Background: Undernutrition among school age children has an impact on their health, cognition, and educational achievement. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence and associated factors of stunting and wasting among school age children in Gondar town, northwest, Ethiopia. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was done among school children aged 6-14 years. Data on socio-demographic, nutritional and dietary status of children were collected using structured questionnaire. Anthropometric measurements were carried out to determine the status of stunting and wasting. Data were entered into Epi-Info version 3.5.3 and transferred to SPSS version 20 for further analysis. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to identify associated factors of stunting and wasting. Both crude odds and adjusted odds ratios with 95% CI were used to measure the strength of associations. In the multivariable analysis, variables with < 0.05 p-values were considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 523 school age children were with the median age of 12 (10-13 inter quartile range) years participated in the study. The overall prevalence of stunting and wasting among primary school children was 241(46.1%; 95% CI: 42.3, 50.3) and 47 (9%; 95% CI: 6.7, 11.7), respectively. Child age (AOR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.29, 2.80), public tab/yard water source (AOR = 2.22; 95%CI: 1.46, 3.39), DDS < 4 (AOR = 1.89 95%CI: 1.08, 3.30), tea drinking habit (AOR = 0.46, 95%CI: 0.27, 0.80) and anemia (AOR = 1.72 95%CI: 1.05, 2.83) were significant predictors of stunting. Moreover, child age (AOR = 3.91; 95% CI: 1.62, 9.44), maternal/care-givers' age ≤ 34 (AOR = 0.34; 95%CI: 0.16, 0.71), maternal education (AOR = 2.55; 95%CI: 1.15, 5.65), family poverty (AOR = 3.23; 95% CI: 1.30, 7.93) and alcohol consumption (AOR = 2.93; 95%CI: 1.16, 7.42) were found significantly associated with wasting. Conclusion: Stunting and wasting were then major problems among school age children. Child age, water source for dinking, DDS < 4 and anemia resulted in stunting. On the other hand, child age, maternal education and age, family poverty and alcohol drinking were risk factors for wasting. Therefore, launching community based nutritional education programs, implementing school feeding and strengthening economic level of the communities are essential to reduce the problems.

BackgroundClinical Rabies is a widely distributed almost 100% fatal viral zoonotic disease. Most human rabies cases occur in developing countries, especially in Asia and Africa. It can be prevented by immunization, post exposure prophylaxis. Ethiopia is assumed to be among African countries with high incidence of human rabies exposure cases. However, there is limited documented data on the incidence of human rabies exposure in the study area in particular and in Ethiopia in general. Thus, this study aimed to determine the Incidence of Human Rabies Virus exposure in Northwestern Amhara, Ethiopia.MethodsRetrospective cross-sectional study was conducted during August and September, 2017. The study was conducted at Addis Alem Hospital, a district level hospital in Bahir Dar. Data on human rabies exposure cases registered from September 1, 2015 to August 31, 2017 were collected from anti-rabies post exposure prophylaxis registration log book. Data was collected using a structured data collection questionnaire developed for this purpose. Descriptive statistics was used to describe relevant variables.The resultsA total of 924 human rabies exposure cases was recorded. The overall human rabies incidence per 100, 000 population was 6.5 in 2015 and 7.5 in 2016. Males (55.2%, 510/924) and children of age less than fifteen (46.3%, 428/924) were most affected groups. The majority of human rabies exposure cases (71.9%, 664/924) were from rural settings. Dogs were the principal sources of exposure (96.3%) followed by cat (1.5%) and donkey (1.3%). High incidence rate of rabies exposure was reported during spring (360, 39%) and summer (244, 26.4%) seasons. There was significant difference between rural and urban exposure cases (p = 0.001) in respect to the time of arrival to the hospital.ConclusionTaking these into account, a significant proportion of the population was exposed to rabies virus during the study years. There was high human rabies exposure rate in children and in the rural community.This shows the need for organizing preventive and control strategies and to build community awareness.

ObjectiveThe aim of this cross-sectional study was to determined the sero-prevalence of HBV infection and associated factors among health care workers and medical waste handlers in primary hospitals of North-west Ethiopia.ResultsA total of 388 study participants were included in this study. Of which, 268 (69%) were health care workers and 120 (31%) were medical waste handlers. Males accounted 54.9% and the mean age for all study participants was 28.3 (standard deviation = 6.9). Hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) was detected in 2.6% health care workers and 2.5% medical waste handlers and the overall hepatitis B virus infection was 10 (2.6%). High rate of hepatitis B virus infection was detected in single participants and those in the age group of 30–40 years were more infected (6.6%). History of contact with HBV infected case (8.3%) (AOR = 6.8, 95% CI = 1.6–28.5, P = 0.009) and history of jaundice (15.4%) (AOR = 10.5, 95% CI = 2.1–12.2, P = 0.03) were statistically associated factors for HBV infection. More than half (54.4%) of the study participants did not take training on infection and 9 (4.3%) of them were positive for HBsAg (COR = 1.3, 95% CI = 0.0.02–1.02, P = 0.052).

Background Diarrhea caused by Shigella species remains a major public health threat especially in the pediatric population. A regular surveillance system needs to be in place, in order to explore the burden, antimicrobial resistance patterns and associated risk factors for Shigella infections. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and associated risk factors of Shigella infections among diarrheic pediatric population attending at selected healthcare institutions in Gondar town. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in Gondar town healthcare institutions from January to March 2018. A simple random sampling technique was used to enroll 272 study participants. Structured questionnaires were used to gather socio-demographic, environmental and associated risk factors data. Stool samples were collected from diarrheic pediatric patients and inoculated onto MacConkey media, salmonella-shigella agar, and xylose-lysine deoxy-cholate agar. Identification of the bacterial species was carried out by using biochemical tests. The disc-diffusion method was used to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of the isolates by standardizing the bacterial suspension with a 0.5 McFarland solution. A statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 20 statistical package and P -value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results From the total study participants, 29(10.7%) of the patients were culture positive for Shigella species. The habit of eating raw food and nutritional status of children were statistically significant with shigellosis ( p < 0.05). Shigella species were found highly resistant to amoxicillin and tetracycline but susceptible to nitrofurantoin and norfloxacin. Conclusion High prevalence of Shigella species were detected in this study. Through in-vitro drug susceptibility testing, norfloxacin and nitrofurantoin were found to be effective against the isolates, while high resistance rates were observed for tetracycline, and amoxicillin. The findings highlighted the need for regular drug resistance information for the best management of infections.

Background. A corneal ulcer is a major cause of monocular blindness in developing countries, including Ethiopia. Its etiology varies based on its geographical location and climatic conditions. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to assess the clinical and microbiological profile of suspected bacterial and fungal corneal ulcers at the Tertiary Eye Care and Training Centre at Gondar University. Methods. A cross-sectional hospital-based study of corneal ulcer cases was performed from February to October 2019. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected using a standardized questionnaire. Corneal scrapings were used to classify bacterial and fungal pathogens. The specimens were inoculated on BHI media and sub-cultured on culture media for the separate cultivation of bacteria and fungi. Biochemical tests have been carried out to classify bacteria. Following CLSI, the antimicrobial resistance pattern of bacterial isolates was carried out. Wet mounting, Lactophenol cotton blue staining, and colony characteristics on SDA were used to classify fungal species. The data were analyzed with version 20 of the SPSS. Results. A total of 30 suspected bacterial and fungal keratitis patients have been enrolled in this study. The visual acuity presented in 90% of the affected eyes was in the category of blindness (<3/60). In 71% of the cases, clinically presumed risk factors were identified. Trauma was the most common risk factor found in 46% of cases, followed by keratitis exposure (13%). Of the corneal scrape tests, 76.6% were positive for bacteria and fungi. Fungi were identified in 53.3% of corneal ulcers followed by 33.3% of bacterial growth. The commonest fungi and bacteria isolated were Aspergillus species (69%) and S. aureus, respectively. The prevalence of Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) was 2 (40%). The identified Pseudomonas species were susceptible to Gentamicin and Ciprofloxacin but resistant to Ceftriaxone. Conclusion. The primary microbial agents for corneal ulcers were fungi, and trauma was the most significant risk factor associated with corneal ulcers. To avoid chronic ocular morbidity and blindness, early identification of the etiologic agent and the provision of adequate management are recommended.