Background: Appropriate nutrition during infancy and early childhood is a cornerstone of care for ensuring optimal child growth and development during the first 2 years of life. Globally, about 40% of under two years of age deaths are attributed to inappropriate infant and young child feeding practices. In Ethiopia, a large range of inappropriate feeding practices of mothers during infancy and early childhood were documented. This study aims to assess infant and young child feeding practice status and its determinants among mothers of children aged 6-23 months in Kalu district, Northeast Ethiopia. Methods: Community-based cross-sectional study design was applied from May 1-30/2019. A total of 605 mothers-children pair's 6-23 months were included in the study using multi-stage sampling followed by a simple random sampling technique. Data were collected using a pretested semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire. Bi-variate and multivariable logistic regression were used to assess determinants associated with child feeding practices. Statistical significance was decided at p-value less than 0.05. Results: Of six hundred five (605) sampled mothers having an infant and young child age 6-23 months, 589 were successfully included in the study making a response rate of 97.35%. In our study, the overall proportion of appropriate infant and young child feeding practices was 57.7%. Place of delivery (AOR=1.977; 95% Cl (1.101, 3.552)), mothers' age being 25-35 years (AOR =2.091; 95% Cl: (1.452, 3.011)) and family size >4 members (AOR=1.873; 95% CI: (1.311, 2.675)) were determinants positively associated with appropriate infant and young child feeding practices in Kalu district at 95% CI. Conclusion:The overall appropriate infant and young child feeding practices were better in general in Kalu district. However, this prevalence is not acceptable to ensure good health and better nutritional status of children. As a result, intervention initiatives should focus on institution delivery services that are crucial to implementing appropriate infant and young child feeding practice. Health facilities need to be strengthened and fully utilized to provide high-quality feeding counseling. Special attention needs to be given to younger mothers, in addition to increasing institution delivery service.

A cross sectional study was conducted from August, 2014 to February 2015 aimed to determine the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus in raw camel milk and to assess risk factors. The study was conducted on a total of 384 bulk milk samples from three critical points. For this study both laboratory and questionnaire based data were collected. The overall prevalence of S. aureus was found to be 11.45% (44/384). The frequency of isolation of S. aureus varied between sources of sample and ranged from 7-15%. The prevalence of S. aureus was 7.03% (9/128), 11.71% (15/128) and 15% (20/128) from household, primary collection centers and selling sites, respectively. The raw camel milk samples were contaminated and the S. aureus counts markedly variable among samples at different sampling points. Mean S. aureus count was found to be 4.2 × 10 4 CFU/ml and the mean count of the samples at household was 8.9 × 10 2 CFU/ml, 9.9 × 10 3 CFU/ml at primary collection centers and 1.1 × 10 5 CFU/ml at selling sites. The difference was not statistically significant between the sampling points (p>0.05). In the study area, camel milk is consumed (100%) in its raw state without being subjected to any sort of processing treatment. The outcome of the present results suggests that, the examined raw camel milk samples were produced and handled under poor hygienic conditions with high health risk to the consumers. Consumption of raw camel milk should be of major concern from public health point of view. This study recommends for urgent development and adaptation of feasible and sustainable interventions to improve the camel milk hygiene and safety in study area and to mitigate staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP) in the region.

Patient satisfaction is a key element of quality measures that has increasingly become acknowledged as an important tool for service improvement. This study aimed to assess the level of patients' satisfaction and associated factors with clinical laboratory services provided at public health facilities. A cross-sectional study was conducted from May-June 2019 among clients attending 24 health centers and 8 hospitals, northeast Ethiopia. A total of 502 patients were selected using systematic random sampling. Patient's satisfaction towards multiple aspects of laboratory services was assessed using structured exit interview questionnaire, on a rating scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 points (very satisfied). We assessed test availability and laboratory practices using facility inventory, stepwise accreditation audit checklist and blinded slide rechecking. Data were entered and analyzed using EpiData ver3.1 and STATA ver14.1. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to determine the association of factors with overall satisfaction. Overall, majority of the respondents (73.5%) were found to be satisfied. Lowest mean ratings were obtained for waiting area (3.3), and information provided on specimen collection (3.5) and on how and when to receive results (3.7). Patients were more likely to be satisfied in health centers (75.2%) than in hospitals (68.6%) (AOR=1.9, 95%CI: 1.0-3.6, p=0.036). Patients' timely receipt of results (p=0.005) and laboratories' accuracy of results (p< 0.025) also showed significant positive associations with satisfaction. In conclusion, there were specific areas of deficiency that were driving dissatisfaction, particularly in the larger hospital laboratories. Therefore, more and balanced emphasis should be given to the patients' experiences, alongside technical quality improvements, to reduce the disparities and enhance the overall quality of care.

Background Satisfaction is a key measure of quality performance and an important tool for continual improvement. This study aimed to assess clinicians’ satisfaction with laboratory services delivered at public hospitals and health centres. Methods A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted in northeast Ethiopia from May to June 2019. A total of 224 clinicians were randomly selected from 8 public hospitals and 24 health centres. Satisfaction with multiple aspects of laboratory services was assessed using a self-administered questionnaire, on a rating scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 points (very satisfied). Laboratory quality assessment was performed using WHO-AFRO’s stepwise accreditation checklist. Multivariable logistic regression model was fitted to determine the association of factors with clinicians’ overall satisfaction level using STATA ver14.1. A p- value < 0.05 was considered significant. Results Overall, the majority (72.8%) of clinicians were satisfied. A higher percentage of clinicians were satisfied in hospitals than in primary health centres (56.0% vs. 76.8%, p = 0.003). The lowest mean ratings were obtained for the helpfulness of the user handbook (3.3), provision of STAT/urgent services (3.7) and adequacy of the test menu provided (3.8). The clinicians’ timely receipt of results, notification of panic results and perceived reliability of results, as well as the laboratories’ concordance rate of malaria microscopy results (based on blinded slide rechecking), were significantly associated with clinicians’ satisfaction (all, p ≤ 0.036). There were no associations with socio-demographic characteristics, stepwise accreditation level or star grade of the laboratories (p- values > 0.05). Conclusions More clinicians were dissatisfied with the services of the larger hospital laboratories than those of the primary health centres. Improvements need to emphasize the identified specific gaps related to both users’ experiences and technical quality aspects.

Background Urinary iodine is recommended by the world health organization as the main indicator to assess iodine status in a population. Despite this recommendation little is known about urinary iodine concentration in the study area. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the level of urinary iodine concentration among school-aged children. Methods An institution-based cross-sectional study design was used to assess the level of urinary iodine from April to June 2019 and a systematic random sampling technique was applied to select study participants. Socio-demographic characteristics were assessed using a pretested structured questionnaire and the laboratory method by Sandell–Kolthoff reaction method was used. Data were cleaned, coded, and entered into Epi data version 3.1 and then exported to SPSS version 21 software for analysis. Result A total of 634 study participants were enrolled in the study with a median age of 12 years (±SD = 2.0). The majority of the children were females (55.4%) and more than half of respondents report the use of iodized salt always. Median urinary iodine concentration was 158.5 μg/L (±SD = 104.1) with minimum and maximum values of 5.1 μg/L and 528.8 μg/L, respectively. The overall iodine deficiency in this study was 18.6% and severe deficiency constituted 7.4%. Conclusions The iodine deficiency of the school children aged 6 to 14 in the present study was 18.6% indicating high prevalence. A high proportion of iodine deficiency was observed among females and it increases as age increases. This indicates the need for an additional strategy to control iodine deficiency.