Background: Ethiopia is among countries with a high malaria burden. There are several studies that assessed the efficacy of anti-malarial agents in the country and this systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to obtain stronger evidence on treatment outcomes of malaria from the existing literature in Ethiopia. Methods:A systematic literature search using the preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis (PRISMA) statement was conducted on studies from Pubmed, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect databases to identify published and unpublished literature. Comprehensive meta-analysis software was used to perform all meta-analyses. The Cochrane Q and the I 2 were used to evaluate heterogeneity of studies. Random effects model was used to combine studies showing heterogeneity of Cochrane Q p < 0.10 and I 2 > 50.Results: Twenty-one studies were included in the final analysis with a total number of 3123 study participants. Treatment outcomes were assessed clinically and parasitologically using World Health Organization guidelines. Adequate clinical and parasitological response was used to assess treatment success at the 28th day. Overall, a significant high treatment success of 92.9% (95% CI 89.1-96.6), p < 0.001, I 2 = 98.39% was noticed. However, treatment success was higher in falciparum malaria patients treated with artemether-lumefantrine than chloroquine for Plasmodium vivax patients [98.1% (97.0-99.2), p < 0.001, I 2 = 72.55 vs 94.7% (92.6-96.2), p < 0.001, I 2 = 53.62%]. Seven studies reported the adverse drug reactions to anti-malarial treatment; of 822 participants, 344 of them were exposed to adverse drug reactions with a pooled event rate of 39.8% (14.1-65.5), p = 0.002. Conclusions:On the basis of this review, anti-malarial treatment success was high (92.9%) and standard regimens showed good efficacy against Plasmodium falciparum (98.1%) and P. vivax (94.7%) infections in Ethiopia, but associated with high rates of adverse drug reactions (ADRs). However, these ADRs were not serious enough to discontinue anti-malarial treatment. The results of this study suggest that the current anti-malarial medications are effective and safe; however, greater priority should be placed on the discovery of new anti-malarial drugs to achieve successful outcomes as resistance seems inevitable since cases of anti-malarial drug resistance have been reported from other areas of the world.

Background: Globally, cataract is the leading cause of blindness which accounts for 51% of 39 million blind people. The visual rehabilitation is made through sight-restoring surgery. The patients' postoperative visual satisfaction, vision related quality of life, ability to function in daily activities and their overall productivity mainly depend on the visual outcome. However, there are limited data on the visual outcome and its associated factors in the study area. Therefore, this study intended to evaluate the postoperative level of visual acuity to provide a baseline information regarding visual outcome and design a standardized protocol to maximize it. Methods and materials: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted at the Gondar University Hospital Tertiary Eye Care and Training Center on 223 patients who underwent cataract surgery, selected using simple random technique from April to June 2015.Results: This study consisted of 218 patients or eyes that underwent cataract surgery. The median age of the participants was 65 years with an interquartile range of 20 years. Of 218 cataract-operated visually impaired eyes (<6/60), 26.6% of them achieved good visual acuity (≥6/18), 28.9% of them had borderline acuity (<6/18-6/60), and the remaining of 44.5% were remained as poor visual acuity (<6/60). It has been observed that the postoperative visual acuity had an association with postoperative follow up time duration (P=0.035).

Background: Sepsis isone of the major predictor of death in patients with visceral leishmaniasis(VL).However, there are currently no reliable data available on bacterial sepsis in VL patients in Ethiopia. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of bacterial sepsis, causative agents and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and focus of infection in patients with VL.Methods & Materials: A prospective cross sectional study was conducted among parasitologically confirmed VL patients suspected of sepsis admitted to University of Gondar Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia from February 2012 to May 2012.Sociodemographic characteristics and clinical manifestations were documented after patient interview and physical examination. Samples (blood, urine and others as indicated) were collected and culturedusing standard methods.Isolates were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility using the disc diffusionmethod.Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20.Results: Most of the patients 81 (97.6%), 67 (80.7%), 75 (90.4%), 80 (96.4%) were febrile, tachycardic, tachypnic, and leukopenic, respectively. The prevalence of culture confirmed bacterial sepsis was 19.3% (16/83). The most frequently isolated organism was Staphylococcus aureus, accounting for 11/16 (68.8%) of cases. There was a concordance rate of 11/12 (91.6%) between bacterial isolates and their susceptibility pattern between focal infections and blood stream infections. The overall multiple resistance was 13/16 (81.3%). The highest rate of resistance was for ampicillin 11/11 (100%), and two were MRSA. Vancomycin, gentamicin and ceftriaxone were found to be effective against most isolates. Focal bacterial infection was showed significant association with bacterial sepsis (P = 0.00; Odds ratio = 11.65; 95% confidence interval 4. 29-31.60). Factors such as sex, age, HIV status, < 200 CD4 count, anemia, leucopenia, malnutritionand > 72 hour hospital staywere not associatedwith bacterial sepsis. Conclusion:The prevalence of culture confirmed bacterial sepsis was high, multiple drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus being the frequent isolate. Focal bacterial infections are potential sources for bacterial sepsis among VL patients. Therefore, clinicians should give emphasis to treat VL patients with focal bacterial infection before developing to sepsis. Rational use of antibiotics should be practiced in order to minimize the spread of drug resistant bacteria.