Introduction Foodborne diseases are a major public health problem which predominantly affects infants and young children. Appropriate complementary food hygiene practice is very important to reduce the prevalence of foodborne illnesses. However, the information regarding this practice is not available and assessed before. Thus, the study was aimed to assess complementary food hygiene practices among mothers of children aged 6-23 months. Methods A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in Robe town on a samples of 517 mother-child pairs, which were selected by using systematic sampling technique. Data was collected using pre-tested and structured questionnaire, and each variable was described in the frequency and percentage. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with complementary food hygiene practice. Odds ratios with 95% confidence interval were used to assess levels of significance. Result The result indicated that 55% of participated mothers scored above the mean score of food hygiene practices. Mothers of children aged 12-23 months had higher odds to practice good food hygiene measures than those of aged 6-11 months (AOR, 1.82 95% CI (1.21, 2.73)). Mothers whose children attended growth monitoring session practice good food hygiene than their counterpart (AOR, 2.74 95% CI (1.49, 5.06)). Mothers having media exposure, and having knowledge on critical times of hand washing had relatively good food hygiene measures (AOR, 0.73 95 CI (1.14, 2.62)). Among food hygiene measures; handwashing with water and soap were low before eating food (17%), before feeding children (21%) and before preparing food (32%) when compared with after visiting the toilet (81%) and touching dirt (68%). Conclusion and Recommendation The study identified that food hygiene practices in the current study were mainly associated with child age, growth monitoring follow-up, maternal awareness about critical times of hand washing, and media exposure. So, improving knowledge of mothers on critical times of handwashing, strengthening growth monitoring follow-up and media promotion are important measures to improve food hygiene practices among mothers of infants and young children.

Background Measles remains a cause of vaccine-preventable death in children worldwide. Reported cases in Ethiopiarepresent only a small proportion of expected cases, due to weak measles-based surveillance implementation. In this study, we aimed to analyze 7 years’ measles-surveillance data from Bale zone, in order to indicate measles epidemiology and surveillance-related gaps. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted from May to June 2019. The study population was all measles cases reported to the Bale Zone Health Office from 2013 to 2019. Data were abstracted from 7 years’ measles line lists and case-based reports using a data-abstraction check-list. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and Pivot software, and were presented in tables and graphs. Results Overall, 4,241 measles cases were reported from 2013 to 2019. Mean age was 7.15 years, and 50.6% were male. The most affected age-group was children <4 years of age. Analysis indicated that the case-fatality rate was 3.07/1,000 population. Of the total cases reported, 248 (5.8%) were IgM-confirmed. The highest prevalence of 141/100,000 population was reported in 2019. Unvaccinated cases and those with unknown vaccination status numbered 890 (21%) and 731 (17.2%), respectively. The highest number of cases was reported from Ginir and Gololcha districts. Cases increased in autumn each year and peaked in May. Conclusion Measles is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Bale, due to poor immunization coverage. Its case fatality is also high, excluding community deaths. Of all the districts included, Ginir reported the highest number of cases. Improving vaccination coverage, early preparedness for the annual epidemic cycle, and strengthening case-based surveillance are important interventions to reduce measles morbidity and mortality.

Background: Almost all nutritional related problems are preventable by implementing infant and child feeding strategies. The first two years of life are particularly important to reverse the nutritional problems by achieving dietary diversity feeding.This study assessed optimum dietary diversity and its associated factors among 6-23 months old children in Robe town, southeast Ethiopia. Methods: Community based cross sectional study design with simple random sampling was employed to include 517 children 6-23 months of age paired with their mothers in Robe town. Data were collected using pre-tested and structured questionnaire. Data were entered into EpiData version 3.1 and analysis was performed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive analysis was done for appropriate variables. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with optimal dietary diversity practices among children aged 6-23 months. Results: Five hundred eight samples were included in the analysis making response rate of 98%. The optimal dietary diversity practice in the study area was 23%. The dominant food groups consumed by children aged 6-23 months in the study area were Grain, roots and tubers and Dairy products. Exposure to media (AOR=3.99, 95 % CI, 1.97:7.77), secondary and above maternal education (AOR=3.21, 95% CI, 1.05:9.85), and maternal knowledge about diet diversification (AOR=8.5, 95% CI, 4.95:14.58) were found positive significant predictors of optimal dietary diversity practice in the study area. Conclusion: This study concluded that optimum dietary diversity among children aged 6-23 months in the study area is low. Exposure to media and maternal education, maternal knowledge on dietary diversification were found as positive predictors of optimal dietary diversity practice for the children aged 6-23 months. So, inclusion of child nutrition programs different mass medias in the country and encouraging women education would contribute for better dietary diversity of these children.

Introduction: Diarrhea and other foodborne diseases are a major public health problem which predominantly affects infants and young children. Appropriate complementary food hygiene practice is very important to reduce the prevalence of foodborne illnesses among children. This study is aimed to assess complementary food hygiene practices among mothers of children aged 6–23 months. Methods A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in Robe town. Sample of 517 mother-child pairs were selected using systematic sampling techniques. Data was collected using pre-tested and structured questionnaire. Each variable were described by using the frequency and percentage. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with complementary food hygiene practice score. Odds ratios with 95% confidence interval were used to assess level of significance. Results From a total of 508 mothers that were interviewed, 55% of them scored above the mean score of food hygiene practices. Mothers had higher odds to practice good food hygiene measures than those of aged 6–11 months. Mothers whose child attends growth monitoring session practice good food hygiene than their counterpart. Mothers having media exposure, and having knowledge on critical times of hand washing practice relatively good food hygiene measures. Among food hygiene measures; handwashing practice with water and soap were low before eating food, before feeding children and before preparing food when compared with after visiting toilet and touching dirt. Conclusions The study identified food hygiene practices in the current study area were mainly associated with child age, growth monitoring follow-up, maternal awareness about critical times of hand washing, and media exposure. Improving knowledge of mothers on critical times of handwashing, strengthening growth monitoring follow-up and media promotion are important measures to improve food hygiene practices among mothers of infants and young children.