Maternal risk factors for childhood anaemia in Ethiopia.

A total of 8260 children between the ages of 6-59 months were analyzed to identify the risk factors associated with childhood anaemia in Ethiopia. The overall mean (SD/standard deviation) haemoglobin (Hgb) level among the under-five children was 10.7 (2.2) g/dl and 50.3% were anaemic. Childhood anaemia demonstrated an increasing trend with maternal anaemia levels of mild, moderate and severe anaemia: odds ratio of 1.82, 2.16 and 3.73 respectively (p< 0.01). Children whose mothers had no formal education were 1.38 times more likely to be anaemic (p<0.01). The poorest and poorer wealth index groups had 1.52 and 1.25 increased odds of childhood anaemia respectively (p< 0.01). Childhood anaemia in Ethiopia is a severe public health problem. Maternal anaemia and socio-economic status were found to be associated with anaemia in children. A holistic approach of addressing mothers and children is of paramount importance.

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Is Closing Gaps in Disease Detection.

In 2017, the African Union established a new continent-wide public health agency, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Many outbreaks are never detected in Africa, and among outbreaks that are detected, countries often respond slowly and ineffectively. To address these problems, Africa CDC is working to increase early detection and reporting, improve access to diagnostic tests, promote novel laboratory approaches, help establish national public health institutes, improve information exchange between health agencies, and enhance recording and reporting of acute public health events and vital statistics. The health security of Africa will be strengthened by this new public health agency's ability to build comprehensive, timely disease surveillance that rapidly detects and contains health threats.

Quality of Anticoagulation With Warfarin at a Tertiary Hospital in Botswana.

Warfarin treatment requires regular and proper monitoring to avoid overanticoagulation and at the same time to prevent thromboembolic complications. This study assessed the quality of warfarin anticoagulation at Princess Marina Hospital in Botswana. This cross-sectional study consecutively enrolled patients who were on warfarin for at least 3 months in the outpatient medical clinic. The level of anticoagulation was determined by the time in therapeutic range (TTR) using the Rosendaal method that calculates the percentage of days when the international normalized ratio is in the therapeutic range (2.0-3.0). Poor anticoagulation control was defined as an estimated TTR <65%. We performed univariate and multivariate logistic regression to assess predictors of poor anticoagulation control. Of total, 410 (68.8% women) patients whose median age was 46 (interquartile range [IQR], 35-58) years were enrolled. Indications for warfarin included mechanical heart valves, 185 (45.1%); deep vein thrombosis, 114 (26.8%); and atrial fibrillation, 68 (17.8%). Of the 2004 tests (an average of 4.9 tests per patient) assessed, only 20% of the tests were within the therapeutic range. The median TTR was 30.8% (IQR, 15.2-52.7). Most (85.1%) patients had poor anticoagulation control. Cigarette smoking and pulmonary hypertension perfectly predicted poor anticoagulation. Hypertension was a predictor of poor anticoagulation control (adjusted odds ratio = 2.24; 95% confidence interval: 1.02-4.94). The quality of anticoagulant therapy with warfarin in Botswana patients is poor. The evidence calls for efforts to improve the level of anticoagulation control among patients on warfarin in Botswana.

Prophylactic antibiotics to prevent surgical site infections in Botswana: findings and implications.

OBJECTIVES: Antibiotic prophylaxis in surgery is known to reduce the rate of surgical site infections (SSI) as well as shorten hospital stay. However, there is currently a scarcity of data on antibiotic prophylaxis and SSIs among African countries including Botswana. Consequently, this study aimed to address this. METHODS: A prospective study involving 400 patients was carried out at a leading tertiary hospital in Botswana from 2014-2015. Patients' demographic information, type of surgery performed and peri-operative use of antibiotics were documented. All enrolled patients were followed-up for 30 days post discharge to fully document the incidence of SSIs. RESULTS: Median age of patients was 35.5 (25 - 50) years, with 52% female. There were 35.8% emergency and 64.2% elective surgeries. The most common operations were exploratory laparotomy (25%), appendectomy (18.3%), excision, and mastectomy (8%). Antibiotics were given in 73.3% of patients, mainly postoperatively (58.3%). The most commonly prescribed antibiotics were cefotaxime (80.7%), metronidazole (63.5%), cefradine (13.6%) and amoxicillin/clavulanate (11.6%). The incidence of SSI was 9%. The most common organisms were Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and coagulase-negative staphylococci. CONCLUSION: The rate of SSI is a concern, and may be related to inappropriate antibiotic prophylaxis given post operatively. Interventions are in place to decrease SSI rates to acceptable levels in this leading hospital by improving for instance infection prevention practices including the timing of antibiotic prophylaxis. Research is also ongoing among other hospitals in Botswana to reduce SSI rates building on these findings.

Presentation and mortality of patients hospitalised with acute heart failure in Botswana.

INTRODUCTION: Heart failure is a common cause of hospitalisation and therefore contributes to in-hospital outcomes such as mortality. In this study we describe patient characteristics and outcomes of acute heart failure (AHF) in Botswana. METHODS: Socio-demographic, clinical and laboratory data were collected from 193 consecutive patients admitted with AHF at Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone between February 2014 and February 2015. The length of hospital stay and 30-, 90- and 180-day in-hospital mortality rates were assessed. RESULTS: The mean age was 54 ± 17.1 years, and 53.9% of the patients were male. All patients were symptomatic (77.5% in NYHA functional class III or IV) and the majority (64.8%) presented with significant left ventricular dysfunction. The most common concomitant medical conditions were hypertension (54.9%), human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) (33.9%), anaemia (23.3%) and prior diabetes mellitus (15.5%). Moderate to severe renal dysfunction was detected in 60 (31.1%) patients. Peripartum cardiomyopathy was one of the important causes of heart failure in female patients. The most commonly used treatment included furosemide (86%), beta-blockers (72.1%), angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (67.4%), spironolactone (59.9%), digoxin (22.1%), angiotensin receptor blockers (5.8%), nitrates (4.7%) and hydralazine (1.7%). The median length of stay was nine days, and the in-hospital mortality rate was 10.9%. Thirty-, 90- and 180-day case fatality rates were 14.7, 25.8 and 30.8%, respectively. Mortality at 180 days was significantly associated with increasing age, lower haemoglobin level, lower glomerular filtration rate, hyponatraemia, higher N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide levels, and prolonged hospital stay. CONCLUSIONS: AHF is a major public health problem in Botswana, with high in-hospital and post-discharge mortality rates and prolonged hospital stays. Late and symptomatic presentation is common, and the most common aetiologies are preventable and/or treatable co-morbidities, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, renal failure and HIV.

Correlates of unintended pregnancy in Ethiopia: results from a national survey.

BACKGROUND: Unintended pregnancy has been a major reproductive health challenge in resource poor settings including Ethiopia. It has adverse consequences to the mother, child and the health sector's resources. Understanding the extent of unintended pregnancy and the factors associated is crucial to devise evidence based interventions. The analysis was aimed at assessing the unintended pregnancy prevalence rate among pregnant women and the factors predisposing to unintended pregnancy. METHODS: This secondary data analysis was done on women's dataset from the 2011 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). A total of 1267 pregnant women were included in the analysis. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed using SPSS software to identify the factors associated with unintended pregnancy. Odds Ratio with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was computed to assess the association of different factors with unintended pregnancy. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of unintended pregnancy was found to be 24%: those who wanted it at a later time and not at all accounted for 17.1% and 6.9%, respectively. The unintended pregnancy rate ranged from 1.5% in Afar Regional State to 39.8% in Oromiya Regional State. Women who knew the timing of ovulation had a 45% reduced chance of unintended pregnancy (OR (95% CI): 0.55 (0.35, 0.85)). Ever use of family planning, presence of five or more born children, and two or more births in the past five years were associated with unintended pregnancy (OR (95% CI): 1.79 (1.31, 2.45), 2.36 (1.01, 5.49) and 2.00 (1.12, 3.58), respectively). CONCLUSIONS: A significant proportion of the current pregnancies were found to be unintended with significant variations among the different regions. Women already burdened with higher fertility were suffering from unintended pregnancy. Family planning programs need to concentrate on the highly affected regions and target women with higher fertility to reduce the level of unintended pregnancy at national level.

Usefulness of highly active antiretroviral therapy on health-related quality of life of adult recipients in Tanzania.

This study assessed health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) recipients aged 18 or older and associated factors, 2 years after HAART administration had started in Kagera, Tanzania. Using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), 329 HAART recipients were interviewed in May 2007. Questions on sociodemographic characteristics, chronic diseases (besides HIV/AIDS), HAART side effects and adherence to antiretroviral drugs were added. Treatment data, the first and latest available CD4 counts were retrieved from patients' records. Gender and age-adjusted mean scale scores of the sample were compared to those of the general Tanzanian population of the late 1990 s using t test. Logistic regression was used to explore the effect of sex, age, education level, income, chronic diseases, CD4 count, HAART side effects and adherence to antiretroviral drugs on recipients' physical functioning and mental health scale scores. The mean scale scores of HAART recipients were generally lower than those of the general population except for general health perceptions (p = 0.191) and mental health (p = 0.161). HAART recipients with chronic disease comorbidity were more likely to score below the general population's mean score for mental health (p = 0.007). While the effect of chronic disease comorbidity on physical functioning among those who recorded a CD4 count increase was negative (odds ratio [OR] = 13.6, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.7, 49.9), there was no effect on those who did not have such an increase. The control of chronic diseases among recipients should be given priority to improve their HRQOL.