The finding clearly illustrated that while financial constraints and some sociocultural factors impede adherence, disclosure, community support, and decentralization of ART to primary health care units enhance retention in care and treatment.

Background: Goiter remains one of the major public health problems particularly among young children in economically disadvantaged countries like Ethiopia. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of goiter and its associated factors among children aged 6-12 years in Chole district, Arsi Zone, Eastern Ethiopia. Methods: A school based cross-sectional study was conducted in February, 2017 among 422 primary school children in Chole district, eastern Ethiopia. The schools and study subjects were randomly selected. A structured, pretested and interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect the required data. It was conducted after getting due consents from the school administration and assent from caregiver/parent. Spot testing kits were used to estimate the level of iodine in salts. Descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations for chi-square test, and bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to show the magnitude of goiter and its associated factors. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were computed to determine the presence and strengths of associations. Results: From the 422 study participants, 407 (96.4%) completed the questionnaire. Of these 205(50.3%) were female. The mean age of participant school children was 9.87(SD ± 1.6) years. The prevalence of goiter among study subjects was 36.6% (95% CI, 31.6-40.8%). History of goiter in the family (AOR = 6.80; 95% CI: 3.34-13.84), cabbage consumption (AOR = 2.52; 95% CI: 1.38-4.60) and living with family in a single room (AOR = 2.30; 95% CI: 1.13-4.67) were positively associated with the development of goiter among primary school children in Chole district, eastern Ethiopia. But consuming milk (AOR =0.37; 95% CI: 0.23-0.59) was found to be negatively associated or protective against the development of goiter among the study subjects. Conclusions: Iodine deficiency was found to be significant public health problem in the study area. Consuming milk was found to be protective, whereas consuming goitrogenic foods like cabbage were found to be the risk factors for the development of goiter among school-aged children. Thus, ensuring the consumption of iodized salt and promoting iodine rich food items among the community in Chole district and other similar settings in Ethiopia are strongly recommended.

Female students' participation in tertiary level education in Ethiopia is still very low even though rapidly increasing from time to time. This cross sectional study of Jimma University female students' academic performance was conducted concentrating on the main campus, focused on the six faculties, namely faculty of medical sciences, public health, business and economics, technology, education and law. Data were collected from the university registrar based on the records of the years 1993 through 1997 EthiopianCalendar and ethical considerations were taken care.According to the study, female students' success rate at fresh level was founded 68.1%, including the status of pass, distinction and great distinction; followed by 15.3% warning, still lower than the males' performance at this level. That is, the attrition rate of male and female students at this level was founded to be 16.6% and 8.7% respectively, where the females' rate was almost twice that of the males' rate. At the final year of graduation the success rate of female students was 88.9%, which was encouraging, but still lower than the males' success rate, 92.2%. Though many of the females were founded rural originated, there was no significant difference in their academic performance compared with those from town. Besides, some female students disposed to academic dismissal and drop out at higher rates in some particular faculties like faculty of technology and medical sciences; which is recommended for further study followed by remedial action plan. Of course the recommendation to increase the rate of female enrolment at tertiary education followed by the continuation of the existing affirmative action is intact.

Background: Infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is an established risk factor for tuberculosis infection. Population-based data on associations between HIV and tuberculosis (TB) can provide an epidemiological assessment of the impact of HIV infection on TB in environments where individual based data are difficult to collect. Method: We used an ecological study to assess the association between infection with HIV and tuberculosis in Oromia Region National State, Ethiopia in 2006/7. Result: The prevalence of HIV infection was significantly associated with the incidence of TB across the areas in Oromia region (r=0.69, p<0.01). Similar associations were also seen for the prevalence of HIV infection with the incidence of smear positive tuberculosis, smear negative tuberculosis and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis.

Background: Lack of well-functioning referral and quality of the service are challenges for many of the developing countries health care system. This study evaluated the referral transport services for maternal and newborn care in Ethiopian health facilities. Methods: The study used 2016 Ethiopian Emergency Obstetric and Newborn care assessment data. All public and private health facilities that provided maternal and newborn health services were included in the study. The data analysis was done on a total of 3,804 facilities. Results: Overall, in this study only 17% (95% CI: 16-18) of health facilities had their dedicated functioning ambulance (motor vehicle, motorcycle, or tricycle ambulance). Among these, reports of using the ambulance for non-emergency transport were common. Use of the ambulance for transporting client’s home was reported by 48% (95% CI: 44-52) of facilities. A total of 62% health facilities provided by district health offices. Hospitals/MCH centres had almost 5 times (95% CI: 3.16, 7.12) more likely to have ambulance on-site compared with health centres/speciality clinics. The urban-based health facilities were three times (aOR =2.86, 95% CI: 2.29, 3.58) more likely to have ambulance onsite than their counter. Availability of ambulance on-site in public facilities was found to be 80% and 63% less to that of private owned and private-for-profit health facilities. Facilities that didn’t provide onsite obstetric surgery were also less likely to have an ambulance on-site. There was no significant difference in ambulance availability for the facilities that have referred in/out and in the provision of 24/7 service for emergency obstetric and newborn care. There is no relation between institutional delivery and availability of ambulance on-site (ρ=0.14). Conclusions: In this study, low ambulance availability for emergency referral for maternal and newborn cases in Ethiopian facilitates was observed. There is a disparity in the availability of Ambulance onsite by regions facility location and type of health facility. No effect of referral transport service on-site availability on institutional deliveries was noted. An ambulance is mandatory for interconnected health centers to hospital referrals. However, this needs to be backed up with an adequate supply of basic and emergency obstetric care at all facilities.