Background: Child immunisation is among the most cost-effective ways of preventing premature child deaths, and the potency of vaccines, crucial for vaccine efficacy, is dependent on effective management of the cold chain at all levels of vaccine handling. Objective: To assess the status of the cold chain at peripheral vaccine stores in Ethiopia. Design: Institution based cross-sectional survey in two rural and one urban administrative areas were included in the study. Sixty seven health institutions providing static vaccination services were included in the study but cold chain system was assessed fully in only sixty four. Data were collected by interviewing health workers and by directly observing the cold chain equipment and records using structured forms. Results: Conditions of the cold chain system were described based on 64 of the 67 centres visited, three were excluded because of non-functioning cold chain. Complete temperature record was observed in 37(57.8%) of the centres. Thermometer was not available in four (6.3%) and thermometer reading was found to be outside the optimal range in another seven (10.9%) centres. Vaccine storage in the refrigerator was not proper in 47 (73.4%) centres. Majority of the centres had neither trained personnel nor budget for maintenance of the cold chain. Conclusion: There is a real danger of vaccines losing their potency at these centres even if they were potent on arrival. Relevant training for those handling the cold chain, improving the maintenance conditions of refrigerators and introduction of cold chain monitoring devises are recommended.

This study was performed to determine the trends in seroprevalence of four major sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), and syphilis) over a 10-year period (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014) in pregnant women in Ethiopia. Methods: Pregnant women (15-49 years old) who were enrolled in the antenatal care-based national HIV surveillance were included. Serological tests for HIV, HBV, HSV-2, and syphilis were done on serum/ plasma samples. Results: A total of 4887 pregnant women were included. Results showed a decline in prevalence of these STIs by 40-60% over the 10 years (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014): HIV (10.5% to 5.5%), syphilis (2.5% to 1.1%), HBV (12.6% to 6.7%), and HSV-2 (47.5% to 28.5%). In 2014, 109/4887 (2.2%) women had triple infections. In 2005In , and 2009, the prevalence of HSV-2 in the older age group (35-45 years) (47.1%, 47.4%, and 50.0%, respectively) was higher than that in the younger age group (15-24 years) (40.9%, 19.5%, and 20.2%, respectively). Age category (Chi-square = 22.4, p < 0.001), study sites/residence (Chi-square = 135.2, p = 0.001), and time/years (Chi-square = 58.9, p = 0.001) were associated with a positive HSV-2 test result. Conclusions: A decline in HIV, HBV, HSV-2, and syphilis of >40% was seen over the years in Ethiopia. However, an intermediate endemicity level of HBV and higher prevalence of HIV and HSV-2 by 2014, suggest the need to strengthen prevention strategy for STIs.

BackgroundHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing is critical for early linkage to treatment and care services. However, there is a substantial gap in HIV testing, particularly in resource limited settings due to low accessibility of HIV testing sites, inconvenient testing hours, and concerns about loss of confidentiality. Thus, adopting new strategies such as HIV self-testing (HIVST) could overcome these barriers and increases HIV testing uptake.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of non-invasive HIVST kit using oral fluid for HIV diagnosis. This study also aimed to assess the ability of clients in interpretation of OraQuick HIVST results.MethodBetween December 2017 and February 2018, a total of 400 study participants were enrolled into the study to assess a diagnostic accuracy of Oral fluid-based HIVST kit (OraQuick) in 15 public health facilities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Participants were provided with instructions and visual aids on how to perform HIVST and interpret results. They also underwent a blood-based rapid HIV antibody test as per the current national algorithm. The results of HIVST were interpreted independently by the participants and respective health care workers (HCWs). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), Negative predictive value (NPV) and inter-rater agreement of the test were computed.ResultsOut of 200 participants who tested positive on the national algorithm testing, oral fluid-based self-testing was positive in 199 (99.5%), false negative in 1 (0.5%). Of 200 participants who tested negative on the national algorithm testing, self-testing was negative in 200 (100%). There were no false positive and invalid tests. The sensitivity and specificity of the OraQuick HIVST were 99.5% (95%CI: 97.26–99.99) and 100% (95%CI: 98.18–100.0), respectively. The overall agreement between the two tests was high (κ value = 0.995). The PPV and NPV of OraQuick test were 100% and 99.5% (95%CI: 96.59–99.93) respectively.ConclusionThis study showed a high diagnostic performance of OraQuick HIV self-test and suggests that OraQuick HIVST kit has a potential to be used for HIV testing in Ethiopia along with the national algorithm.

No abstract

Background: Tuberculosis remains a major global health problem and ranks alongside the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as a leading cause of mortality worldwide. For effective tuberculosis control, it is a prerequisite to detect the cases as early as possible, and to ensure that the tuberculosis patients complete their treatment and get cured. However, in many resource-constrained settings treatment outcome for tuberculosis has not been satisfactory. Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the treatment outcome of tuberculosis and investigate the association of demographic and clinical factors with treatment success of patients enrolled in selected hospitals, Ethiopia. Methods: A fifteen-year retrospective register based historical data were collected through medical record review from 31 selected hospitals in Ethiopia. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 and to investigate the association of demographic and clinical factors with treatment success of patients, multiple logistic regression methods were used. A value of less than 5% was considered as statistically significant in the final model. Result: Out of the 90,191 registered tuberculosis patients (50,167 males and 40,024 females) including all age group, 55.8% had successful treatment outcome and 44.2% had unsuccessful outcome. In the multivariate logistic model, the odds of unsuccessful treatment outcome was relatively higher among patients in the age group of >65 (