliform count, Plastic, Fumigation, Standard plat coun

Cow Milk Handling Practices and Factors Contributing to Quality Deterioration in Ethiopia

Milk, being a wholesome food with high nutritive value is often prone to early contamination and spoilage if not handled properly. Most losses of dairy products occur as a result of a combination of poor production and /or handling practices and lack of technical knowledge. Among others, lack of knowledge on clean milk production, use of unclean milking equipment coupled with lack of potable water for cleaning purpose probably contributed to the poor hygienic quality of dairy products produced in Ethiopia. The basic consideration during milk handling practices are: Housing and cleaning practices, milking practices, Milking Equipment and Milk hygienic practices. Factors that will contributes to the quality deteriorations of raw milk are Physical, chemical and biological contaminations. In addition to this the way identifying whether  milks deteriorate or not by using various techniques such as Methylene blue reduction and resazurine reduction, Alcohol test, Standard plate count, Somatic cell count and etc. Other methods of milk quality tests are: - Organoleptic test, Clot-on-boiling test, Lactometer test. Losses of dairy products occur as a result of a combination of poor production and /or handling practices and lack of technical knowledge. In order to prevent raw milk deterioration, training and awareness creation should be given to all farm communities concerning on  milk handling, personal hygienic , use of equipments, storage and transportation of milk. This paper cover milk handling practice in detail, factors that will contributes to deterioration and ways testing and method of controlling raw milk deterioration Keywords: milk handling, milk quality, milk deterioratio

Species, Risk Factors, and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Profiles of Bacterial Isolates from HIV-Infected Patients Suspected to Have Pneumonia in Mekelle Zone, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Data Availability Data supporting the conclusions of this article are available by request from G. Adhanom. The relevant raw data will be made available to researchers wishing to use them for noncommercial purposes. Acknowledgments The authors would like to acknowledge Mekelle University for financing and allowing the laboratory space and materials to conduct the laboratory work. All ART clinics of Mekelle zone and all study participants are acknowledged for their willingness to participate in this study. This work was supported by Mekelle University, College of Health Sciences, Postgraduate Students Research fund.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Global, regional, and national under-5 mortality, adult mortality, age-specific mortality, and life expectancy, 1970–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

BACKGROUND: Detailed assessments of mortality patterns, particularly age-specific mortality, represent a crucial input that enables health systems to target interventions to specific populations. Understanding how all-cause mortality has changed with respect to development status can identify exemplars for best practice. To accomplish this, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) estimated age-specific and sex-specific all-cause mortality between 1970 and 2016 for 195 countries and territories and at the subnational level for the five countries with a population greater than 200 million in 2016. METHODS: We have evaluated how well civil registration systems captured deaths using a set of demographic methods called death distribution methods for adults and from consideration of survey and census data for children younger than 5 years. We generated an overall assessment of completeness of registration of deaths by dividing registered deaths in each location-year by our estimate of all-age deaths generated from our overall estimation process. For 163 locations, including subnational units in countries with a population greater than 200 million with complete vital registration (VR) systems, our estimates were largely driven by the observed data, with corrections for small fluctuations in numbers and estimation for recent years where there were lags in data reporting (lags were variable by location, generally between 1 year and 6 years). For other locations, we took advantage of different data sources available to measure under-5 mortality rates (U5MR) using complete birth histories, summary birth histories, and incomplete VR with adjustments; we measured adult mortality rate (the probability of death in individuals aged 15-60 years) using adjusted incomplete VR, sibling histories, and household death recall. We used the U5MR and adult mortality rate, together with crude death rate due to HIV in the GBD model life table system, to estimate age-specific and sex-specific death rates for each location-year. Using various international databases, we identified fatal discontinuities, which we defined as increases in the death rate of more than one death per million, resulting from conflict and terrorism, natural disasters, major transport or technological accidents, and a subset of epidemic infectious diseases; these were added to estimates in the relevant years. In 47 countries with an identified peak adult prevalence for HIV/AIDS of more than 0·5% and where VR systems were less than 65% complete, we informed our estimates of age-sex-specific mortality using the Estimation and Projection Package (EPP)-Spectrum model fitted to national HIV/AIDS prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance systems. We estimated stillbirths, early neonatal, late neonatal, and childhood mortality using both survey and VR data in spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression models. We estimated abridged life tables for all location-years using age-specific death rates. We grouped locations into development quintiles based on the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and analysed mortality trends by quintile. Using spline regression, we estimated the expected mortality rate for each age-sex group as a function of SDI. We identified countries with higher life expectancy than expected by comparing observed life expectancy to anticipated life expectancy on the basis of development status alone. FINDINGS: Completeness in the registration of deaths increased from 28% in 1970 to a peak of 45% in 2013; completeness was lower after 2013 because of lags in reporting. Total deaths in children younger than 5 years decreased from 1970 to 2016, and slower decreases occurred at ages 5-24 years. By contrast, numbers of adult deaths increased in each 5-year age bracket above the age of 25 years. The distribution of annualised rates of change in age-specific mortality rate differed over the period 2000 to 2016 compared with earlier decades: increasing annualised rates of change were less frequent, although rising annualised rates of change still occurred in some locations, particularly for adolescent and younger adult age groups. Rates of stillbirths and under-5 mortality both decreased globally from 1970. Evidence for global convergence of death rates was mixed; although the absolute difference between age-standardised death rates narrowed between countries at the lowest and highest levels of SDI, the ratio of these death rates-a measure of relative inequality-increased slightly. There was a strong shift between 1970 and 2016 toward higher life expectancy, most noticeably at higher levels of SDI. Among countries with populations greater than 1 million in 2016, life expectancy at birth was highest for women in Japan, at 86·9 years (95% UI 86·7-87·2), and for men in Singapore, at 81·3 years (78·8-83·7) in 2016. Male life expectancy was generally lower than female life expectancy between 1970 and 2016, an

Improving Completeness of Inpatient Medical Records in Menelik II Referral Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Introduction. The incompleteness of medical records is a significant problem that affects the quality of health care services in many hospitals of Ethiopia. Improving the completeness of patient’s records is an important step towards improving the quality of healthcare. Methods. Pre- and postintervention study was conducted to assess improvement of inpatient medical record completeness in Menelik II Referral Hospital from September 2015 to April 2016. Simple random sampling technique was used. Data was collected using data extraction checklist and independent sample t-test was used to compare statistical difference that exists between pre- and postintervention outcomes at confidence interval of 95% and P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result. The overall inpatient medical record completeness was found to be 84% after intervention. An enhancement of completeness and reporting of inpatient medical record completeness increased significantly from the baseline 73% to 84% during postintervention evaluation at P value < 0.05. Conclusion and Recommendation. The finding of this project suggests that a simple set of interventions comprising inpatient medical record format and training healthcare provider showed a significant improvement in inpatient medical record completeness. The Quality Officer and Chief Executive Officer of the study hospital are recommended to design and launch intervention programs to improve medical record completeness

Gestational hypertension and progression towards preeclampsia in Northern Ethiopia: prospective cohort study

Abstract Background Preeclampsia (PE) is one of the main causes of medical complication of pregnancy and is the main cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity. It is one of the top causes of maternal mortality in Ethiopia. Also known as transient hypertension, gestational hypertension (GH) is increased blood pressure during pregnancy without proteinuria, which is expected to return to normal by the 12th-week postpartum visit. PE is GH with proteinuria and /or other systemic manifestations. Evidence from high income countries show that GH significantly progresses towards PE. To our knowledge, this is the first study on the progression of GH towards PE in an African setting. The objective of this study is, therefore, to assess the incidence of GH, progression towards PE and factors associated with progression in Ethiopia. Methods This is a prospective cohort study conducted at Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital (ACSH) and Mekelle General Hospital (MGH), the largest referral centers in Northern Ethiopia. Two hundred and forty women with GH were enrolled and followed up until delivery. Clinical and laboratory data at initial presentation and at follow-up were compared among women who progressed towards PE and who remained with the diagnosis of GH. Logistic regression analysis was employed to model the combined effects of the clinical and laboratory data as significant predictors of progression from GH to PE. Result The incidence of GH in this study was 6 % (4.9–8.5). The rate of progression was 17.1 % (13.4–23.8). Previous history of GH, anemia during pregnancy, previous second-trimester spontaneous abortion were significant predictors of progression. Conclusions There is a high rate of progression of GH towards PE. In a resource-limited setting where predictive and diagnostic tools are scarce, clinical profile of women should be taken into consideration for prediction and diagnosis of PE.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/173656/1/12884_2021_Article_3712.pd

War-related sexual and gender-based violence in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia: a community-based study

Introduction Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) during armed conflicts has serious ramifications with women and girls disproportionally affected. The impact of the conflict that erupted in November 2020 in Tigray on SGBV is not well documented. This study is aimed at assessing war-related SGBV in war-affected Tigray, Ethiopia.Methods A community-based survey was conducted in 52 (out of 84) districts of Tigray, excluding its western zone and some districts bordering Eritrea due to security reasons. Using a two-stage multistage cluster sampling technique, a total of 5171 women of reproductive age (15–49 years) were randomly selected and included in the study. Analysis used weighted descriptive statistics, regression modelling and tests of associations.Results Overall, 43.3% (2241/5171) of women experienced at least one type of gender-based violence. The incidents of sexual, physical and psychological violence, and rape among women of reproductive age were found to be 9.7% (500/5171), 28.6% (1480/5171), 40.4% (2090/5171) and 7.9% (411/5171), respectively. Of the sexual violence survivors, rape accounted for 82.2% (411/500) cases, of which 68.4% (247) reported being gang raped. Young women (aged 15–24 years) were the most affected by sexual violence, 29.2% (146/500). Commonly reported SGBV-related issues were physical trauma, 23.8% (533/2241), sexually transmitted infections, 16.5% (68/411), HIV infection, 2.7% (11/411), unwanted pregnancy, 9.5% (39/411) and depression 19.2% (431/2241). Most survivors (89.7%) did not receive any postviolence medical or psychological support.Conclusions Systemic war-related SGBV was prevalent in Tigray, with gang-rape as the most common form of sexual violence. Immediate medical and psychological care, and long-term rehabilitation and community support for survivors are urgently needed and recommended