Introduction Adverse drug interaction is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Its occurrence is influenced by a multitude of factors. The influences of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) can be minimized through creation of awareness to health care professionals. Objective The objective of this study was to assess DDIs in Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital (ACSH). Methodology A retrospective study design was employed on patient prescriptions available in the outpatient department of pharmacy and filled from September 2016 to February 2017 in ACSH. Result From the 600 prescription records assessed, the average number of drugs on single prescription was 2.73. Regarding the interaction observed 34 (9.63%) prescriptions with major drug-drug interaction, 210 (59.5%) moderate, 87 (24.65%) minor, and 22 (6.22%) unknown were identified. Age category showed significant association to affect the occurrence of DDIs and polypharmacy had statistically significant association with DDIs in bivariate analysis which was lost in adjusted OR. Conclusion From the current study it can be concluded that nearly half of the prescription ordered in ACSH contained DDIs and from the prescription with interacting medications majority of them had moderate DDIs.

Background: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a major public health problem globally. Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has led to profound reduction in the incidence of mortality. However, effective treatment is challenged by the treatment failure. Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) Failure may predispose patients to new or recurrent clinical condition. Objective: This study was designed to assess virological and immunological failure of highly active antiretroviral therapy users and associated risk factors at Adigrat General Hospital, Adigrat, Ethiopia. Methods: Institutional based retrospective cross sectional study was conducted. Data were collected by pre-tested structured checklist. The data were entered into Epi-info version 7 and exported into SPSS version 22.0 for analyses. The association between variables was analyzed using multivariate binary logistic regression analysis. The results were presented using text, tables and figure. Result: Seven hundred eighty four patients were included in this study. Of all study participants, 508 (64.8%) were females. More than half participants 376 (47.96%) were in the age range of (31–45) years. The overall prevalence of treatment failure was 27.48%; of this 12.35% of the participants developed immunologic failure and 4.70% of them had both immunologic and virologic failure. Factors that were significantly associated with treatment failure following multivariable analysis were rural resident [AOR = 3.6; 95% CI (1.11–7.36)], WHO stage III/IV [AOR = 2.7; 95% CI (1.21–5.08)], baseline CD4 count (cells/mm3) less than 199 [AOR = 8.11; 95% CI (2.46–19.54)], treatment interruption [AOR = 5.4; 95% CI (2.61–10.45)], poor drug adherence [AOR = 5.9; 95% CI (1.15–12.43)] and TB/HIV co-infection [AOR = 4.6; 95% CI (1.33–12.12). Conclusion: The prevalence of ART failure was higher. Multivariate analysis showed that rural residency, WHO clinical stage III/IV, baseline CD4 count (cells/mm3) less than 200, treatment interruption, poor drug adherence, opportunistic infections and TB/HIV co-infection were significantly associated with treatment failure. Highlights:

BackgroundDespite global containment measures to fight the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the pandemic continued to rise, rapidly spread across the world, and resulting in 2.6 million confirmed cases and 185 061 deaths worldwide as of 23 April 2020. Yet, there are no approved vaccines or drugs to make the disease less deadly, while efforts are underway. Remdesivir, a nucleotide-analogue antiviral drug developed for Ebola, is determined to prevent and stop infections with COVID-19, while results are yet controversial. Here, we aim to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to evaluate the efficacy of remdesivir in patients with COVID-19.Method and analysisWe will search MEDLINE-PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, ClinicalTrials.gov and Google scholar databases for articles published as of 30 June 2020 and we will complete the study on 30 August 2020. We will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 guidelines for the design and reporting of the results. We will include RCTs that assessed the efficacy of remdesivir versus placebo or standard of care. The primary endpoint will be time to clinical recovery. The secondary endpoints will be proportion of participants relieved from clinical symptoms defined at the time (in hours) from initiation of the study treatment, all-cause mortality, discharged date, frequency of respiratory progression and treatment-emergent adverse events. RevMan V.5.3 software will be used for statistical analysis. Random effects model will be carried out to calculate mean differences for continuous outcome data and risk ratio for dichotomous outcome data between remdesivir and placebo or standard of care.Ethics and disseminationThere are no ethical considerations associated with this study as we will use publicly available data from previously published studies. We plan to publish results in open-access peer-reviewed journals and present at international and national conferences.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020177953.

Diabetes is a serious threat to global health and among the top 10 causes of death, with nearly half a billion people living with it worldwide. Treating patients with diabetes tend to become more challenging due to the progressive nature of the disease. The role and benefits of combination therapies for the management of type 2 diabetes are well-documented, while the comparative safety and efficacy among the different combination options have not been elucidated. We aimed to systematically synthesize the evidence on the comparative cardiovascular safety and efficacy of combination therapy with metformin-sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors versus metformin-sulfonylureas in patients with type 2 diabetes. We searched MEDLINE-PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov up to 15 August 2019 without restriction in the year of publication. We included randomized controlled trials of patients with type 2 diabetes who were on metformin-sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors or metformin-sulphonylureas combination therapy at least for a year. The primary endpoints were all-cause mortality and serious adverse events, and the secondary endpoints were cardiovascular mortality, non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal stroke, hypoglycemia, and changes in glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), body weight, fasting plasma glucose, blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. We used a random-effects meta-analysis model to estimate mean differences for continuous outcomes and risk ratio for dichotomous outcomes. We followed PICOS description model for defining eligibility and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 guidelines for reporting results. Of 3,190 citations, we included nine trials involving 10,974 participants. The pooled analysis showed no significant difference in all-cause mortality (risk ration [RR] = 0.93, 95% CI [0.52, 1.67]), serious adverse events (RR = 0.96, 95% CI [0.79, 1.17]) and adverse events (RR = 1.00, 95% CI [0.99, 1.02]) between the two, but in hypoglycemia (RR = 0.13, 95% CI [0.10, 0.17], P < 0.001). Participants taking metformin-sodium glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors showed a significantly greater reduction in HbA1c (mean difference [MD] = − 0.10%, 95% CI [− 0.17, − 0.03], body weight (MD = − 4.57 kg, 95% CI [− 4.74, − 4.39], systolic blood pressure (MD = − 4.77 mmHg, 95% CI [− 5.39, − 4.16]), diastolic blood pressure (MD = − 2.07 mmHg, 95% CI [− 2.74, − 1.40], and fasting plasma glucose (MD = − 0.55 mmol/L, 95% CI [− 0.69, − 0.41]), p < 0.001. Combination therapy of metformin and sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors is a safe and efficacious alternative to combination therapy of metformin and sulphonylureas for patients with type 2 diabetes who are at risk of cardiovascular comorbidity. However, there remains a need for additional long-term randomized controlled trials as available studies are very limited and heterogeneous.