Background: Hand washing is a simple, convenient, and cost-effective means to limit the transmission of communicable diseases. Improving the practice of hand washing is vital to decrease hygiene-related morbidity and mortality, particularly in developing countries. As such, this study aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices of hand washing among schoolchildren in Aderash primary school, Yirgalem town. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 279 schoolchildren from March to May 2019. A pretested structured questionnaire was applied to collect all relevant information using simple random sampling. Data entry and clearance was done with Epi-Info version 7 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Adjusted ORs with 95% CI were used to assess statistically significant variables (p< 0.05). Results: Overall, 62.7% of schoolchildren had adequate knowledge of hand washing, 61.3% exhibited positive attitudes toward hand washing and 39.1% had good hand-washing practices. Over three quarters (89%) of them had good knowledge of washing hands with soap. About 24%, 56.6%, 9.3%, 6.5%, and 3.6% of children reported washing hands after defecation, before meals, after meals, after work, and after play, respectively. In addition, 73.8% of them reported washing hands with soap if their hands looked dirty or smelled bad. Urban dwelling increased knowledge of hand washing of 1.3-fold (95% CI 1.2– 2.85). Conclusion: Even though > 60% of children had adequate knowledge and exhibited positive attitudes toward hand washing, proper hand-washing practices was < 40%. Therefore, much effort should be directed toward improving children’s understanding of the benefits of proper hand washing in schools.

Background: Dengue fever is an arthropod vector-borne disease transmitted to humans by infected Aedes mosquitoes. Ethiopia has a favorable ecology for arthropods and report high burden of acute febrile illnesses. However, the contribution of arboviral infections to the burden of acute febrile illnesses is barely known. In this study the seropositivity to dengue virus infection and associated risk factors were assessed in Arba Minch districts, southern Ethiopia. Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted in a consecutive group of 529 acute febrile patients between May to August 2016. Socio-demographic data, residence place and clinical signs and symptoms were collected using structured questionnaires. Sera were tested for anti-dengue IgG and IgM using Euroimmune indirect immunofluorescent assay. Data analysis was done using SPSS V-20 (IBM Corp, 2012). P-value < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Result: Seropositivity was 25.1% (133/529) and 8.1% (43/529) for anti- IgG and IgM respectively. Conclusion: The high IgM prevalence detected indicate the probability of active transmission with a potential of public health significance that calls for a proactive follow up of the communities in the study area to forecast and avert the risk.

Although a universal vaccine is available and Ethiopia is working outstandingly towards measles elimination, a recurrent measles outbreak has occurred each year in different parts of the country. Therefore, understanding the epidemiology of measles cases, the incidence of confirmed measles virus cases and related risk factors is crucial. Here, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize information regarding the epidemiology, measles incidence rate and risk factors for national measles infections occurring in the past two decades, from 2000 to 2023. Data from electronic databases, including PubMed, African Journal Online, WHO databases and Google Scholars, were searched to identify studies describing measles outbreaks, incidence rates and associated factors in Ethiopia that occurred between 2000 and 2023. Important basic information was extracted in an Excel spreadsheet and imported into Comprehensive Meta-analysis Software version 3 to evaluate the associations between measles outbreaks and different risk factors. We pooled the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for every included risk factor to evaluate the associations with measles outbreaks. We included 36 studies involving 132,502 patients with confirmed measles cases in Ethiopia. The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis revealed that measles outbreaks were more frequently reported in the Oromia region (73,310 (33.1%)), followed by the Southern Nation Nationalities of Ethiopia region (29,057 (13.4%)). The overall pooled analysis indicated that the prevalence of measles susceptibility was 67.5% (95% CI: 67.3–67.8%), with an I2 of 99.86% and a p value for heterogeneity < 0.0001. The non-vaccinated status of the children, their contact history with measles cases, their travel history, the presence of cases in family or neighbors, and malnourished patients were identified as factors associated with the high prevalence and recurrent measles infections in Ethiopia. The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis indicated that the pooled prevalence of measles infection was high, which is a public health concern in Ethiopia. Thus, strengthening healthcare services, regular vaccination campaigns, and the integration of health education activities with other services may decrease the incidence rate.

Background: West Nile virus (WNV) is one of the widely distributed arboviruses in the world, and it is a pathogen of both humans and animals. The evidence that supports the prevalence of the WNV infection in Ethiopia is very scarce. Hence, this study aimed to assess the seropositivity of WNV among patients with acute febrile illness. Methods: This health institution-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 532 acute febrile patients from May to August 2016 in Arba Minch Zuria district selected public health facilities, Southern Ethiopia. A pre-structured questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic and clinical related information of the participants through convenient sampling techniques. In addition, trained nurses who were working in the health centers were responsible for interviewing acute febrile patients. About 5 mL of venous blood was collected aseptically from each of the study participants for the screening of the WNV immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies using indirect immunofluorescence technique (IIFT) as per manufacturer’s protocol. Data analysis was done using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20 software and the results were presented by frequency and percentage using tables. Results: A total number of 529 acute febrile patients (42.7% males and 57.3% females) were enrolled in the study with a response rate of 99.4%. The overall 7.4% of acute febrile patients were seropositive for WNV-specific IgG and the rate was higher in males (9.7%) when compared to females (5.6%). While the overall 4.5% were seropositive for WNV-specific IgM and the rate was 6.6% in males and 3.0% in females. Conclusion: The finding of this study is an important alarm for clinicians/physicians to diagnose febrile patients in the divergent direction including with the diagnosis of flaviviruses. In addition, the finding will further contribute to understanding the epidemiology of WNV fever in Ethiopia and it will play a role in the delivery of public health measures to decrease the risk of WNV exposure in the areas.

Yellow fever is a rapidly emerging arthropod-borne viral infection, which causes considerable illness and death worldwide. However, little is known regarding the epidemiology of yellow fever virus infection in Ethiopia where mosquito-borne diseases like malaria are common. This study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of yellow fever virus infection and its associated factors among febrile illness in Arbaminch districts in Southern Ethiopia. An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted in a consecutive group of 529 acute febrile patients between May to August 2016. Data on socio-demographic, environmental and clinical signs and symptoms were collected using structured questionnaires. Serum was used to detect anti-yellow fever virus IgG and/or IgM using indirect Immunofluorescent assay (Euro immune Biochip mosaics, Lübeck, Germany). A logistic regression analysis was done using SPSS V-20 (IBM Corp, 2012). P-value < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Of the tested 529 serum samples 14.9% and 7.2% were positive for anti-yellow fever IgG and IgM respectively. Among IgG positive patients, males accounted for 15.04% and female 14.85%. Yellow fever exposure was more in the younger age group; participants age less than 20 years (26.80%), followed by those in the age group above 60 years (26.47%). Further, the prevalence of yellow fever exposure among urban residents was 37.14%. Of the assessed risk factors, only constitutional symptoms were significantly associated with the Yellow fever virus (AOR = 0.28, 95% CI 0.30- 0.72.P < 0.011). The laboratory finding of this study shows, the level of exposure to yellow fever among febrile cases is relatively high; however, clinical diagnosis of febrile patients is a common practice in the study area. Therefore, Domestication and routine performance of yellow fever virus differential diagnosis will help to address the phenomenon of the virus.

Introduction: Periodontitis (PD) & Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are chronic destructive inflammatory conditions which are caused by pathogenic oral bacteria and deregulation of the host inflammatory response. Even though; there has been increasing evidence were showed as these two diseases co-occur, little is known about the effect of periodontitis on aggravating Rheumatoid Arteritis. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review and Meta-analysis is to clarify the effect of PD on aggravating RA from all selected studies in Asia countries Methods: This systematic review was conducted in Asian countries and the database used was PubMed and Google scholar. Additional articles were also retrieved by using cross-referencing of references. Studies that reported the association or the effect of periodontitis on rheumatoid arthritis in Asia were eligible for this systematic review. The search was limited to publications written in the English language and published between 2012 and 2022. Two authors independently appraised the articles, and the data were extracted using a standardized data extraction format. The findings were synthesized using a narrative summary, tables, and figures. Result: Seventeen studies meet the inclusion criteria and were used for this systematic review. The result showed that Periodontitis was significantly increases the appearance of Rheumatoid Arthritis. It has been reported that PD is strongly associated with the presence of ACPAs and other outcome of Rheumatoid Arthritis Following periodontitis in the pathogenesis and also in the maintenance of systemic inflammation in RA. Conclusion: This systematic review concludes, there is suggestion that indicate an individual suffering from periodontitis is more likely to develop RA, this can be observed from higher ACPA, CRP, RF and ESR values, a common genetic predisposition that are associated with HLA gene complex and pro-inflammatory cytokine response in RA patients with periodontitis compared to RA patients without periodontitis.