Background: Unsafe medication practices are the leading causes of avoidable patient harm in healthcare systems across the world. The largest proportion of which occurs during medication administration. Nurses play a significant role in the occurrence as well as preventions of medication administration errors. However, only a few relevant studies explored the problem in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the magnitude and contributing factors of medication administration error among nurses in tertiary care hospitals, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2018. Methods: We conducted a hospital-based, cross-sectional study in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The study involved 298 randomly selected nurses. We used adopted, self-administered survey questionnaire and checklist to collect data via self-reporting and direct observation of nurses while administering medications. The tools were expert reviewed and tested on 5% of the study participants. We analyzed the data descriptively and analytically using SPSS version 24. We included those factors with significant p-values (p ≤ 0.25) in the multivariate logistic regression model. We considered those factors, in the final multivariate model, with p < 0.05 at 95%Cl as significant predictors of medication administration errors as defined by nurse self-report. Result: Two hundred and ninety eight (98.3%) nurses completed the survey questionnaire. Of these, 203 (68.1%) reported committing medication administration errors in the previous 12 months. Factors such as the lack of adequate training [AOR = 3.16; 95% CI (1.67,6)], unavailability of a guideline for medication administration [AOR = 2.07; 95% CI (1.06,4.06)], inadequate work experience [AOR = 6.48; 95% CI (1.32,31.78)], interruption during medication administration [AOR = 2.42, 95% CI (1.3,4.49)] and night duty shift [AOR = 5, 95% CI (1.82, 13.78)] were significant predictors of medication administration errors at p-value < 0.05. Conclusion and recommendation: Medication administration error prevention is complex but critical to ensure the safety of patients. Based on our study, providing a continuous training on safe administration of medications, making a medication administration guideline available for nurses to apply, creating an enabling environment for nurses to safely administer medications, and retaining more experienced nurses may be critical steps to improve the quality and safety of medication administration.

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An outbreak of acute hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection occurred from October 1988 to March 1989 in military camps in northern Ethiopia. The epidemic was waterborne and entirely confined to military men, of whom 423 hospitalized, icteric patients were studied. The clinical course was mild and short, without any fulminant hepatitis or death. All sera tested for anti-HAV-IgM were negative and among 54 (13%) patients who were positive for HBsAg, 7 (2%) were positive for anti-HBc IgM. On the other hand, 28 of 30 (93%) patients had antibodies against hepatitis E virus (anti-HEV) in contrast to 1 of 29 (3%) asymptomatic controls (P less than .01). The need for an easily available, inexpensive serologic test for HEV infection, protection of water supplies from fecal contamination, adequate chlorination and/or boiling of drinking water, and health education about personal and environmental hygiene, especially in communities at high risk, is emphasized.

Introduction Hospitalized neonates experience moderate to severe, acute or chronic pain. Recent study indicates that health care providers especially in developing countries have a knowledge and skills gap related to neonatal pain management. Objective The aim of this study was to assess the neonatal ICU nurses’ knowledge and practice and factors associated with neonatal pain management at selected public hospital of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods Facility-based cross-sectional study design was employed at four selected public hospitals in Addis Ababa, from April to May 2020. A simple random sampling method was used to recruit study participants using a semi-structured and self-administered questionnaire. The logistic regression model was used to identify the association, and odds ratio was used to test the strength of the associations between outcome and predictor variables. Results This study was conducted with 119 nursing staffs working in the neonatal intensive care unit with a 96.6% response rate. The study reveals that 68.7% of nurses had adequate knowledge and only 32.2% of them had good practice of neonatal pain management. There was a significant relationship between nurses’ knowledge scores and receiving in-service training on neonatal pain management. Having an infant pain management policy in place, getting training on neonatal pain management and knowledge category were factors significantly associated with practice of nurses in neonatal pain management. Discussion According to the results of the current research, the majority (85.2%) of participants knew that the vital signs of new-borns can be affected by pain. However, only 60.9% of nurses considered pain as one of the vital signs in new-borns. This indicates that neonatal pain may not be assessed as frequently as a vital sign. And the finding reveals that nurses had poor practice but had adequate knowledge in managing neonatal pain. The respective hospitals and Ethiopian Ministry of Health should provide gap-filling training on neonatal pain management to the nurses.

BackgroundCoronavirus (COVID-19) disease affected people throughout the globe and has become a severe threat to the health and wellbeing of the global community. Time to death and predictors of mortality vary across settings. So far, no or few related studies have been undertaken in Ethiopia. Studying the time to death from COVID-19 and its predictors is essential to understand the characteristics of the disease and thereby contribute to the identification of indicators for early detection and initiation of treatment. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate time to death and its predictors among adults with COVID-19 in Ethiopia.MethodsA retrospective follow-up study was conducted among 602 adults with COVID-19 attending Eka Kotebe General Hospital, COVID-19 Treatment Center, between 13 March 2020 and 13 November 2020. The data were entered by Epi-data version 4.2 while the analysis was carried out using STATA version 16. A Kaplan–Meier survivor curve was computed to estimate the survival probabilities. A log-rank test was used to compare the difference in survival curves. Cox proportional hazard models were fitted to identify the predictors of time to death.ResultsThe overall median time to death was 21 days. Older adults (aged ≥65 years) [adjusted hazard ratio (AHR) 2.22, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02–4.86], being men (AHR 3.04, 95% CI 1.61–5.74), shortness of breathing at admission (AHR 2.29, 95% CI 1.16–4.54), comorbidity (AHR 2.23, 95% CI 1.04–4.80), diabetes mellitus (AHR 2.31, 95% CI 1.30–4.08), altered cardiac function (AHR 2.07, 95% CI 1.21–3.43), and baseline white blood cell count of greater than 10 (103/µl) (AHR 2.62, 95% CI 1.55–4.44) were independent predictors of COVID-19 mortality.ConclusionMale sex, older adults, shortness of breathing at admission, patients with comorbidities, and higher blood cell count were significant predictors of time to death from COVID-19. Therefore, concerned stakeholders should focus on those predictors of mortality and design interventions accordingly to enhance the survival of patients with COVID-19.

Background In Nigeria, adoption of the primary healthcare approach led to the establishment of numerous primary healthcare facilities, and training of new cadres of community health officers (CHOs), community health extension workers (CHEWs) and junior community health extension workers (JCHEWs). These new groups complemented the work of nurses and midwives. Methods We conducted a workload indicators of staffing needs study in the 20 local governments of Bauchi State, from March 2016 to September 2018, in all 317 ward-level primary healthcare facilities. Results Findings show a total of 128 existing nurses/midwives, a calculated requirement of 402 and a shortage of 274 nurses/midwives. Existing CHOs/CHEWs were 735, a calculated requirement was 948 and a shortage of 213 CHOs/CHEWs. The JCHEWs were 477, a calculated requirement of 481, with a shortage of four JCHEWs. Conclusion Results from this study highlight the unequal distribution of health workers; the abundance of some frontline workers in some communities and dire need of others. We emphasize the need to strengthen health workforce planning to deliver essential primary healthcare services, particularly in rural and remote communities with high levels of vulnerability to diseases.

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Background: After nearly two years without reporting any case of Wild Poliovirus (WPV), Nigeria has of recent (2016) witnessed a setback in its struggle to eradicate polio. Four cases of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) from three Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the security challenged state of Borno were confirmed as WPV cases with the latest case having a date of onset of paralysis on 21 st August, 2016. A case of circulating Vaccine Derived Poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) from a healthy contact of one of the WPV cases was confirmed. In addition, cVDPV2 was confirmed in a sample from one of the seven environmental sample collection sites in Borno. Another case of cVDPV2 with date of onset of paralysis on 28 th October 2016 was confirmed in Sokoto state. Gender inequities and inequalities are a major cause of inequity in health. Gender equality in health means that women and men have equal chances of realizing their full rights and potential to be healthy, and contribute to health development. It is therefore important to mainstream gender dimension in the engagement of women through improving their employability in the disease surveillance sector of public health. Objectives: The objective of this study is to determine whether there is gender disparity among boys and girls in the incidence of reported AFP cases in Nigeria during the reporting period (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016); and also to identify any gender bias among male and females in the number of AFP surveillance workforce. Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of reported AFP cases in Nigeria between 2007 and 2016 from the AFP database at the World Health Organization Country Office. We conducted gender analysis of the datato identify any inequities and subjected any observed difference to a statistical test of significance. We also conducted literature search on gender dimensions of AFP surveillance. Results: The AFP detection rate in Nigeria has consistently increased from 2007 to 2016, with the highest number of AFP cases reported being 17,867 in 2016. Of the total AFP cases reported, 81.5% and 18.5% were under and over five years of age respectively. The proportion of male and female AFP cases that were under five years was 81% and 82% respectively. There was a consistent decline in the proportion of OPV zero dose AFP cases with the least (0.3%) 2016. There was increase in the proportion of 3+ OPV doses with the highest (91%) also in 2016. In the year 2016, there were more male (29) state epidemiologists than females (8), more male (23) state DSNOs than females (14), more male (609) LGA DSNOs the females (218) and more male (543) LGA assistant DSNOs than females (274). The number of health facility surveillance focal persons however is almost equal in both sexes (2814 males Vs 2879 females). Conclusion: There was no gender disparity among boys and girls in the incidence of reported AFP cases and in their status of OPV immunization. Gender disparity however exists at the disadvantage of females with regards t...