Purpose: The recent outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the worst global crisis after the Second World War. Since no successful treatment and vaccine have been reported, efforts to enhance the knowledge, attitudes, and practice of the public, especially the high-risk groups, are critical to manage COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, this study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 among patients with chronic disease. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 404 chronic disease patients from March 02 to April 10, 2020, at Addis Zemen Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia. Both bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses with a 95% confidence interval were fitted to identify factors associated with poor knowledge and practice towards COVID-19. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) was used to determine the magnitude of the association between the outcome and independent variables. P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean age of the participants was 56.5± 13.5. The prevalence of poor knowledge and poor practice was 33.9% and 47.3%, respectively. Forty-one percent of the participants perceived that avoiding of attending a crowded population is very difficult. Age (AOR=1.05, (95% CI (1.01– 1.08)), educational status of “can’t read and write” (AOR=7.1, 95% CI (1.58– 31.93)), rural residence (AOR=19.0, 95% CI (6.87– 52.66)) and monthly income (AOR=0.8, 95% CI (0.79– 0.89)) were significantly associated with poor knowledge. Being unmarried (AOR=3.9, 95% CI (1.47– 10.58)), cannot read and write (AOR=2.7, 95% CI (1.03– 7.29)), can read and write (AOR=3.5, 95% CI (1.48– 8.38)), rural residence (AOR=2.7, 95% CI (1.09– 6.70)), income of < 7252 Ethiopian birr (AOR=2.3, 95% CI (1.20– 4.15)) and poor knowledge (AOR=8.6, 95% CI (3.81– 19.45)) were significantly associated with poor practice. Conclusion: The prevalence of poor knowledge and poor practice was high. Leaflets prepared in local languages should be administered and health professionals should provide detailed information about COVID-19 to their patients.

The interaction between diabetes and major world infections like TB is a major public health concern because of rapidly rising levels of diabetes. The dual burden of tuberculosis (TB) and diabetes mellitus (DM) has become a major global public health problem. Diabetes mellitus is a major risk factor for the development of active and latent tuberculosis. Immune mechanisms contributing to the increased susceptibility of diabetic patients toTBare due to the defects in bacterial recognition, phagocytic activity, and cellular activation which results in impaired production of chemokines and cytokines. The initiation of adaptive immunity is delayed by impaired antigen-presenting cell (APC) recruitment and function in hyperglycemic host, which results in reduced frequencies of Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells and its secretion of cytokines having a great role in activation of macrophage and inflammatory response of tuberculosis. In addition, impaired immune response and killing of intracellular bacteria potentially increase bacterial load, chronic inflammation, and central necrosis that facilitate bacterial dissemination and miliary tuberculosis. Understanding of the immunological and biochemical basis ofTBsusceptibility in diabetic patients will tell us the rational development of implementation and therapeutic strategies to alleviate the dual burden of the diseases. Therefore, the aim of this review was focused on the association between diabetes and tuberculosis, focusing on epidemiology, pathogenesis, and immune dysfunction in diabetes mellitus, and its association with susceptibility, severity, and treatment outcome failure to tuberculosis.

Ghrelin is a relatively novel multifaceted hormone that has been found to exert a plethora of physiological effects. In this review, we found/confirmed that ghrelin has effect on all body systems. It induces appetite; promotes the use of carbohydrates as a source of fuel while sparing fat; inhibits lipid oxidation and promotes lipogenesis; stimulates the gastric acid secretion and motility; improves cardiac performance; decreases blood pressure; and protects the kidneys, heart, and brain. Ghrelin is important for learning, memory, cognition, reward, sleep, taste sensation, olfaction, and sniffing. It has sympatholytic, analgesic, antimicrobial, antifibrotic, and osteogenic effects. Moreover, ghrelin makes the skeletal muscle more excitable and stimulates its regeneration following injury; delays puberty; promotes fetal lung development; decreases thyroid hormone and testosterone; stimulates release of growth hormone, prolactin, glucagon, adrenocorticotropic hormone, cortisol, vasopressin, and oxytocin; inhibits insulin release; and promotes wound healing. Ghrelin protects the body by different mechanisms including inhibition of unwanted inflammation and induction of autophagy. Having a clear understanding of the ghrelin effect in each system has therapeutic implications. Future studies are necessary to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of ghrelin actions as well as its application as a GHSR agonist to treat most common diseases in each system without any paradoxical outcomes on the other systems.

Updates on the epidemiology of antibiotic resistance bacterial pathogens is important. This is because the spread of multidrug resistant enterobacteriaceae (MDRE) and recently carbapenemase producing enterobacteriaceae (CPE) have emerged as a major public health concern in patients with urinary tract infections (UTIs). This study is therefore, aimed to assess the prevalence and associated risk factors of MDR and CPE among patients with UTIs. A cross sectional study was conducted among 442 symptomatic UTI suspected patients. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, clinical information and possible risk factors were collected using structured questionnaire. Early morning mid-stream urine samples were collected and processed to characterize bacterial isolates. Disk diffusion method was used to determine the antibiotic susceptibility patterns of isolates. Carbapenemase producing strains were detected using CHROMagar KPC medium. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20. P-value <0.05 was considered as statistical significant. Among 442 patients enrolled a total of 183 Enterobacteriaceae were recovered. Of these isolates; 160 (87.4%) were MDRE; the most common isolates were K. pneumoniae and E.coli. Five (2.73%) of the isolates were found to be carbapenemase producers and all of CPE strains were 100% ESBL producers. Significant drug resistances were observed among CPE compared to other MDRE, low resistance rates were noted to ciprofloxacin (20%). Being female (OR 4.46; P = 0.018), age (OR 1.08; P = 0.001), hospitalization (OR 5.23; P = 0.006), and prior antibiotic use (OR 3.98; P = 0.04) were associated risk factors for MDRE. High rates of MDR (87.4%) were observed among enterobacteriaceae uropathogens; K. pneumoniae and E.coli were the principal MDR isolates. Overall prevalence of CPE was 2.73% and all of these strains were 100% ESBL producer. Attributing risk factors for MDR UTIs were found to be sex (female), age, hospitalization, and history of antibiotic therapy. Therefore, efforts should be made to reduce patient hospital stay and maximize rational use of drugs. Additional and vigorous investigation especially on CPE should be encouraged.

Caspase-1 is the first and extensively studied inflammatory caspase that is activated through inflammasome assembly. Inflammasome is a cytosolic formation of multiprotein complex that aimed to start inflammatory response against infections or cellular damages. The process leads to an auto-activation of caspase-1 and consequent maturation of caspase-1 target molecules such as interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18. Recently, the role of caspase-1 and inflammasome in inflammatory-induced noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) like obesity, diabetes mellitus (DM), cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), cancers and chronic respiratory diseases have widely studied. However, their reports are distinct and even they have reported contrasting role of caspase-1 in the development and progression of NCDs. A few studies have reported that caspase-1/inflammasome assembley has a protective role in the initiation and progression of these diseases through the activation of the noncanonical caspase-1 target substrates like gasdermin-D and regulation of immune cells. Conversely, others have revealed that caspase-1 has a direct/indirect effect in the development and progression of several NCDs. Therefore, in this review, we systematically summarized the role of caspase-1 in the development and progression of NCDs, especially in obesity, DM, CVDs and cancers.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the level of aspartate aminotransaminase (AST), alanine aminotransaminase (ALT) and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), and their association with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Northwest Ethiopia. Results: Using a cross-sectional study, blood samples were collected from 192 Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) participants and 192 healthy age and sex-matched volunteers. The study was carried out from May to August 2017. The serum concentration of aspartate aminotransaminase, alanine aminotransaminase, and gamma-glutamyltransferase were measured using A25 Bio-system fully automatic chemistry analyzer and using the manufacturer’s kit of the machine. Liver function test results of T2DM participant were significantly higher than those of the control group, serum ALT (46.06 ± 22. 38 IU/L) and serum AST (42.94 ± 19. 08 IU/L), P < 0.001, while the level of GGT in both study groups was not significantly associated (P = 0.065). In conclusion, the evaluation of liver marker enzymes showed a significant association with Type 2 diabetes participants compared with the controls.