Introduction Many resource-poor countries with HIV epidemics are scaling up antiretroviral therapy (ART) By December 2005, an estimated 13 million people from low-and middle-income countries had been placed on treatment; 810 000 of these were in sub-Saharan Africa (1) Treatment outcomes reported from various clinics in sub-Saharan Africa, Haiti, Asia and South America have been good, comparable with those observed in countries with higher incomes (2-7) Patient outcomes are usually categorized as patients alive and on treatment, stopped treatment, transferred to another facility, dead or "lost to follow-up" Depending on the facility, patients are classified as lost to follow-up if they have missed two or more consecutive clinic appointments (2) or have not been seen for at least 2 or 3 months (4-6) The proportion of patients lost to follow-up differs between clinics, ranging from 5% in programmes supported by Medecins Sans Frontieres (5) to 25% in western Kenya (4) In 18 ART-delivery programmes in Africa, Asia and South America, 15% of 4810 patients were lost to follow-up in the first year of ART, with the average being 12% in programmes with active follow-up and 19% in those with no active follow-up (7) To our knowledge, there ate no published data from resource-poor countries on the true outcome status of these patients Malawi--a small resource-poor country in southern Africa--has been engaged in ART scale-up for nearly 3 years By 31 March 2006, 46 702 patients had ever started receiving ART in 66 facilities in the public sector; of these, 33 891 (73%) were registered as alive, 5131 (11%) were dead, 4226 (9%) were lost to follow-up, 3140 (7%) had transferred to another facility and 314 (1%) had stopped therapy (8) We hypothesized that many patients lost to follow-up may have died, and therefore conducted a study in northern Malawi to investigate this problem Methods Details on the delivery and monitoring of ART in Malawi have been described previously (9) When patients start ART, their details are entered on master cards and an ART register Patients attend the ART clinic each month, at which time their outcome status is entered on the master card and they are given another month's supply of ART drugs if a patient is not seen in the clinic for three consecutive months, the patient is registered as a "defaulter" (an abbreviated term for "lost to follow-up") on the master card and also on the register Four public-sector ART facilities in the northern region of Malawi were selected for the study These included one central hospital and three peripheral hospitals (two district hospitals and one mission hospital) Provision of free ART was initiated at the central and mission hospitals in July 2004, and at the two district hospitals in January and June 2005 respectively For the period between the date when each facility started to provide free ART and 31 March 2006, we identified all patients indicated on the master cards and registers as a defaulter Using contact details, ART facility staff visited the patients' homes to try to ascertain their true outcome status If patients were traced to the home, they were asked whether they were still taking ART and if not, why they had stopped If the patient had died, the relatives were asked when the patient had died If the patient had moved away, relatives or friends were asked when they had moved Ethical approval for the study was granted by the Malawi National Health Sciences Research Committee Informed consent was obtained from patients being interviewed, and staff took care not to disclose that the patient was receiving ART when interviewing relatives or friends in the event of the patient's death or transfer Data were collected, on Structured forms, and analysis was carried out using Epi Info version 60 Patients from the central and the peripheral hospitals were compared: the [chi square] test with relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used for characteristics and outcomes, and the student's t-test was used for time periods between start of ART, default and patient tracing, with differences at the level Of 0 …

True Outcomes for Patients on Antiretroviral Therapy Who Are "Lost to Follow-Up" in Malawi/Veritables Issues Du Traitement Antiretroviral Pour Les Patients Consideres Comme « Perdus De Vue » Au Malawi/Evolucion Real De Los Pacientes Sometidos a Terapia Antirretroviral Y Perdidos En El Seguimiento En Malawi

https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/46/3/318.1.full.pdf

Manual of Clinical Microbiology

According to the 2011 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey, 90.1% of mothers do not deliver in health facilities, with 29.5% citing non-customary service as causative. A low level of skilled attendance at birth is among the leading causes of maternal mortality in low - and middle-income countries. A cross-sectional study was undertaken in four health facilities (one specialized teaching hospital and its three catchment health centers) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to quantitatively determine the level and types of disrespect and abuse faced by women during facility-based childbirth, along with their subjective experiences of disrespect and abuse. A questionnaire was administered to 173 mothers immediately prior to discharge from their respective health facility. Reported disrespect and abuse during childbirth was measured under seven categories using 23 performance indicators. Among multigravida mothers (n = 103), 71.8% had a history of a previous institutional birth and 78% (75.3% in health centers and 81.8% in hospital; p = 0.295) of respondents experienced one or more categories of disrespect and abuse. The violation of the right to information, informed consent, and choice/preference of position during childbirth was reported by all women who gave birth in the hospital and 89.4% of respondents in health centers. Mothers were left without attention during labor in 39.3% of cases (14.1% in health centers and 63.6% in hospital; p < 0.001). Although 78.6% (n = 136) of respondents objectively faced disrespect and abuse, only 22 (16.2%) subjectively experienced disrespect and abuse. This quantitative study reveals a high level of disrespect and abuse during childbirth that was not perceived as such by the majority of respondents. It is every woman’s right to give birth in woman-centered environment free from disrespect and abuse. Understanding how women define abuse is crucial if Ethiopia is to succeed in increasing the uptake of facility-based births.

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Status of respectful and non-abusive care during facility-based childbirth in a hospital and health centers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abundance of antibiotics, antibiotic resistance genes and bacterial community composition in wastewater effluents from different Romanian hospitals.

Assessment of delays in seeking care and diagnosis of tuberculosis is essential to evaluate effectiveness of tuberculosis control programs, and identify programmatic impediments. Thus, this review of studies aimed to examine the extent of patient, health system, and total delays in diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in low- and middle- income countries. It was done following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Electronic databases were searched to retrieve studies published from 2007 to 2015 including Pubmed central, Springer link, Hinari and Google scholar. Searching terms were pulmonary tuberculosis, health care seeking, health care seeking behavior, patient delay, diagnostic delay, health system delay, provider delay, and doctor delay. Retrieved studies were systematically reviewed and summarized using Comprehensive Meta-analysis software. Forty studies involving 18,975 patients qualified for systematic review, and 14 of them qualified for meta-analysis. The median diagnostic delay ranged from 30 to 366.5 days [IQR = 44–77.8], with a 4–199 days [IQR = 15–50] and 2–128.5 days [IQR = 12–34] due to patient and health system delays, respectively. The meta-analysis showed 42% of pulmonary tuberculosis patients delayed seeking care by a month or more; uneducated patients [pooled OR = 1.5, 95%CI = 1.1–1.9] and those who sought initial care from informal providers [pooled OR = 3, 95%CI = 2.3–3.9] had higher odds of patient delay. Delay in diagnosis is still a major challenge of tuberculosis control and prevention programs in low- and middle- income settings. Efforts to develop new strategies for better case-finding using the existing systems and improving patients’ care seeking behavior need to be intensified.

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Delay in diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in low-and middle-income settings: systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction 
The global burden of Tuberculosis (TB) remains enormous. Delay in TB diagnosis may lead to a higher infectious pool in the community and a more advanced disease state at presentation increasing the risk of mortality. This study is conducted to determine the total delay before treatment among smear positive Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) patients.


Methods 
A health institution based cross sectional study was conducted in five primary health centers in southern Ethiopia from June to December 2012. A total of 328 smear positive PTB patients were enrolled in the study. A structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used. Median patient, diagnostic, and treatment delays were calculated to determine the total delay. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with total delay.


Results 
The median patient, diagnostic, treatment and total delays measured in days were 30 (IQR 20.2, 60), 7 (IQR: 3, 14), 3 (IQR: 1, 4) and 45 (IQR: 34.5, 69.5) days respectively. Patients for whom treatment was not initiated within 45 days of onset of symptom(s) (total delay) constituted 49% of the study participants (59.5% among males and 39.2% among females; P<0.001). Total delay was found to be associated with: being female [AOR = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.18–0.62], having attended tertiary level education [AOR = 0.11, 95% CI: 0.02–0.55], perceived severity of stigma during the current TB disease course [AOR = 2. 18, 95% CI: 1.07, 4.42] and living in houses with higher family size [AOR = 0.26, 95% CI: 0.11, 0.61].


Conclusion 
Total delay in treatment of TB is still high in the study area. Patient's sex, perceived stigma, educational status and family size are significantly contributing for total delay. Therefore, a concerted effort should be taken in order to improve health seeking behavior of the community on TB and to reduce delays from seeking care after experiencing TB symptoms.

/pdf/total-delay-in-treatment-among-smear-positive-pulmonary-4l46r2o171.pdf

Total Delay in Treatment among Smear Positive Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients in Five Primary Health Centers, Southern Ethiopia: A Cross Sectional Study

Introduction: Intestinal parasitic infectionsare a major public health burden in tropical countries. Although all HIV/AIDS patients are susceptible to parasitic infections, those having lower immune status are at greater risk. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections in patients living with HIV/AIDS. Methodology: This was a facility-based cross-sectional study. A total of 343 consecutively sampled HIV/AIDS patients from the HIV care clinic of Hawassa University Referral Hospital were included. Subjects were interviewed for demographic variables and diarrheal symptoms using structured questionnaires. Stool examinations and CD4 cells counts were also performed. Results: The prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection was 47.8% among HIV/AIDS patients;  single helminthic infection prevalence (22.7%) was higher than that the prevalence of protozoal infections (14.6%). About 54% of study participants had chronic diarrhea while 3.4% had acute diarrhea. The prevalence of intestinal parasites in patients with chronic diarrhea was significantly higher than in acute diarrhea (p =500 cells/mm3. Conclusions: Intestinal parasitic infections should be suspected in HIV/AIDS-infected patients with advanced disease presenting with chronic diarrhea. Patients with low CD4 counts should be examined critically for intestinal parasites, regardless of diarrheal status.

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Prevalence of parasitic infections in HIV-positive patients in southern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.

Introduction: Large quantities of antimicrobials are used in hospitals for patient care and disinfection. Antibiotics are partially metabolized and residual quantities reach hospital wastewater, exposing bacteria to a wide range of biocides that could act as selective pressure for the development of resistance. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2010 and February 2011 on hospital wastewater. A total of 24 composite samples were collected on a weekly basis for bacteriological analysis and susceptibility testing. Indicator organisms and pathogenic and potentially pathogenic bacteria were found and isolated on selective bacteriologic media. Disinfectant activity was evaluated by use-dilution, and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined by the agar dilution method. Similarly, antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. Results: Pathogenic ( Salmonella , Shigella , and S. aureus ) and potentially pathogenic ( E. coli ) bacteria were detected from effluents of both hospitals. Dilution demonstrated tincture iodine to be the most effective agent, followed by sodium hypochlorite; the least active was 70% ethanol. MIC for ethanol against S. aureus and Gram-negative rods from Yirgalem Hospital (YAH) showed 4 and 3.5 log reduction, respectively. Salmonella isolates from YAH effluent were resistant to ceftriaxone, tetracycline, and doxycycline. Isolates from Hawassa University Referral Hospital (HURH) effluent were resistant to the above three antibiotics as well as gentamycin. Conclusions: Hospital effluents tested contained antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which are released into receiving water bodies, resulting in a threat to public health.

/pdf/assessment-of-antibiotic-and-disinfectant-resistant-bacteria-4fth3d8izn.pdf

Assessment of antibiotic- and disinfectant-resistant bacteria in hospital wastewater, south Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic infectious disease that has represented a major health problem over the centuries. The human immune deficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS has substantially altered the epidemiology of TB by increasing the risk of reactivating latent TB, increasing chance of TB infection once exposed to tubercle bacilli (re-infection) and by increasing the risk of rapid progression soon after infection. Methodology: This study employs a retrospective review analysis of patient medical records. A total of 499 HIV/AIDS patient cards were reviewed and variables were recorded. Frequencies and odds ratio were calculated to determine prevalence and associated risk factors respectively. Results: A total of 499 HIV/AIDS positive patient cards were reviewed. Ninety one (18.2%) of the study participants were found to have tuberculosis of which 20 (22%), 58 (64%) and 13 (14%) were smear positive, smear negative and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis cases, respectively. In multivariate logistic regression being female (AOR=0.39; 95% CI:0.20-0.77), WHO clinical stage 3 (AOR=5.66; 95%CI:1.79-17.94); WHO clinical stage 4 (AOR=7.89;95%CI:2.01-30.96); and functional status being ambulatory (AOR=2.22; 95%CI:1.06-4.64) were independently associated with tuberculosis-HIV co-infection with p value <0.05. Conclusion: Prevalence of tuberculosis was high. Among tuberculosis positive cases, the proportion of smear negative cases was also high which requires strengthening of TB diagnostic techniques. Tuberculosis was associated with some social demographic characteristics and clinical variables.

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Prevalence and determinants of Tuberculosis among HIV infected patients in south Ethiopia

Cryptosporidium spp and I. belli are intestinal opportunistic infections associated with HIV/AIDS. A decline in the incidence of these opportunistic infections due to HAART was reported. We aim to investigate these parasites among HAART naive and experienced HIV patients in south Ethiopia. A cross sectional study was carried out among 268 HIV- positive patients between January and September, 2007. Interview with questionnaires and document reviews were used to collect data. Stool samples were obtained from each patient and parasites were examined by direct, formol-ether and modified Ziehl-Neelsen stain for Cryptosporidium spp and I. belli. Univariate and multivariate analysis were carried out. Level of significance was set at p-value of 0.05. A total of 268 patients participated in the study. The mean age was 34.0 (±1 SD of 8.34) years. Females constituted 53.4% (143) of the study participants. Half of the study participants were on HAART; majorities (85.8%) of such patients were within the first year of treatment. The prevalence of Cryptosporidium spp was 34.3% (92/268) and I. belli was 1.5% (4/268). Dual infection was detected in two patients (0.75%). The crude analysis revealed significant reduction in the odds of Cryptosporidium spp infection among patients who have started HAART (crude OR = 0.59, 95% CI 0.35, 0.98). The adjusted analysis remained in the same direction but has lost significance (Adj OR 0.65, 95%CI 0.35, 1.24). No differences in the risk of developing infection with Cryptosporidium spp were observed between groups based on most recent CD4 counts, sex, duration on HAART and age (p > 0.05 for all variables). Patients with Cryptosporidium spp were more likely to report vomiting [Adj OR 2.34 (95% CI 1.22, 5.41)], weight loss [Adj OR 2.10 (95% CI 1.15, 3.81)] and chronic diarrhea [Adj OR 3.35 (95%CI 1.05, 10.63)]. There is high burden of infection with Cryptosporidium spp among HIV infected individuals in southern Ethiopia but that of I. belli is low. We recommend considering infection with Cryptosporidium spp in HIV infected people with chronic diarrhea, weight loss and vomiting for HAART naive patients and/or for patients who are within the first year of starting HAART.

/pdf/cryptosporidiosis-and-isosporiasis-among-hiv-positive-4aht54e5vl.pdf

Wondu Teshome

Papers

Total Delay in Treatment among Smear Positive Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients in Five Primary Health Centers, Southern Ethiopia: A Cross Sectional Study

Prevalence of parasitic infections in HIV-positive patients in southern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.

Assessment of antibiotic- and disinfectant-resistant bacteria in hospital wastewater, south Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.

Prevalence and determinants of Tuberculosis among HIV infected patients in south Ethiopia

Cryptosporidiosis and Isosporiasis among HIV-positive individuals in south Ethiopia: a cross sectional study.