IntroductionPatient counseling can ideally be providing medication information orally or in written form to patients or their attendants, and it helps to form a concordant approach on encouraging patient involvement in the pharmaceutical care process and to explore patient’s knowledge and understanding. Lack of adequate knowledge on drugs and up-to-date drug information are the major factor that hinders counseling services. This study assessed counseling practice of pharmacy professionals in Mekelle City.MethodsA facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted. Professionals who volunteered to participate were involved. Self-administered questionnaires were used as data collecting tool to grasp professionals’ practice on patient counseling, and the data were analyzed by using SPSS version 23. One-way analysis of variance and post hoc statistical tests were done to check for association between sociodemographic and other variables of counseling practice. In the statistical analyses, p-value of 0.05 and 95% confidence interval were considered.ResultsThe most frequent drug information given by the pharmacy professionals to clients were unit dose (65%), frequency of administration (79%), and duration of therapy (62%). Study participants claimed that lack of knowledge (37%), lack of updated drug information (49%), high patient load (62%), and absence of a private counseling room (51%) were the main factors that prohibit pharmacy professionals from counseling their patients. Those pharmacy professionals whose monthly income was <2000 Ethiopian Birr claimed lack of knowledge (p=0.007), limited access for updated drug information (p=0.009), and lack of experience (p=0.039) as factors for poor counseling practice. Results of the post hoc analysis showed significant difference among the participants with <5 and >10 years of experience in providing information on storage conditions and written materials with p-value of 0.025 and 0.016, respectively.ConclusionThis study proves that the level of satisfactory counseling is still very low compared to the expected practice. Lack of knowledge, lack of updated drug information, high patient load, absence of private counseling room, and underestimating the importance of counseling were identified as some of the factors that impede counseling services.

Background Access to life-saving medicines for maternal health remains a major challenge in numerous developing nations. Periodic and continuous assessment of access to lifesaving commodities is of enormous importance to measure progress and ensure sustainable supply. This study aimed to assess the availability and affordability of priority lifesaving maternal medicines in Addis Ababa in January 2021. Methods An institutional-based cross-sectional study design was employed to assess 33 representative private pharmacies, public health facilities, NGO and private hospitals providing maternal health care and dispensing medicines from January 12 to 27, 2021 in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. WHO and Health Action International procedures were followed to determine sample size, sampling of health facilities, and data collection. WHO and UNFPA priority lifesaving maternal health medicines included in the Ethiopia essential medicine list were included in the study. Data were cleaned and entered into SPSS version 25 for analysis. Result The overall mean availability of maternal health medicines was fairly high, 59% (range 6%-94%), as per the WHO availability index. Among the four sectors, the private pharmacy had the lowest availability (40%), while the mean availability in private hospitals, public and NGO/mission sector facilities were 70%, 72% and 72% respectively. Medicines used only for the management of maternal health conditions had lower availability (47%) compared to commodities used for the broader indication (65%). Compared based on source, the average availability of maternal health medicines which could be sourced locally was (68%) higher than imported medicines (55%). Affordability was not an issue in the public sector, public facilities offered maternal health medicines at no cost to the client. On the other hand, the private hospitals dispensed only 13% of the medicines at affordable prices followed by the private pharmacies (17%) and NGO/Mission facilities (29%). Furthermore, key challenges to access maternal health medicines were frequent stockouts in the public sector and the high cost of medicines in the private sector. Conclusion Even though it was below the recommended 80% availability, fairly high availability with variabilities across sectors was observed. Except in the public sector, maternal health medicines were unaffordable in Addis Ababa.

Introduction: Generic medicines are produced by multiple manufacturers hence, are usually cheaper than innovator brands and therefore save costs on medicines. Many physicians oppose brand substitution, believing generic medicines to be inferior to their originator counterparts. Physicians' belief about generic medicines and factors affecting generic prescribing in Ethiopia are poorly investigated. Objective: To assess the physicians' belief about generic medicines and to identify factors affecting generic medicines prescribing in private health facilities, Mekelle, Northern Ethiopia. Materials and Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted enrolling all physicians working in private health facilities. The data were collected from January 2016 to March 2016. Data were collected using self-administered structured questionnaires measuring generic medicines belief of physicians using a Likert scale of 1-5. Data were then entered into SPSS version 20 for analysis. Results: Of the fifty-six physicians approached in this study, 50 (89.2% response rate) questionnaires were included in the analysis. Nearly three-fourth (72%) of the physicians claimed that they always prescribe generic medicines. More than half (55.3) of the respondents beliefs generic medicines have different active ingredients than a brand innovator. Almost equal percentage (52% and 54%) of the Physicians disagreed with brand medicines were safer than generic medicines and prescribing generic due to the complicated health problem of the patient respectively. Around two third (67.5%) of physicians reported that quality profile of medicine was a major reason for prescribing generic medicines. Moreover, availability of medicines in pharmacies and low cost of medicines were the main reasons for prescribing generic medicines with 58.1% and 52.4% respectively. Conclusion: The majority of physicians do not have a positive perception of generic medicines and a significant portion of the physician's belief brand medicines safer and effective than generic counterparts. The availability of medicines in pharmacies, low cost of medicines and purchasing power of the patients are major factors affecting generic medicines prescribing.

BackgroundUndernutrition among children is a significant contributor to the global disease burden and a leading cause of child mortality. Ethiopia, home to more than 16 million children under 5 years old, is one of the countries that have high levels of wasting. The aim of this study was to assess survival status and predictors of mortality among children with severe acute malnutrition admitted to Dubti Zonal Referral hospital from January 1/2017 to September 30/2019.MethodsFacility-based retrospective cohort was conducted among 331 severely acutely malnourished children. Data were collected from SAM management registration, individual patient cards and multi-charts admitted from January 1/2017 to September 30/2019. Cox-regression was used to characterize survival within the cohort and to estimate the effect of specific variables while controlling for potential confounders. The hazard ratio was used as a measure of the outcome. P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant to identify independent predictors in multivariable analysis.ResultThe median age of study participants was 18 months and males were 187(56%). About half of 160 (48.3%) respondents were with co-morbidities during admission: diarrhea (44%) and pneumonia (26%) were the major co-morbidities. From a total of 331 SAM children, 255(77%) were recovered, 34(10%) died, and 40(12%) have defaulted from treatment. The main risk factors for earlier death of severely malnourished children were rural residence (AHR=1.6, 95% CI= 0.745-3.493), being on IV Infusion (AHR=2.5, 95% CI= 1.12-4.18), anemia during admission (AHR= 6.27, 95% CI =2.41-16.36) & pneumonia (AHR=0.27, 95% CI = 0.11-0.68)ConclusionsThe death rate was 10% which is close to the minimum SPHERE standard & national management protocol for SAM. Predictors for earlier hospital deaths were rural residence, IV infusion, Anemia, and Pneumonia.