Disclosure status of HIV-positive children and associated factors among children in public health facilities in East Arsi zone, Oromia regional state, South Eastern Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

Objectives: This study aims to assess the disclosure status of HIV-positive children and its associated factors in selected hospitals in East Arsi zone, Oromia regional state, Ethiopia, 2020. Methods: Institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted on 410 sample size. Four hospitals were randomly selected among hospitals that currently gave service. Data were collected from caregivers/biological parents by interviewing from 30 July 2020 to 30 August 2020 using the systematic random sampling technique. In logistic regression analysis, the variables which had independent correlations with dependent variable were identified based on adjusted odds ratio and a p value <0.05 with 95% confidence interval was claimed as statistically significant. Results: Disclosure status of HIV-positive children was 59.8%, 95% confidence interval (54.9, 64.1). Children diagnosed at the age of <5 (adjusted odds ratio = 0.25, 95% confidence interval (0.126, 0.49)), antiretroviral therapy follow-up for 6–15 years (adjusted odds ratio = 2.08, 95% confidence interval (1.013, 4.29)), children diagnosed at the appropriate age of ⩾12 years (adjusted odds ratio = 1.95, 95% confidence interval (1.09, 3.49)), and children diagnosed at the age of <11 years (adjusted odds ratio = 4.5, 95% confidence interval (3.45, 8.38)) were positively associated factors to disclose status. Conclusion: The disclosure status of HIV-positive children was low in this study. Antiretroviral therapy follow-up for 6–15 years, children diagnosed at the appropriate age of ⩾12 years, children diagnosed at the age of <5 years, and children who aged below 11 years were positively associated with disclosure status. Thus, we recommended, health care providers and all stakeholders should give age-appropriate counseling regarding when and why to disclose their status.

Assessment of Knowledge, Practices, and Challenges of Pharmaceuticals Inventory Control Among Pharmacy Professionals Working in Selected Public Health Facilities of West Arsi Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Background: Good pharmaceutical inventory control enables health facilities (HFs) to provide complete health care by ensuring the availability of safe, effective, and affordable pharmaceuticals and related supplies of the required quality, inadequate quantity, at the required place and at all times. It boosts patients’ trust in the HFs and motivates working staff. However, it needs well-trained and skilled professionals. The aim of the current study was, therefore, assessing knowledge, practice, and challenges of pharmacy professionals conducting inventory control in selected public health facilities of West Arsi Zone, Oromia regional state for the year 2016 to 2018. Method: A mixed-methods study design was used to assess pharmacy professionals’ knowledge, skills, and challenges in applying inventory management methods. A semi-structured questionnaire was implemented for quantitative, whereas an open-ended question was employed for key informants (KIs) to explore qualitative data. Result: Ninety percent of pharmacy professionals knew about VEN analysis concepts and 70% about ABC analysis. However, none of them had a concept of FSN and XYZ analysis. Among the respondents who knew the concept, 75% had gained knowledge through formal training and 10% of them learned from on-job training. When they asked about the methods of inventory control, 60% responded as they did not hear about it. Of those who said “Yes” on being asked to mention at least 1 method of it, 80% could not able to correctly mention the methods used in inventory control. However, 44%, 62.5%, and 75% of respondents had practiced ABC, VED, and ABC-VED matrix analysis respectively. The challenges that prevented these professionals from practicing pharmaceutical inventory control in their HFs were grouped into price-related, training-related, human resource-related, and managerial-related factors. Conclusion: Inventory control is the heart of the pharmaceutical supply system. Without its healthy action, HFs’ goal attainment will not be viable. Problems of sick pharmaceutical inventory control are directly related to a lack of knowledge and appreciation of it by the concerned bodies. The current finding revealed almost all pharmacy professionals included in the study had little knowledge about how to manage their inventories. Managers’ unwillingness to cooperate and facilitate necessary resources prevented the professionals from doing inventory control.

Self-care knowledge, attitude and associated factors among outpatients with diabetes mellitus in Arsi Zone, Southeast Ethiopia

Introduction Diabetes mellitus is a chronic illness that requires continuing medical care and ongoing patient self-management, education and support to prevent acute complications and to reduce the risk of long-term complications. Therefore, this study aims to assess the self-care knowledge, attitude and associated factors among outpatients with diabetes mellitus in Arsi Zone, Southeast Ethiopia. Materials and methods A cross sectional study was employed in Arsi Zone, Southeast Ethiopia from April to June 2017 among 290 patients with diabetes mellitus. Structured questionnaire was employed through face to face interview. Bivariate and multivariate regression was done and a statistical significance was declared at p value < 0.05. Results Among 290 respondents, 64.8% and 27.6% of them had good knowledge and good attitude towards self-care in this study respectively. Being married (AOR: 3.41, 95% CI: 1.480–8.095), being employed in occupation (AOR: 5.8, 95% CI: 2.26–14.67) and living in higher socioeconomic status (AOR: 2.0, 95% CI: 1.096–3.322) are the independent factors associated to good knowledge of respondents towards self-care whereas living in lower socioeconomic status(AOR: 0.478, 95% CI: 0.262–0.874), having informal education (AOR: 4.002, 95% CI: 1.941–8.254), not having family history of diabetes mellitus (AOR: 0.422, 95% CI: 0.222–0.803) and having short duration of diagnosis (AOR: 3.209, 95% CI: 1.537–6.779) were significantly associated factors to have poor attitude towards self-care. Conclusion Majority of the study participants had good knowledge towards diabetes self-care practice while a significant number of the participants had unfavorable attitude towards diabetes self-care. Being married, being employed and living in higher socioeconomic status were the determinant factors of knowledge towards the diabetes self-care practice while having informal education and having short duration of diagnosis were the significant factors associated to the unfavorable attitude towards diabetes self-care practice. Therefore, efforts should be made on enhancing patients’ socioeconomic status and equipping with diabetic self-care centered health information particularly for those patients with short duration of diagnosis.

Faba Bean Agronomic and Crop Physiology Research in Ethiopia

Faba bean is an important pulse crop in terms of protein source, area coverage, and volume of annual production in Ethiopia. The aim of this paper is to assess the agronomic and crop physiology investigations in the past two decades in Ethiopia. The production limiting factors of this crop are low input usage, natural disasters, depletion of macronutrients, and unavailability of essential nutrients. Phosphorus is among the main limiting nutrients in soil systems in Ethiopia. Seed yield and biomass yield of faba bean were increased from 1338 to 1974 kg/ha and from 3124 to 4446 kg/ha when phosphorous was changed from 0 to 52 kg/ha, respectively at Holeta whereas application of 40 kg P ha − 1 resulted in higher grain yield (6323 kg ha−1) and 3303 kg ha−1 at Lemu-Bilbilo and Bore highlands, respectively. The highest grain yield of 32 kg ha−1 was obtained from the application of 92 kg P2O5 ha−1 at Sekela district while application of 46 kg P2O5 ha−1 resulted in a substantial increase in seed yield over unfertilized plots on vertisols of Ambo. On the other hand, the results suggest that using starter nitrogen from 0 to 27 kg/ha has marginally increased faba bean yield but, a farther increase of nitrogen has indicated deteriorate of yield at Arsi zone. Proper plant populations play a crucial role in enhancing faba bean production. Planting faba bean at 30 cm × 15 cm spacing gave the highest grain yield in Duna district while it was 30 × 7.5 cm at vertisols of Ambo University research farm. Significantly higher seed yield (4222 kg/ha) was observed in the 40 cm inter-row spacing as compared to 50 cm inter-row spacing, which gave the lowest seed yield per hectare (3138 kg/ha) on fluvisols of Haramaya University. Intercropping and crop rotation are cropping systems that can increase soil fertility and crop yield. Intercropping of faba bean with barley at Debre Birhan increased land equivalent ratio than both crops when planted as sole. An additional income of 18.5% and 40% was gained than planting sole faba bean and wheat, respectively at Kulumsa. Faba bean can fix about 69 kg/ha nitrogen in Northern Ethiopia. Generally, the current review results showed that only limited studies in organic and bio fertilizer, plant density, and cropping systems were done on faba bean in Ethiopia. Hence, studies regarding soil acidity, organic fertilizer, and secondary plus micronutrient impacts on faba bean production and productivity along soil types and weather conditions need great attention in the future in Ethiopia.

Cluster based Oat-vetch mixtures for forage production in Dodola district of West Arsi Zone, Ethiopia

The present activity was conducted at Keta Berenda kebele of Dodola district of West Arsi Zone of Oromia in 2019 cropping season with the objectives to evaluate cluster-based pre-scaling up fodder oat mixture with vetch, collect farmers’ opinion on the performance of the technology, improve farmers’ knowledge and skill of application of the improved technology through training and increase local capacity for future scaling-up. Keta Berenda kebele was purposively selected from the district based on the livestock population potential and accessibility. Thirty-one farmers (24 males and 7 females) who had the willingness to accept and disseminate the technology and possess adequate land for forage production were selected in cluster form and established as 1 FREGs in collaboration with development agents of the Kebele. Fourteen trial farmers were nominated from the members for forage establishment. The technology was established on a land size of 2.945 ha with all recommended agronomic practices. The training was given for 20 farmers and 3 development agents on; forage production, management, and utilization practices. 8.01 t ha-1 biomass yields were obtained from an oat-vetch mixture. Hence, the technology should be further promoted on a wide scale to address the feed shortage scarcity of the study area.

A Study on prevalence, identification and status of Ixodid (Hard) Ticks Infestation in cattle in and around Honkola Wabe District

Ticks are one of the best known groups of ecto parasites, which affect the cattle production and productivity either by transmitting different tick borne disease or by affecting health of cattle and as well as the quality of hides. Cross-sectional study design was implemented with the objective to estimate the prevalence of tick infestation and to identify the type tick of cattle in and around Honkola-Wabe woreda of Arsi zone of Oromia regional state, from January 2021 to August 2021. 400 cattle (local and cross breed) were selected using simple random sampling from four randomly selected kebeles; and examined for tick infestation and adult tick were collected for tick identification. From these 292(73%) of the animals were infested with different tick species and 108 (27%) of them were free of tick infestation. The highest number of cattle was infested with Amblyomma 160 (40%) followed by Boophilus 71(18%), Rhipicephalus 48 (12%) and Hyalomma 12(3%). There were significant statistically difference between tick infestation prevalence among different factors like breed, age, and sex and body conditions scored. For example, the prevalence rate of tick infested cattle were higher in cross breeds (79.4%) than in local breeds (69.5 %) (χ2=4.57; p=0.033). The result of the current study fills the information gap on prevalence of tick infected cattle of different breeds found in Honkola Wabe area. Tick, therefore, can lead to highly damage the national economic. Thus, in order to provide effective control of tick infestation systematic intervention approach could be implemented that will reduced chance of tick infestation of cattle and thereby improve cattle production.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF NONPROFESSIONAL LOCAL PHYSICAL THERAPIST IN THE PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY HEALTH ACTIVITIES IN THE ARSI ZONE, SOUTHEAST ETHIOPIA

Background: Physical activity is a first-line therapy and secures against persistent illnesses. Essential medical care professionals are obviously situated to advance actual action. Active recuperation mediations are focused on advancement and upkeep of well-being, personal satisfaction and wellness. There is, notwithstanding, a deficiency of such examination proof in Ethiopia. Objective: We planned to assess the degree of KAP of nonprofessional local physical therapists toward well-being advancement in the Arsi Zone of Oromia, Southeast Ethiopia. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2018 among 45 physical therapists. Data were collected using pre-tested, structured and self-administrative questionnaires. Participants were selected by the quota sampling technique. The questionnaire was drafted specifically to test the KAP. Data were double entered and analyzed by SPSS, Version 20.0, program. Descriptive statistics were used. The KAP was estimated using proportion. Result: The present response rate is 90.0%. The ages of respondents ranged between 24 and 87 years. Then, 57.8% of participants got initial physical therapy knowledge from either of their parents. Again, 53.3% of the respondents hear about health promotion from families and friends. Then, 57.8% of them provided health promotion at their workplace. The overall percentage of all the respondents’ KAP in health promotion was 60.1%. Conclusion: The respondents have good KAP toward health promotion. However, there is still room for improvement. Also, there is a lack of proper guidelines in determining the impact of physical therapy.

Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Utilization of Emergency Contraception Among Women of Reproductive Age in Arsi Zone, Ethiopia

Background: Unintended pregnancies, pregnancies that occur within short intervals as well as unsafe abortion could be avoided by using contraceptives. Therefore: assessment of emergency contraceptives among unmarried women is importance because of high rates of unintended sexual intercourse leading to unwanted pregnancies as well as unsafe abortion. Methods: A cross-sectional community based household survey was conducted among 965 women chosen by systematic random sampling at Arsi zone. Descriptive statistics was presented with text and frequency tables. Both bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis was carried out by Epi Info version 5.3.1 and exported to SPSS version 21. The association was also presented using odds ratios and 95% confidence levels. P-value of < 0.05 is used to declare the significance of association between variables. Results: From the total respondent participated in the study, 373 (38.7 %), 61.8%, and 11.2% of the total unmarried women had awareness, attitude and used emergency contraception respectively. Age, educational status, occupation, having experience of sexual intercourse and having discussion on reproductive health are significantly associated with awareness of emergency contraception. Conclusions: There is high level of knowledge, but low utilization of emergency contraceptives among unmarried women. Therefore, there is a need to emphasize on increasing awareness and accessibly as an option with other contraceptive method to all unmarried women in the study area.

Retrospective study of livestock vaccine coverage and trend in Lemu and Bilbilo Woreda, Arsi Zone, Ethiopia

Vaccination is one of the most efficient tools for protection against clinical disease of livestock and reduces the rate of spread of infection. The study was conducted using secondary data that recorded at Lemu and Bilbilo Woreda veterinary clinic with the objective to assess the vaccination coverage in the study area from March to September 2021. Results revealed the most commonly practiced vaccine were bacterial and viral diseases from secondary data recorded were Lumpy skin disease, Black leg, Pasteurellosis, New castle, Gumboro disease, chicken pox, Fowl pox, and Fowl Cholera. The percentage of vaccine coverage for lumpy skin disease decreases from a year 2017 (51.1%) to 2021(24%). The majority of Goat (96.7%) was vaccinated against goat pox during 2017 and the 0% Anthrax vaccine for Goat in 2021. Only 7.3% sheep in 2017 and near 37.4% in 2021 were vaccinated with sheep pox from total population. About 87.4% of equines were vaccinated from total population in 2017. The proportion of Newcastle disease and Gumboro disease vaccine coverage were 35% and 15.4%, respectively. Dog vaccination against rabies is increases from a year 2017 (4.8%) to 2020 (11%) in except 0.5% in 2021. The vaccine trends were fluctuating and/or decreasing from year to year. However, vaccine trend for Anthrax of cattle was increasing from year to year. It is therefore, suggested that implementation of planed and regularly vaccination of animal was very important for diseases control and prevention are recommended in order to decrease disease reoccurrence in the area.