BackgroundA 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.MethodsThe 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.ResultsA 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%).ConclusionOf 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

Knowledge regarding the smoking prevalence among the Kurdistan general population is not clear, at least for males. Here in the Kurdistan Youth Smoking Survey and Behaviours (KYSS&B) we tried to further expand our knowledge about the smoking profile of school students across Kurdistan. Five hundred students from four Zakho male basic schools were taken to participate in the study to determine the prevalence of smoking and socio-demographical factors associating with smoking among students aged 12 to 15 years. The KYSS&B questionnaire included various parameters such as age, gender, friends, parent history and blood groups. This study showed that the prevalence of students who ever tried smoking was 74%; about 65% of them started at age 12 years or less. Although the majority of participants (95%) knew that smoking is harmful and had negative impact on human health, 18% of them thought that they will never quit smoking. The study concluded that there was no strong association between family monthly income, parent education level and blood groups. On the other hand, the three most critical factors connected with smoking habit reported by students were age, peer influence and father smoking.

Background Antiretroviral therapy has been highly associated with reduction in the incidence of mortality in HIV/AIDS patients over time. However, there is a regional variation in the extent of reducing the incidence of mortality in many developing countries including Ethiopia. Hence, this study was conducted to generate summary evidences-based data for incidence of mortality and determinants of mortality. Methods Articles were comprehensively searched on Pub Med, Google Scholar, Cochrane library, Scopus, and DOAJ databases using Boolean operators. A Dersimonian and Laird methods of random effect model was used to estimate incidence and determinants of mortality. Heterogeneity, publication bias and quality of each study were checked. Subgroup analysis was employed. Relevant data from each study were extracted. STATA software version 14 was used for all statistical analysis. ResultA total of 21 articles were finally reviewed and analyzed. Incidence of mortality was found to be 5/100-person year of observation (95% CI: 4 – 5/100pyo). Most of the death (67%) occurred during the first year of HAART initiation. Baseline Advanced WHO clinical stage (PHR (Pooled Hazard Rate) 2.88; 95%CI: 2.2 – 3.8), low CD4 cells count (PHR 1.88; 95% CI: 1.5 – 2.4), low body weight (PHR 1.6; 95% CI: 1.2 – 2.2), low hemoglobin level (PHR 2.4; 95% CI: 1.7 – 3.4), presence of TB infection (PHR 2.9; 95% CI: 2.13 – 4.61), non – working functional status (PHR 3.9; 95% CI: 2.8 – 5.4), bad medication adherence (PHR 4.8; 95% CI: 3.2 – 7.2), lack of cotrimoxazole preventive therapy (PHR 1.5; 95% CI: 1.2 – 2.0), being male (PHR 1.4; 95% CI: 1.2 – 1.8) and older age (PHR 1.2; 95% CI: 1.04 – 1.41) were significantly associated with increased mortality in this study. ConclusionIncidence of mortality was high particularly early in the course of therapy. Advanced WHO clinical stage, CD4 cells count low body weight, low hemoglobin level presence of TB infection, bad medication adherence older age and non-working functional status were significant determinants of incidence of mortality. Comprehensive service and strict follow up should be given to avert this high rate of mortality.