BackgroundNon-communicable diseases (NCDs) are medical conditions or diseases that are non-transmissible. As NCDs are becoming one of major public health problem, providing local description of diseases and injuries is key to health decision- making and planning processes. So, this study aimed to describe caseload of NCDs in Southern Nations Nationalities and People’s Region, Ethiopia.MethodsA facility based retrospective study was conducted in February 2015 in SNNPR, Ethiopia. A total of 22,320 records of three years retrieved from 23 health facilities using systematic sampling. Data were entered in to Epi-Info 3.5.3 and descriptive analysis was carried out using SPSS version 20.ResultsFrom 22,320 records reviewed, 6633 (29.7%) clients visited health facilities due to Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). Majority (37.2%) of NCD cases were in productive age groups (20–35 year). Near to half (43%) of NCD cases were from rural and 45.8% were females. Digestive disorder (26.7%), cardiovascular diseases (18.8%) and Diabetes Mellitus (13.1%) were the most prevalent types of NCDs.ConclusionHealth facilities are burdened with significant proportion of clients with NCDs. Young population accounts large share and NCDs are becoming public health problem of urban and rural area within a health care system that focus on communicable diseases. There is a need to strengthen the health system to work towards NCDs, and investigate risk factors associated with NCDs at individual level.

Background: Self-medication is the selection and use of medicines by individuals to treat their self-recognized illnesses or symptoms. Self-medication can decrease costs and enable health professionals to concentrate on more serious health problems. Aim: To assess self-medication practice and associated factors among adults in Wolaita Soddo town, Southern Ethiopia, 2017. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from September 30 to October 30, 2017. A multi-stage sampling technique of drug retail outlets in Wolaita Soddo town was employed to identify 623 individuals that came to buy drugs in the past three months. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire. Results: About 33.7% of the respondents had practiced self-medication in the past 3 months. Multivariate analysis revealed that female sex (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 2.22, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.47–3.36), low income (AOR = 3.95, 95% CI: 2.32–6.73) and higher educational level (AOR = 5.79, 95% CI: 2.47–13.58) were the independent factors significantly affecting the practice of self-medication with drugs. Headache/fever (32.4%), respiratory tract infections (31.4%) and gastrointestinal diseases (16.2%) were the most frequently reported illnesses or symptoms of illnesses that prompted self-medication of study participants. Conclusion: Health education campaigns, strict legislations on dispensing drugs from private pharmacies, and improving accessibility and affordability of health care are among the important interventions required to change people’s health-seeking behavior and prevent the potential risks of self-medication.

Purpose Even if strategic actions were undertaken to tackle common childhood illnesses, Ethiopia still stood as one of the six countries accounting for half of the global under-five deaths. So this study aimed to assess the utilization of integrated community case management during childhood illness at health posts in the study area. Methods A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted using a multistage sampling technique that includes 633 sick under-five children with common childhood illnesses. The data was entered into EpiData 3.1 and exported to SPSS 20 for further analysis. Descriptive statistics, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were computed and adjusted odds ratio within 95% confidence interval was used to measure the statistical association between variables. Results Out of the planned 633 participant, 624 caregivers underwent all the study components making the response rate 98.6%. The study indicated that only 10.6% of the sick children sought care from health posts. Income (AOR = 2.99, 95% CI: 1.37–6.53), previous service utilization (AOR = 6.66, 95% CI: 1.81–24.04), awareness of service availability (AOR = 4.74, 95% CI: 1.39–12.10), ownership of health insurance (AOR = 2.63, 95% CI: 1.45–4.76), distance (AOR = 5.23, 95% CI: 1.69–10.19) and type of illness (AOR = 2.97, 95% CI: 1.41–6.25) were the associated factors. Conclusion The low utilization of integrated community case management insights to focus on availing additional well-equipped health posts, creating community awareness on services at health posts and at what time the services are given to address the problem of the majority.

Introduction Nutritional management is a fundamental practice of concern to all patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The nature of HIV/AIDS and malnutrition impacts are interlocked and intensify one another. Objective This study aimed to explore nutrition management challenges among people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in primary health centres in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods and materials We used a hermeneutic (interpretive) phenomenological study design. The study used in-depth interviews to describe lived experiences among adult patients aged 18 and above. We selected the participants purposively until the saturation of the idea reached. We maintained the scientific rigor and trustworthiness by applying credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability, followed by translation and re-reading of the data has been achieved. The data have been analyzed through inductive thematic analysis assisted by NVIVO version 12 pro software. Result Nutrition management challenges for HIV patients have been described using six significant themes. The major themes were: acceptance of the disease and the health status; facilitators and barriers to treatment adherence; behavioural changes in eating patterns; experience of food insecurity issues; nutrition knowledge; and support. The themes have explained how patients using ART have been challenged to manage their nutrition ever since their diagnosis. Of all challenges, food insecurity is found to be the core reason for poor nutrition management. Conclusion and recommendation We found that many factors in managing their nutrition challenged patients with HIV. There should be an increasing interest in managing food insecurity issues as food insecurity has been strongly related to other factors.

Background Human immunodeficiency virus is primarily transmitted through sexual contact with an infected partner and babies born to mothers infected with the virus. Partners of people living with HIV and children whose parents have HIV are at higher risk of contracting HIV unless they take preventive measures. This study aimed at identifying prevalence and determinants of HIV infection among family members of index cases on antiretroviral treatment (ART). Methods A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 623 randomly selected family members of HIV index cases in Sodo Town from February to June 2021. A pre-tested structural questionnaire was used to collect data. Binary logistic regression was used to identify variables independently associated with the outcome variable. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to show the strength of association, and a P-value 0.05 was used as a cut-off point to determine the level of statistical significance of point estimate. Results This study revealed that 31.5% (95%CI: 27.6–35.2%) of family members of index cases were HIV seropositive. In subgroup analysis, this study also revealed that 11.1% (95%CI 8.4–14.5%) of biological children and 69.6% (95%CI 63.1–75.6%) of spousal partners of index cases were HIV seropositive. Immediate ART initiation of index cases (AOR = 0.148, 95%CI: 0.067–0.325), being bedridden or ambulatory functional status at enrollment (AOR = 7.71, 95%CI: 3.5–17), and baseline CD4 level of 350 cells/ml (AOR = 8.06, 95%CI: 1.8–36) were statistically significant with the outcome variable among biological children. Among spousal partners, STI history or symptoms (AOR = 5.7, 95%CI: 1.86–17.5), early disclosure (AOR = 0.062, 95%CI: 0.024–0.159), immediate ART initiation (AOR = 0.172, 95%CI: 0.044–0.675), and duration of infection (AOR = 5.09, 95%CI: 1.8–14.4) were statistically associated with the outcome variable. Conclusion As evidenced by our data, the risk of HIV among family members of index cases is high. Interventions like immediate ART initiation, early disclosure, screening, and early treatment of STIs for minimizing HIV transmission might be given.