WELCOMING REMARKS

It has been among the duties and responsibilities of the Executive Committee of the Ethiopian Public Health Association to organize forums for discussions on various issues of public health through conferences, seminars, distribution of publications, newsletters and workshops. Today's workshop on "Health Aspects of Repatriation in Ethiopia" is, there- fore, the first of its kind for EPHA. The objective of this workshop, organized by the EPHA in collaboration with the Department of Community Health and the McGill-Ethiopia Community Health Project, is to exchange experiences on health aspects of repatriation in Ethiopia among those institutions and individuals involved in the process. From this workshop, I hope, appropriate and feasible recommendations will be forwarded to the Ministry of Health

ISOLATION OF ENTERIC PATHOGENS AND COLIFORM BACTERIA FROM INFANT FEEDING BOTTLE CONTENT IN ADDIS ABABA, ETHOIPIA

ABSTRACT: Gastro-enteritis causing bacterial pathogens were studied in infant feeding bottlecontents collected from 244 feeding bottles which were brought to 5 clinics and 2 hospitals from January 1989 to November 1989 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The most frequent bacterial isolates were coliform which included Enterobacter spp. ,Klebsiella spp., faecal E.coli and Cotrobacter spp. Enteric pathogens like enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), Shigella spp., and Staph. aureus, constituted respectively (3.3%), 1 (0.01 %),9 (2.2%) of the total isolates. Although the percent of isolation of enteric pathogens in this study is low, the frequent isolation of Coliform from samples of bottle-contents suggests that the bottle-feeding serves as a vehicle in transmission of the enteric pathogens in the studied population. Bottle-feeding mothers should be constantly taught on proper handling of feedingutensils and feeds. Above all the superior quality of breast milk needs to be emphasized to nursing mothers. Moreover, further and well controlled studies are also recommended to reduce diarrhoeal diseases in infant and young children

The HIV epidemic and prevention response in Tigrai, Ethiopia: a synthesis at sub-national level

BACKGROUND: This study, the first of its kind carried out at sub-national level in Ethiopia, was conducted in order to understand the dynamics of HIV transmission at regional and district level in Tigrai, Ethiopia; and to assess the adequacy of the HIV prevention response. METHODS: Routine data from health centres, data from available published and grey literature and studies, and primary qualitative information were triangulated to draw an updated picture of the HIV epidemic, HIV response and resource allocation in Tigrai. RESULTS: HIV prevalence in Tigrai was 1.8% in 2011 (EDHS). ANC data show that there has been a continuous decline in the prevalence of HIV in both urban and rural areas (urban: 14.9% in 2001 to 5.0% in 2009; rural: 5.2% in 2001 to 1.3% in 2009, ANC surveillance data). Variability in prevalence by zone and by district was observed. Possible reasons for higher prevalence include the presence of mobile seasonal workers, highly urbanized centres, a high concentration of economic activity and connecting roads and large commercial farms. Sex workers, seasonal farm workers and HIV negative partners in discordant couples were identified as being at higher risk. There is no evidence that programme planning is done on the basis of geographical variations in HIV prevalence and there are gaps in programmes and services for certain high risk population groups. CONCLUSION: Considerable efforts have been invested in the HIV prevention response in Tigrai however, these efforts do not fully respond to the actual needs. For a more effective and targeted HIV prevention response, studies and data syntheses need to be carried out at sub-national level in order to accurately identify local specificities and plan accordingly. Resources should be targeted towards areas where transmission is linked to sex work, mobility and the mobile labour workforce

ISOLATES OF STDs CAUSATIVE AGENTS FROM SEX WORKERS ADDIS ABABA (A PRELIMINARY REPORT)

ABSTRACT: Cervical and vaginal discharge samples, collected from282 randomly selected prostitutes of Addis Ababa, were examined for Sill causative agents. The subjects represented 900 females included in the 1990 sero-survey-for HIV infection. The results of the laboratory tests indicated that 117 (41.5%) of the examined females had a single infection by one of the five organisms tested for, while the others 18.1 % had experienced mixed infections of two organisms, and 4.2% of three organisms. The five organisms included Neisseria gonorrhoea isolated from 78 subjects (28.1 %), Trichomonas vaginalis -from 56 (20.6%), Candida albicans -from 40 (14.7%), and Gardnerella vaginosis -associated clue cells -from 27 individuals (9.9%). The presence of syphilis infection was indicated by the TPHA test in 72 subjects, representing 37.3% of the study samples. Among the N. gonorrhea isolates, PPNG strains comprised 57 (73.0%). Resistant strains were obtained to penicillin in 100.0%, ampicillin in 96.0%, bactrim (sxt) in 80.7%, among the PPNG strains; 19.1% of the NPPNG strains to penicillin, 38.1% to kanamycin, 66.6% of a bactrim and 66.7% of ampicillin. Both groups were, however, sensitive to erythromycin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, norfloxacin, spectinomycin and ceftriaxone. Significant correlation was observed between these results and the MIC values obtained for each drug

A novel approach to frequency support in a wind integrated power system

This paper discusses the impact of wind penetration on frequency control of a thermal dominated system considering Generation Rate Constraints (GRC) and dead band non-linearities. The hidden inertia emulation and coordinated operation of conventional power generation systems with wind energy can effectively alleviate the frequency excursions during sudden load disturbances. Conventional energy storage device like Flywheel Energy Storage (FES) system can be used in conjunction with wind integrated power system to overcome the intermittent nature of power generation. Thyristor Controlled Series Compensator (TCSC) is found to be effective in damping low frequency oscillations in weak tie-lines and supplement the frequency regulation. A stochastic population based evolutionary computation technique - Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is used to tune the controller gains. A strategy comprising inertia control, coordinated operation of conventional generation units with wind energy and TCSC-FES has been proposed to enhance the frequency regulation which is effective in controlling low frequency oscillations as established by the simulation results

Is Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interview (ACASI) Useful in Risk Behaviour Assessment of Female and Male Sex Workers, Mombasa, Kenya?

BACKGROUND: Audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) may elicit more frequent reporting of socially sensitive behaviours than face-to-face (FtF)-interview. However, no study compared responses to both methods in female and male sex workers (FSW; MSW) in Africa. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We sequentially enrolled adults recruited for an HIV-1 intervention trial into a comparative study of ACASI and FtF-interview, in a clinic near Mombasa, Kenya. Feasibility and acceptability of ACASI, and a comparative analysis of enrolment responses between ACASI and FtF on an identical risk assessment questionnaire were evaluated. In total, 139 women and 259 men, 81% of eligible cohort participants, completed both interviews. ACASI captured a higher median number of regular (2 vs. 1, p<0.001, both genders) and casual partners in the last week (3 vs. 2, p = 0.04 in women; 2 vs. 1, p<0.001 in men). Group sex (21.6 vs. 13.5%, p<0.001, in men), intravenous drug use (IDU; 10.8 vs. 2.3%, p<0.001 in men; 4.4 vs. 0%, p = 0.03 in women), and rape (8.9 vs. 3.9%, p = 0.002, in men) were reported more frequently in ACASI. A surprisingly high number of women reported in ACASI that they had paid for sex (49.3 vs. 5.8%, p<0.001). Behaviours for recruitment (i.e. anal sex, sex work, sex between males) were reported less frequently in ACASI. The majority of women (79.2%) and men (69.7%) felt that answers given in ACASI were more honest. Volunteers who were not able to take ACASI (84 men, and 37 women) mostly lacked reading skills. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: About 1 in 5 cohort participants was not able to complete ACASI, mostly for lack of reading skills. Participants who completed ACASI were more likely to report IDU, rape, group sex, and payment for sex by women than when asked in FtF interview. ACASI appears to be a useful tool for high risk behaviour assessments in the African context

EPRDF's Revolutionary Democracy and Religious Plurality: Islam and Christianity in post-Derg Ethiopia

In 1991 the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) introduced policies aimed at recognizing the country’s long-standing religious diversity, providing a public arena for religious groups, and maintaining a sharp division between religion and the state. This further roded the traditionally dominant position of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, strengthened Protestant Christian and Muslim communities, and created a more flux and competitive configuration among the religious communities. Seeking to maintain its political power, the EPRDF has at the same time made efforts to monitor and control the different religious communities. Therefore, the last 20 years have been marked by uneven developments, in which the government’s accommodating attitudes have been interlaced with efforts to curtail the influence of the religious communities. This article surveys the intersection and reciprocal influences between EPRDF policies and religious communities over the last 20 years, and discusses how Muslims and Christians (Orthodox and Protestant) have negotiated their roles in relation to politics and public life. These developments have, the article argues, led to the emergence of divergent and competing narratives, reconfiguring self-understanding, political aspirations and views of the religious other. The EPRDF ideology of ‘‘revolutionary democracy’’ has, in this sense, enabled religion to surface as a force for social mobilization and as a point of reference for attempting to define nationhood in Ethiopia

Unsupervised learning of satellite images enhances discovery of late Miocene fossil sites in the Urema Rift, Gorongosa, Mozambique

Paleoanthropological research focus still devotes most resources to areas generally known to be fossil rich instead of a strategy that first maps and identifies possible fossil sites in a given region. This leads to the paradoxical task of planning paleontological campaigns without knowing the true extent and likely potential of each fossil site and, hence, how to optimize the investment of time and resources. Yet to answer key questions in hominin evolution, paleoanthropologists must engage in fieldwork that targets substantial temporal and geographical gaps in the fossil record. How can the risk of potentially unsuccessful surveys be minimized, while maximizing the potential for successful surveys?SFRH/BD/122306/2016info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Active distribution networks planning with high penetration of wind power

YesIn this paper, a stochastic method for active distribution networks planning within a distribution market environment considering multi-configuration of wind turbines is proposed. Multi-configuration multi-scenario market-based optimal power flow is used to maximize the social welfare considering uncertainties related to wind speed and load demand and different operational status of wind turbines (multiple-wind turbine configurations). Scenario-based approach is used to model the abovementioned uncertainties. The method evaluates the impact of multiple-wind turbine configurations and active network management schemes on the amount of wind power that can be injected into the grid, the distribution locational marginal prices throughout the network and on the social welfare. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated with 16-bus UK generic distribution system. It was shown that multi-wind turbine configurations under active network management schemes, including coordinated voltage control and adaptive power factor control, can increase the amount of wind power that can be injected into the grid; therefore, the distribution locational marginal prices reduce throughout the network significantly