On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19), a disease caused by a pathogen called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a pandemic. This ongoing pandemic has now been reported in 215 countries with more than 23 million confirmed cases and more than 803 thousand deaths worldwide as of August 22, 2020. Although efforts are undergoing, there is no approved vaccine or any specific antiretroviral drug to treat COVID-19 so far. It is now known that SARS-CoV-2 can affect not only humans but also pets and other domestic and wild animals, making it a one health global problem. Several published scientific evidence has shown that bats are the initial reservoir hosts of SARS-CoV-2, and pangolins are suggested as an intermediate hosts. So far, little is known concerning the role of pets and other animals in the transmission of COVID-19. Therefore, updated knowledge about the potential role of pets in the current outbreak will be of paramount importance for effective prevention and control of the disease. This review summarized the current evidence about the role of pets and other animals in the transmission of COVID-19.

Introduction severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), pandemics has remained to be a public health emergency of international concern. This ongoing pandemic has resulted in the death of millions of people globally. About one and a half thousand people have died due to this illness in Ethiopia. The clinical presentations of the disease vary with geography and populations. We therefore aimed at investigating the clinical characteristics of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in North-East Ethiopia. Methods real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was conducted for 18,112 individuals suspected of SARS-CoV-2 infection during June 27 to October 20, 2020, at Woldia university COVID-19 testing center. Recorded data of 372 Ethiopians who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection at Woldia university COVID-19 testing center were retrospectively extracted and analyzed using SPSS v25.0. A P-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results nearly 2.1% of the screened participants were found positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among them, three fourth of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients were male, with an overall median age of 30 years. About 85% of the patients were asymptomatic. The most common clinical manifestations were cough (14.2%), followed by fever (11.0%) and headache (8.6%), whereas hypertension (1.6%), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (1.6%) diabetes mellitus (1.1%), and chronic respiratory diseases (1.1%) were relatively the most common comorbidities noted. The case-fatality ratio was found at 1.6%. Age and underlying comorbidities had a statistically significant association with severity and poor outcome of patients (P < 0.001). Conclusion the finding from this study indicated that older age and people with underlying comorbidities are at high risk of having the severe disease and poor outcomes. Hence, appropriate care and priority should be given to these people to decrease the morbidity and mortality caused by this illness. The presence of higher asymptomatic infection is the possible indicator of potential asymptomatic transmissions within the community. This highlights the need for widespread testing, and contact tracing to flatten the transmission curve.

Background Listeria monocytogenes (LM) has come to be a major public health issue of at-risk groups, causing high morbidity and mortality. Despite this data, studies are very limited in developing countries like Ethiopia. Thus, we aimed to isolate and characterize LM in terms of antibiogram and biofilm formation among pregnant women with fever, women with a history of spontaneous abortion, women with a history of fetal loss, and women with preterm delivery at Jimma University Medical Center (JUMC), southwest Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional study was done among 144 women from June to August 2019. Isolates were tested for antibiotic susceptibility and biofilm formation using disc diffusion and microtiter plate method, respectively. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire, entered into Epidata 3.1 and logistic regression was done by SPSS v25.0. Results LM was isolated in 8 (5.56%) of 144 screened women. The isolation rate of LM was relatively higher among women with a history of fetal loss (9.7%), followed by women with preterm delivery (6.25%). One of the six cord blood was positive for LM, indicating that the transplacental transmission rate at JUMC was 16.7%. More than 2% of women with an ongoing pregnancy were found to have LM septicemia, which could hurt their fetus. All of the isolates tested were susceptible to Ampicillin. However, all of the isolates were resistant to Penicillin and Meropenem and were biofilm producers. Conclusions The high magnitude of pregnancy-related listeriosis in the current study setting appears that implementation of educational programs targeting risk reduction and more studies to identify sources of LM are warranted. The choice of antibiotics should be after susceptibility testing.

Meningitis is one of the top ten causes of death among Ethiopian infants. Group B streptococcus (GBS) has emerged as a leading cause of meningitis in neonates and young infants, resulting in high mortality. Despite this, there is no report on GBS associated meningitis in Ethiopia where infant meningitis is common. Hence, the aim of this study was to determine the proportion of GBS associated meningitis among Ethiopian infants. PCR was prospectively used to detect GBS in culture-negative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples, which were collected from infants suspected for meningitis, at Tikur Anbessa specialized hospital, Ethiopia, over a one-year period. GBS was detected by PCR in 63.9% of culture-negative CSF samples. Out of the 46 GBS positive infants, 10.9% (n = 5) of them died. The late onset of GBS (LOGBS) disease was noted to have a poor outcome with 3 LOGBS out of 5 GBS positive samples collected from patients with the final outcome of death. PCR was advantageous in the identification of GBS in culture-negative CSF samples. GBS was detected in 64% of the CSF samples from infants with meningitis compared with zero-detection rate by culture.

Introduction: Viral meningitis is common in most resource-limited settings, posing a challenge for the management and prognosis of suspected patients. No study has been done on the detection of either viral or viral-bacterial co-infection among presumed pyogenic meningitis cases in Ethiopia. We, therefore, aimed to determine the distribution of cytomegalovirus (CMV) and human enteroviruses (HEVs) among patients with presumptive pyogenic meningitis at University hospitals in Ethiopia. Methods: Viral nucleic acid was extracted from 86 repository CSF samples, which were collected from patients presumptively diagnosed with pyogenic meningitis between 2012 and 2013. PCR was done consecutively to investigate the possible viral etiologic agents of meningitis. Results: HEVs were detected in 11 (12.8%) of the analyzed samples while none of the 86 samples were tested positive for CMV. Viral-bacterial co-infections were found among 4/11 (36.4%) confirmed cases. The majority of the patients (10/11) with HEVs were younger aged ≤ 19 years old. Conclusions: In this study, the magnitude of HEVs was shown to have a significant role in presumed pyogenic meningitis cases. Therefore, we recommend presumed pyogenic meningitis cases to be inspected for viral etiologies and improve meningeal symptoms interpretations.

The burden of human listeriosis, an emerging food-borne illness would be higher in Africa due to poor food processing practices. The severity of the disease and the high case fatality rate make human listeriosis an important public health problem. Besides, pregnant women and their fetuses are at higher risk of gaining human listeriosis. Thus, we planned to estimate the pooled prevalence of pregnancy-associated human listeriosis in Africa. Primary studies were exhaustively searched using PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and University of Gondar online research repository. Observational studies (cross-sectional) revealing the pregnancy-associated human listeriosis were incorporated. Eligible studies were selected and critically appraised for quality using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) quality appraisal checklist. The required data were extracted and exported to Stata version 14 for meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of pregnancy-associated human listeriosis in Africa was estimated using a weighted inverse random effect model. Sensitivity and sub-group analysis were conducted for evidence of heterogeneity. Among 639 reviewed articles, 5 articles were eligible with total study participants of 621. The pooled prevalence of pregnancy-associated listeriosis was found to be 5.17% (95% CI, 1.51, 8.82). The pooled level resistance of isolates was high. Cotrimoxazole and erythromycin were the relative choices of antibiotics for pregnancy-associated listeriosis in Africa. The burden of pregnancy-associated listeriosis in Africa was higher with an increased level of antibiotic resistance. Therefore, we recommend due attention to the deadly emerging disease in terms of health educations and the role of food hygiene particularly for risk groups, pregnant women. The antibiotics of choice should be after performing drug susceptibility test.

Background Despite ongoing intensive public health intervention efforts, intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) remain a major public health problem in developing countries, including Ethiopia. Having updated epidemiological data focusing on the top common IPIs that cause emergency visits is crucial for implementing area-specific and evidence-based intervention strategies. Hence, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of IPIs in Woldia Comprehensive Specialized Hospital’s (WCSH) emergency laboratory over a six-year period. Methods An institutional-based retrospective study was conducted to assess the prevalence of IPIs over a six-year period (2014–2019) using a recorded saline wet-mount stool sample examination result in the laboratory logbook at WCSH’s emergency department. Results In this study, of the total of 11,281 clinically suspected individuals who were requested for stool sample examination, 3908 (34.6%) individuals were diagnosed with IPs. The majority of confirmed cases were caused by protozoan parasites (32.9%), followed by helminth infections (1.7%). A slight fluctuating trend in the prevalence of IPs was observed in the six-year study period, with the highest prevalence documented in the year of 2014 (41.3%) and the lowest in 2017 (28.0%). Entamoeba histolytica/dispar and Giardia lamblia accounts for 95% of the IPs. The prevalence of protozoan infection was significantly higher in females ( p -value = 0.0101), while H. nana ( p -value =0.0138) and E. vermicularis ( p -value = 0.0201) infections were higher in males. The highest and the lowest IP prevalence were reported in the age groups of 45–54 years (40%) and under five years (25.6%), respectively. Conclusion and Recommendations In the study area, nearly one-third of patients with emergency visits due to gastrointestinal symptoms were infected with IPs. This underlines the severity of the problem in the study area, which requires a collaborative effort of concerned bodies to minimize the burden of IP to the level where it is no longer a public health threat.

Background The poor socio-economic status, underdeveloped health care system, and the high HIV/AIDS burden have potentially increased the incidence of cervical cancer in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) including Ethiopia. Studies on the magnitude of pre-cancerous cervical lesion and human papillomavirus (HPV) among HIV-infected women are still limited, particularly in the current study setting. Thus, we determined the prevalence of pre-cancerous cervical lesion and HPV among HIV-infected women in comparison with HIV-uninfected women at Debre Tabor Comprehensive Specialized Hospital (DTCSH), North-West Ethiopia. Methods Hospital-based comparative retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 546 women from July 2018 to January 2020 at DTCSH. All records during the study period were collected using a structured checklist. Epi data version 4.02 and SPSS version 25.0 were used for data entry and analysis, respectively. Results The overall prevalence of pre-cancerous cervical lesion among 546 women was 8.8%. The prevalence of pre-cancerous cervical lesion was comparable between HIV-infected (9.3%) and HIV-uninfected women (8.6%) (p = 0.859). Age >45 years old, widowed marital status, multiparous (women ≥ 5 childbirths), and educational status were independent contributing factors of a pre-cancerous cervical lesion. Regarding HPV prevalence, among 109 screened women, 7 (6.4%) were positive for both HPV 16 and 18 strains. Conclusion HIV infection was not statistically correlated with the magnitude of pre-cancerous cervical lesion (p = 0.859). Women in the study setting developed pre-cancerous cervical lesions irrespective of their HIV status. Hence, we recommend routine screening of women for pre-cancerous cervical lesion and HPV infection regardless of their HIV status for early management and prevention of associated morbidity and/or mortality.