Malaria, particularly due to Plasmodium falciparum, remains a major public health threat in Ethiopia. Artemether-lumefantine (AL) has been the first-line antimalarial drug against uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in the country since 2004. Regular monitoring of antimalarial drugs is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to help early detection of drug resistant strains of the parasite and contain their rapid spread. The objective of this study was to assess the therapeutic efficacy of AL in a high-transmission setting in Ethiopia. The study site was Setit Humera, northwest Ethiopia. Single-arm prospective study of a 28-day follow-up was conducted from October 2014 to January 2015 according to the revised WHO 2009 drug efficacy study protocol. Study end-points were classified into primary end-point and secondary end-point. While the primary end-point was the day-28 adequate clinical and parasitological response the secondary end-points were clinical and parasitological evaluations (parasite, fever and gametocyte clearance rate, incidence of drug adverse events) and the relative increment in hemoglobin (Hb) level from baseline to day (D) 14 and D28. A total of 92 patients were enrolled and 79 had completed the 28-day follow-up period. The overall cure rate was 98.8% with 95% confidence interval of 0.915–0.998 without polymerase chain reaction correction. The parasite clearance rate was high with fast resolution of clinical symptoms; 100% of the study participants cleared parasitaemia and fever on D3. Gametocyte carriage was reduced from 7% on D0 to 1% on D3 and complete clearance was achieved on D14. Mean Hb concentration significantly increased on D28 compared to that on D14. There was no serious adverse event. AL was efficacious and safe in a high-transmission setting for treatment of uncomplicated falciparum malaria.

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an important food and cash crop in Ethiopia; serving, as a food security crop due to its nutrition content, wider adaptability and early maturing behavior. However, the yield of the crop is constrained by a number of factors. Among which unspecified seed tuber size and limited availability and distribution of improved varieties are among the important limiting factors. A field experiment was conducted to study the effects of seed tuber size on growth and yield performance of potato varieties at Agarfa, Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education and Training College experimental field during 2017. The treatments consisted of three potato varieties (Gudenie, Jalene and Kellacho) and three seed tuber sizes (25-34, 35-45 and 46-55 mm). The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with a factorial arrangement and replicated three times. The results showed that, seed tuber size and varieties significantly affected phenological parameters, stem number, leaf area index, stem density, marketable, unmarketable and total tuber yield, shoot fresh and dry weight, underground fresh weight, and medium weight of tuber size. Leaf number, and underground dry weight and tuber size were significantly affected only by seed tuber size. Varieties and seed tuber size interact to influence plant height, leaf area, number of tuber per plant, dry matter concentration and harvest index. Gudenie and Jalene produced the highest total tuber and marketable yields. Large seed tuber size (46-55 mm) produced higher marketable tuber yields than medium and small tuber sizes. In conclusion, Gudenie variety and large seed tuber size showed superior performance both for tuber yield and tuber dry matter concentration compared with the remaining varieties and small tuber size. Therefore, farmers are encouraged to produce Gudenie or Jalene variety with the use of medium to large seed tuber size for potato production.

Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax co-exist at different endemicity levels across Ethiopia. For over two decades Artemether-Lumefantrine (AL) is the first line treatment for uncomplicated P. falciparum, while chloroquine (CQ) is still used to treat P. vivax. It is currently unclear whether a shift from CQ to AL for P. falciparum treatment has implications for AL efficacy and results in a reversal of mutations in genes associated to CQ resistance, given the high co-endemicity of the two species and the continued availability of CQ for the treatment of P. vivax. This study thus assessed the prevalence of Pfcrt-K76T and Pfmdr1-N86Y point mutations in P. falciparum. 18S RNA gene based nested PCR confirmed P. falciparum samples (N = 183) collected through community and health facility targeted cross-sectional surveys from settings with varying P. vivax and P. falciparum endemicity were used. The proportion of Plasmodium infections that were P. vivax was 62.2% in Adama, 41.4% in Babile, 30.0% in Benishangul-Gumuz to 6.9% in Gambella. The Pfcrt-76T mutant haplotype was observed more from samples with higher endemicity of P. vivax as being 98.4% (61/62), 100% (31/31), 65.2% (15/23) and 41.5% (22/53) in samples from Adama, Babile, Benishangul-Gumuz and Gambella, respectively. However, a relatively higher proportion of Pfmdr1-N86 allele (77.3–100%) were maintained in all sites. The observed high level of the mutant Pfcrt-76T allele in P. vivax co-endemic sites might require that utilization of CQ needs to be re-evaluated in settings co-endemic for the two species. A country-wide assessment is recommended to clarify the implication of the observed level of variation in drug resistance markers on the efficacy of AL-based treatment against uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria.

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