Seroprevalence and risk factors of herpes simplex virus-2 among pregnant women attending antenatal care at health facilities in Wolaita zone, Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Herpes simplex virus type-2 is the common cause of genital ulcer disease worldwide. Genital herpes infection is a major concern in pregnancy due to the risk of neonatal transmission. METHOD: A Cross-sectional survey was conducted from December 2013 to September 2014 in randomly selected 28 health centers to assess the seroprevalence and risk factors of herpes simplex virus type-2 infection among pregnant women attending antenatal care in Wolaita zone, Southern Ethiopia. After taking written consent socio demographic, behavioral, obstetric history and family planning data along with blood samples were collected from 252 pregnant women using pre-structured questionnaire. Sera were tested using HerpeSelect-2 ELISA IgG. Data entry and analysis was done using Epi info 3.5.4 and SPSS 21.00 respectively. Binary logistic regression was performed to identify the risk factors associated with HSV-2 seropositivity. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The overall seroprevalence of HSV-2 infection was 32.1 % (81/252) among pregnant women in Wolaita zone. Independent predictors of HSV-2 infection includes daily laborer (AOR 1.293, 95 % CI: 1.033-1.739; p = 0.022), having one sexual partners (AOR 0.476, 95 % CI: 0 .250 -0.904; p = 0.023), history of STDs (AOR 2.822, 95 % CI: 1.50-5.289; p = 0.001) and use of contraceptive (AOR 2.602, 95 % CI: 1.407-4.812; p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Overall seroprevalence of HSV-2 infection among pregnant women of Wolaita Zone is high. Awareness creation among high risk groups like women who have history of STD should be strengthened. Strengthening the quality of health service delivery and expansion of health service coverage is mandatory.

Magnitude and outcomes of road traffic accidents at Hospitals in Wolaita Zone, SNNPR, Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: A Road traffic accident is an incident on a way or street open to public traffic, resulting in one or more persons being killed or injured, and involving at least one moving vehicle. METHODS: The aim of this study is to assess magnitude and outcome of road traffic accidents among trauma victims at hospitals in Wolaita zone. A cross sectional hospital based study design using retrospective chart review was conducted from March 5th to March 25th, 2014. Simple random sampling technique was applied to identify sample population. The data was entered in to Epi info version 3.5.1 and transferred to SPSS version 16 for further analysis. RESULTS: A total of 384 trauma victims were incorporated in the study of which 240 (62.5%) were due to road traffic accidents. The majority of patients were male 298 (77.6%) and most commonly aged between 20-29 (35.42%). The principal outcome of injury was more commonly lower extremity (182 patients, 47.4%), compared to upper extremity (126 patients, 32.8%). CONCLUSION: Of all trauma patient presenting to hospitals (62.5%) are the result of road traffic accident. Hence, the provision of tailored messages to all members of the community regarding knowledge and practices of road safety measures like appropriate use of pavements by pedestrians and avoiding risky driving behaviors. Besides this make use of compulsory motorcycle helmets would appear to be a very important intervention.