Background: It is difficult to determine the prevalence/incidence of EC without an established functional national cancer registry, which helps to demarcate the population at-risk and monitor cancer trends over time. The review of medical records can help to identify areas in a country with high number of diagnosed EC cases and help set public health priorities. Aim: To describe EC hospital case series during a period of 4 years at the main cancer treatment center in Ethiopia and two hospitals in the EC high-risk zones in the Oromia region, concentrating on residents of Oromia region and to offer recommendations for public health officials. Methods: All EC malignancy data from the period 2013-2016 were collected by reviewing patient charts at the selected hospitals: Tikur Anbessa Teaching hospital (TATH) in Addis Ababa, Adama General and Medical Teaching Hospital (AGMTH) and Adama Referral and Medical Teaching Hospital (ARMTH). Cases with insufficient residence information and residents of other regions were excluded from the summary. The number of EC cases is presented by age, sex and site as well as method of diagnosis. Data were expressed as percentages (%). Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 20 software. Results: Over the study period, a total of 669 EC cases who resided in Oromia region were identified in the selected hospitals out of 2211 registered in the referral surgical departments of hospitals in the study, with insignificant difference by sex. A total of 457 (68%) were residents from high risk Arsi/Bale zones and the rest 212 (32%) from other zones of the region. The mean age at diagnosis was 52.4 years with the majority of cases in the age range 45-69 years. A total of 34 (5%) EC cases were younger at diagnosis (15-29 years). A total of 258 (38.5%) cases were identified at TATH, 305 (46%) from AGHMT/ARHMT and 106 (16%) cases from both TATH/AGHMT. Data were gathered from patient charts at endoscopy departments 227 (34%), endoscopy and pathology departments 246 (37%) and all other sources (ie surgical department) 196 (29%). Most patients complained dysphagia for solids 664 (99%) and weight loss 352 (53%). Cases were histopathology proven (256, 38%), identified through endoscopy investigation (385, 58%) or radiology (28, 4%). Squamous cell carcinoma was the predominant histology type with 160 cases (62.5%) of those histologically proven. Among the total of 420 cases whose risk factor history was recorded, 401 (97%) had a previous history of digestive disease, 49% reported hot beverage consumption and 34% persistent heart burn. Conclusion: Two thirds of EC incident cases came from Arsi and Bale zones with decreasing trends over the period considered. Such trends warrant in depth investigation for possible reasons and future study to investigate local based risk factors associated with the disease.

BackgroundTimely presentation to appropriate health service provider of sick animals/humans from zoonotic diseases like rabies is important for early case/outbreak detection and management. However, data on community’s health seeking practice for rabies in Ethiopia is limited. Therefore the objective of this study was to determine community’s health seeking behavior on rabies, Southwest Ethiopia.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted from January 16-February 14, 2015 to collect data from 808 respondents where the respondents were selected using multistage sampling technique. Data were collected using interviewer administered structured questionnaire by trained epidemiology graduate level students. Data were entered to Epidata version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 20 for windows.ResultEight hundred three (99.4%) respondents participated in the study. Out of 28 respondents who reported their family members’ exposure to rabies, 8 of them replied that the exposed family members sought treatment from traditional healers. More than nine in ten respondents perceived that humans and domestic animals with rabies exposure should seek help of which 85% of them suggested modern health care facilities as the preferred management option for the sick humans and domestic animals. However, among those who reported sick domestic animals, near to 72% of them had either slaughtered for human consumption, sold immediately, visited traditional healer, given home care or did nothing for the sick domestic animals.ConclusionMajority of the respondents had favorable perception of seeking treatment from modern health care facilities for rabies. However, significant number of them had managed inappropriately for the sick domestic animals from rabies. Hence, raising awareness of the community about management of sick domestic animals from rabies and the need for reporting to both human and animal health service providers is needed.

Background. Health care providers play a crucial role for realization of joint zoonotic diseases surveillance by human and animal health sectors, yet there is limited evidence. Hence, this study aimed to determine knowledge and practice gap of health care providers towards the approach for Rabies and Anthrax in Southwest Ethiopia. Methods. A cross-sectional survey was conducted from December 16, 2014, to January 14, 2015. Eligible health care providers were considered for the study. Data were entered in to Epi-data version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results. A total of 323 (92.02%) health care providers participated in the study. Three hundred sixteen (97.8%) of participants reported that both human and animal health sectors can work together for zoonotic diseases while 96.9% of them replied that both sectors can jointly conduct surveillance. One hundred seventeen (36.2%) of them reported that their respective sectors had conducted joint surveillance for zoonotic diseases. Their involvement was, however, limited to joint outbreak response. Conclusion. There is good opportunity in health care providers' knowledge even though the practice was unacceptably low and did not address all surveillance components. Therefore, formal joint surveillance structure should be in place for optimal implementation of surveillance.

No abstract