Background Breast cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer in Ethiopia of all female cancers. It is considered to be a progressive disease with a poor prognosis if detected late. Breast self-examination is an important prevention method of breast cancer. This study was aimed at assessing practice and associated factors of breast self-examination (BSE) among female Debre Berhan University students in Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015 among 420 using self-administrated questionnaire. Multistage sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were done. Results Majority of the study participants, 338 (84.5%), were between 20 and 24 years old with the mean age of 21.1 ± 1.65. Only 14 (3.5%) had family history of breast cancer. Two hundred fifty-six (64%) of the participants had heard about BSE and 30.25% had good knowledge about BSE. Mass media were the most common source of information about breast cancer. Few of the participants (28.3%) had performed BSE. Lack of knowledge on how to perform BSE was cited as the main reason for not practicing BSE. Knowing how to perform, when to perform, and position to perform BSE and having a perception that BSE is important and useful to detect breast cancer were significant predictors of practices of BSE. Conclusions This study revealed that most of the participants had low knowledge and practice of BSE. Therefore, it important to develop health educational programs in the university to raise awareness about BSE and breast cancer so as to practice self-breast examination.
The aim of this study was to compare the antibiotic potency of Cyanthillium cinereum and Moringa oleifera (natural antibiotics) against Ampicillin and Erythromycin (synthetic antibiotics) using zone of inhibition and both the natural and synthetic antibiotic was treated against Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella. pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The extracts from the natural agents were obtained by the use of methanol (polar) and hexane (non-polar). The bacteria were treated with six different conc. (100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, 10% and 5%) of the extracts, where the largest zone of inhibition was observed with C. cinereum extract at 5% concentration against S. aureus with mean and standard deviation of 22.1±2.1. S. aureus followed by P. aeruginosa was most susceptible towards the treatments. The correlation (Pearson) indicated that the conc. of the extract was indirectly proportional to the zone of inhibition. The phytochemical analysis revealed that C. cinereum contained alkaloids, catecholic tannins, saponins, flavones, volatile oils phenols and steroids and M. oleifera only contained Alkaloid, tannins and steroids.
Contribution/Originality: This study aimed to seek out the most antimicrobially active of the plants for testing and eventual use in medicine.
INTRODUCTIONPlant remedies have been used for thousands of years to treat diseases and infections (Huffman, 2009). There is wide diversity of plants that have medicinal properties and this knowledge has been passed on through the generation (Estrada et al., 2011). The early man, when faced with various diseases, utilized the natural resources present around them to combat the symptoms and effects of various diseases (Mohanty & Pradhan, 2014). The primitive people characterized plants very simply based on what seemed to be good and useful versus what seemed not to be good and useful after trying them (Kunle, Egharevba, & Ahmadu, 2012). They tried various plants via application either topically or via ingestion as a concoction or by chewing to figure out what would cure/heal and
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