Tanzania is experiencing a serious Human Resource for Health (HRH) crisis. Shortages are 87.5% and 67% in private and public hospitals, respectively. Mal-distribution and brain drain compound the shortage. The objective of this study was to improve knowledge on the HRH status in Tanzania

IntroductionAntimicrobial prophylaxis for urologic procedures is a major issue, as potential advantages of antibiotic administration should be carefully weighed against potential side effects, microbial resistance, and health care costs. This study aimed to review a six years trend of antibiotic use in urological surgeries at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) being an experience in a typical third world environment.MethodsThis was a six years hospital based descriptive, retrospective study conducted of which all case notes of urological patients operated on in between January 2007 to December, 2012 were reviewed by using a structured data collecting tool. The data were analyzed using SPSS software.ResultsMale patients were the majority at 62% (450). The age range was 0 - 90 years, with a mean of 30 ± 22.09. Among the urological surgeries done at MNH 86.5% (628) received prophylactic antibiotics regardless of the type surgery done. Majority 63.7% (463) received antibiotics during induction. Ceftriaxone was the commonly given antibiotic regardless of the type of urological surgery done. Most of patients (86.4%) were given antibiotics for five days regardless whether it was for prophylactic or treatment intention.ConclusionAntibiotic use is still a challenge at our hospital with over use of prophylactic antibiotics without obvious indications. Prolonged use of prophylactic antibiotics beyond five days was the main finding. Ceftriaxone was the most given antibiotic regardless of the urological surgery done and its level of contamination. Antibiotic stewardship needs to be addressed urgently to avoid serious drug resistances leaving alone the cost implication.

Background: Fournier’s gangrene (FG) is a rapidly progressive and potentially fatal infective necrotizing fasciitis which affects the perineal and perianal regions as well as the external genitalia. This study aimed at evaluating the management of FG and its outcomes at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Moshi, TanzaniaMethods: This was a retrospective hospital based study involving case notes of all patients who had Fournier’s gangrene at KCMC from January 2003 to December 2013. Patients managed for Fournier’s gangrene and the medical records of the patients eligible for the study retrieved manually.Results: A total of 25case notes of patients treated for Fournier’s gangrene during the study period were reviewed. All were males and majority of them (60%) were ≥50 years (mean=57.4 years). Hypertension was the commonest reported risk factor (41%). Diabetes mellitus was reported as a risk factor in 20% of all patients with FG. These risk factors were mentioned as comorbid conditions in traumatic urethral catheterization and suprapubic catheterization. All patients received a combination treatment of wound debridement, antibiotics, fluid replacement, analgesics and daily wound dressing. The average hospital stay for patients with FG was about 25 days.Conclusion: Fournier’s gangrene at KCMC is exclusively a male disease affecting those above 50 years. Hypertension and diabetes mellitus were the common comorbid condition in patients with Fournier’s gangrene.

Renal replacement therapy (RRT) is the treatment of choice for patients with End Stage Renal disease (ESRD), RRT include dialysis and kidney transplantation. Some sub-Saharan African countries including Tanzania have improved nephrology services dialysis and kidney transplant. This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude and practices towards kidney transplantation among patients undergoing dialysis at Muhimbili National Hospital. This was a hospital based cross-sectional study that was conducted at Muhimbili National Hospital. A total of 190 patients were interviewed, majority were males 133(70%) with the age range of 18-80 years. Most patients 183(96.35%) were aware of Kidney transplantation the main source of information 175(95.6%) being hospital with 159 (86.9%) patients being aware of rules guiding kidney transplantation and 166 (90.7%) were aware of lifelong medication use after kidney transplantation. Knowledge on transplant was noted in 115(62.8%) with all of them being willing to receive kidney from blood related relatives. Majority 188 (64.5%) patients were not sure whether live kidney donation was better than deceased kidney donation. Better knowledge may ultimately translate into the act of donation. Effective measures should be taken to educate people with relevant information with the involvement of media, doctors and religious scholars. Large proportion considers Kidney Transplant positively but it limited by shortage of donors.

Background: Hypospadias is one of the common congenital anomaly that affects children. It can present classically with abnormal ventral opening, chordee and dorsal hood however isolate hypospadias do also exist. Hypospadias repair is one of the commonly performed surgical procedures at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) and the outcome of repair is influenced by several factors. Our study aimed to assess the Profile and Early Outcome of Hypospadias repair at Muhimbili National Hospital. Methodology: This was a cross sectional study which involved all children with hypospadias aged ≥6 months and underwent first repair recruited by convenient sampling at Muhimbili national Hospital from March 2018 to January 2019 with a follow up of 30 days from surgery. We excluded children who had Repair before, those who underwent hypospadias repair and died within 24 hours post-operative. Mothers of each participating patient gave an informed consent. Data were collected by a standardized questionnaire and analyzed by using SPSS program version 20. Results: Sixty-three children were enrolled in the study with mean age of 3.7 years. Majority of our patient had Subcorona hypospadias with Snodgrass tubularized incised plate urethroplasty being the common surgical technique. Thirty-seven (58.7%) patients had successful hypospadias repair while 26(41.3%) had complications. The most commonly found early complications were surgical site infection, hematoma, oedema, flap necrosis, urethrocutenous fistula, urethral stricture, wound dehiscent and meatal stenosis. Age>3.5 years at repair, previous circumcised, type and duration of urine drainage< 7 days, type of dressing and changing the 1st dressing < 3 days were found to influence complications rate. Conclusion: Hypospadias is still the common pediatric urological condition with Snodgrass technique being preferred for repair. The outcome of the repair can be influence by different factors regardless of the technique of repair.

Background; Early child cognitive development is important throughout one’s life span. It is estimated that more than 200 million children under five years of age fail to achieve full cognitive development in the world and 80% of them are in south Asia and sub-Sahara-Africa. Genetic and environmental factors play a role in early child development (ECD). Most of the ECD occurs in the first 2years of life, but largely during infancy. Malnutrition, poverty and poor health care to children have been found to have association with poor cognitive development and create a vicious cycle of poverty. This study gives the proportion and factors that are associated with infants’ cognitive developmental delay in our setting. Knowing these factors enhance early intervention to break the viscious cycle.This study aimed to determine the proportion and factors associated with cognitive developmental delay among infants attending RCH clinics in Dar es Salaam. Patients/ Material and Methods; This was a health facility based descriptive cross-sectional study conducted by using a structured data collecting tool done in three health centers in Dar es Salaam from July to December 2012. A two- stage sampling technique and Lottery were used to get the health centers. The data were analyzed using SPSS software by Pearson’s chi-square, Fisher exact test and logistic regressions. Results; A total of 350 infants were assessed for cognitive development in a period of six months. Male infants were the majority by 50.6%. Our study Participants aged 1to 12 months with a mean (SD) of 7.26 (3.43) months with their birth weight ranging from 1.3 to 4.6kg with mean (SD) of 3.11(0.50) kg. The Proportion of infants with cognitive developmental delay was 12.3%. Age of the child, caretakers and wasting were significantly associated with cognitive developmental delays even after adjusting for confounders. Infants aged less than 6months were 14 times more likely to have cognitive developmental delay compared to those aged six months and above (adjusted oddis ratio{aOR=14; 95%CI 5.3-38.3, P<0.001}). Infants cared by assistant caretakers especially during day-time, were 12 times more likely to have cognitive developmental delay compared to infants who stayed with their mothers (aOR=12.1; 95%CI 3.0-53, P=0.001). Wasted infants were 4 times more likely to have cognitive developmental delay (aOR=3.9; 95%CI 1.1-13.3, P=0.032) compared to infants with good nutritional status. Conclusion; The proportion of cognitive developmental delay among infants attending Reproductive and Child Health( RCH) clinics in Dar es Salaam was 12.3%. Young age of the child, use of other caretakers in absence of the mother, and wasting were associated with cognitive developmental delays. Infants need Mothers to spend time with them and prevention of malnutrition plays a role in cognitive development.

Background Training of mid-level providers is a task-sharing strategy that has gained popularity in the recent past for addressing the critical shortage of the health workforce. In Tanzania, training of mid-level providers has existed for over five decades; however, concerns exist regarding the quality of mid-level cadres amidst the growing number of medical universities. This study sought to explore the challenges facing the Assistant Medical Officers training for the performance of Caesarean section delivery in Tanzania. Methods An exploratory qualitative case study was carried out in four regions to include one rural district in each of the selected regions and two AMO training colleges in Tanzania. A semi-structured interview guide was used to interview 29 key informants from the district hospitals, district management, regional management, AMO training college, and one retired AMO. Also, four focus group discussions were conducted with 35 AMO trainees. Results Training of AMOs in Tanzania faces many challenges. The challenges include: use of outdated and static curriculum, inadequate tutors (lack of teaching skills and experience of teaching adults), inadequate teaching infrastructure in the existence of many other trainees, including interns, and limited or lack of scholarships and sponsorship for the AMO trainees. Conclusions The findings of this study underscore that the challenges facing AMO training for the performance of Caesarean section delivery have the potential to negatively impact the quality of Caesarean sections performed by this cadre. A holistic approach is needed in addressing these challenges. The solutions should focus on reviewing the curriculum, deploying qualified tutors, and improving the competencies of the available tutors through continuing medical education programmes. Furthermore, the government in collaboration with other stakeholders should work together to address the challenges in teaching infrastructure and providing financial support to this cadre that has continued to be the backbone of primary healthcare in Tanzania. Long-term solutions should consider deploying medical officers at the primary facilities and phasing out the performance of Caesarean section by AMOs.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasingly diagnosed and thus more patients are in need of hemodialysis (HD) to sustain their life. The quality of vascular access for HD should be suitable for repeated puncture and allow a fast blood flow rate for high-efficiency dialysis with minimal complications. Our study aimed to document local experience and early outcomes after arteriovenous fistula (AVF) creation for hemodialysis access including complications related to AVF creation.This was a hospital based clinical audit in which case notes of patients who had undergone AVF creation between May, 2017 and March, 2018 at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) were reviewed using a structured data collection tool. Information regarding preoperative assessment for AVF creation, outcome of AVF, and age of the patients were collected. Descriptive statistics were prepared and summarized as tables. A total of 57 case notes of patients who underwent AVF creation for HD access with males contributing majority of patients (77.2%) were reviewed. The predominant age group was 41 to 60 years of age (56.2%) with mean age 47 years and age range of 18 -69 years. Three patients had procedure abandoned on the table due to sclerotic vein. The functional maturation rate was found to be 64.9% and post AVF complications in 15 patients (26.3%). Recorded post AVF creation complications were fistula stenosis/revision (27.8%), bleeding/haematoma (22.2%), limb oedema (22.2%), aneurysm (11.1%), surgical site infection [SSI] (11.1%) and thrombus formation (5.6%).AVF creation for HD access is common at MNH with a functional maturation rate of 64.9%, which is an acceptable rate. The preoperative vascular assessment in this survey was mainly found to be physical examination while preoperative vascular imaging was not commonly done to assess suitability of veins and arteries for AVF creation although post AVF complications are relatively few.