Background Depression is the most common psychiatric disorder in HIV/AIDs patients, and its prevalence is three times higher in HIV/AIDs patients. Globally, over 35 million people were living with HIV/AIDs, 24.7 million were in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study aims to estimate the prevalence and determine factors associated with depression among HIV/AIDs adult patients in the ART unit at Banadir Hospital Mogadishu, Somalia. Method A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted between 1 May and 1 July 2022. Samples were recruited from the HIV/AIDs adult patients attending in ART unit at Banadir Hospital, Mogadishu, Somalia. A validated research tool, including sociodemographic, behavioral, clinical, and psycho-social characteristics, three items social support scale, an 11-item HIV stigma scale, and patient health questions-9 (PHQ-9) were used. The interview was conducted privet room in the ART unit. Logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with depression at the significance level a = 0.050. Result The overall prevalence of depression among HIV/AIDs patients was 33.5% (95%CI = 28.1–39.0). In the multivariable logistic regression, three factors were associated with depression; the odds of depression were 3.415 times (95%CI=1.465–7.960) greater for those with poor social support than those with moderate-strong social support. Those with moderate and poor treatment adherence had 14.307 times (95%CI=5.361–38.182) greater odds of depression than those with good treatment adherence. Those who use substances had 3.422 times (95%CI=1.727–6.781) greater odds of having depression than those who did not. Conclusion People living with HIV in Mogadishu, Somalia, suffer from depression. The implementation to reduce depression should be focused on empowering social support, developing an appropriate approach to increase treatment adherence, and reducing or eliminating substance use.

Background: Measles is endemic in Somalia; recurrent outbreaks are reported annually. Under-five children are the most affected due to low immunization coverage, vitamin A deficiency, and malnutrition. The study aims to evaluate the demographical, clinical, and complication variations between vaccinated and unvaccinated hospitalized children with measles in the study hospital. Method: A hospital-based retrospective cohort study was implemented between 10 October and 10 November 2022 by reviewing case record files following a well-structured checklist of admitted clinical features, demographic characteristics, history of measles immunization, and measles complication status. Descriptive statistics were used by presenting frequency and percentage for categorical and the mean score for continuous variables. χ2 and Fisher’s exact test at P =0.05 were used to identify the proportions differences between vaccinated and unvaccinated cases. Result: A total of 93 hospitalized measles children participated in the study. Over half were boys, the mean age in months was 20.9 (SD±7.28), and over two-thirds of the mothers/caregivers did not have formal education. Almost 9.7% of hospitalized measles children had one dose of the measles-containing vaccine, while none had two doses. The vaccinated cases had fewer ill with fewer complications than the unvaccinated cases. Fever, cough, rash, and Koplik’s spots were clinical features associated with measles immunization status. Conclusion: Around one in ten hospitalized children had one dose of the measles vaccine. Vaccinated cases had fewer illnesses with few complications than unvaccinated cases. The paper highly emphasizes providing booster doses, improving vaccine logistics and storage, and following immunization schedules. In addition, conducting further multicentral high sample-size studies is highly required to identify whether vaccine inadequacy was due to host-related or vaccine-related factors.

Introduction: Opportunistic infections (OIs) remain the leading cause of death among people living with Human immune deficient virus and OIs-related mortality in Africa is estimated at 310 000 cases. Besides, Somalia has scant data about OIs since a high burden of tuberculosis and HIV co-infection has been reported. Hence, up-to-date information is vital for better treatment and interventions and may support national and international HIV strategies and eradication programs. Therefore, this study aims to estimate the magnitude of OIs and determine factors associated with among people living with HIV/AIDs on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in a selected public hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia. Materials and methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted between 1 June and 30 August 2022 by interviewing HIV patients and reviewing case record files using a validated questionnaire containing sociodemographic, clinical, OIs history, behavioural and environmental characteristics. Logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with OIs at the significance level of a=0.05. Result: The magnitude of OIs among people living with HIV was 37.1% (95% CI=31.6–42.2); major identified OIs were pulmonary tuberculosis 8.2%, Diarrhoea 7.9%, and Pneumonia 4.3%. Based on Multivariable logistic regression drinking non-sterilized water [adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=2.395, 95% CI: 2.010–4.168], living with domestic animals (AOR=4.012, 95% CI: 1.651–4.123), Co-morbidity of chronic disease (AOR=2.910, 95% CI: 1.761–3.450), and poor ART adherence (AOR=3.121, 95% CI: 1.532–6.309) were factors associated with OIs. Conclusion: Human immune deficient virus patients in Mogadishu, Somalia, suffer from OIs. The OIs reduction strategies should improve drinking water sanitation, provide special consideration for those living with domestic animals and those with a co-morbid chronic disease, and improve ART adherence.

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