Seroprevalence and associated risk factors of peste des petits ruminants among ovine and caprine in selected districts of Afar region, Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: A Peste des petits ruminant is an acute, highly contagious and economically important transboundary viral disease of small ruminants. Despite the fact that food and agriculture organization and world organization for animal health plan to eradicate the disease by 2030, some studies indicated an increasing seropositivity of PPR infection in sheep and goats in Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study was employed to estimate the seroprevalence of PPR and to assess risk factors during the study period, February to April, 2020. Following purposive selection of the study districts, simple random sampling technique was employed to select individual animal during sample collection. A total of 384 serum samples were collected from apparently healthy sheep and goats. Competitive Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay was used to detect the presence of antibodies against PPR at national veterinary institute. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's chi-square (X2) and logistic regression analysis were used is this study. RESULTS: The overall animal level seroprevalence of PPR virus was found to be 60.15% (n = 231/384) and species level prevalence rate was found to be 38.18% (n = 42) in sheep and 68.98% (n = 189) in goats in the study areas. Among the associated risk factors considered; species, sex, age and herd sizes were significantly associated (P < 0.05) with the disease occurrence. Among the associated risk factors considered in this study, species, sex, age and herd size were found to be statistically associated with the seropositivity of PPR infection. CONCLUSION: The present study finding revealed that a higher seroprevalence of PPR virus infection and this confirms peste des petits ruminant virus is circulating in Afar region. Further studies should be carried out on the entire region to determine PPR seroprevalence and to develop appropriate control and eradication strategies of PPR disease.

Assessment of prevalence of preeclampsia from Dilla region of Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia is a multi-organ system disorder that occurs after the 20th week of gestation in pregnancy and is characterized by hypertension and proteinuria. In Africa more than 270,000 women die from maternal deaths, worldwide approximately 76,000 women and 500,000 babies die yearly due to preeclampsia. It affects about 8-10% of all pregnancies. Studies have shown that up to 77% women affected with preeclampsia lack knowledge about preeclampsia, and therefore cannot take preventative measures. The aim of study is to evaluate the outcomes and quality of care given to preeclamptic patients treated in Dilla University Referral Hospital. METHODS: The study is a retrospective, hospital based study. One hundred and seventy two records of women were retained for final study out of 7702 patients from January 2009 to December 2012. RESULTS: The incidence rate of preeclampsia in Dilla University Referral Hospital was found to be 2.23%. The common mean ages found to be affected for preeclampsia were 19.2, 22.5 and 27.8 and 31.5 with a trend towards increasing severity with younger age population. CONCLUSION: A guideline on the management and prevention of preeclampsia needs to be produced for Ehiopia.