Background. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Nonadherence to anti-TB treatment may result in the emergence of multidrug-resistant TB, prolonged infectiousness, and poor tuberculosis treatment outcomes. Ethiopia is one of the seven countries that reported lower rates of treatment success (84%). This study assessed anti-TB drug nonadherence and associated factors among TB patients in Arba Minch governmental health institutions. Methods. An institution based cross-sectional study design was conducted from April 15 to May 30, 2017. A systematic sampling technique was employed to select the study subjects. Data was collected using a semistructured questionnaire with Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 (MMAS-8) and was entered, cleaned, and analyzed in SPSS version 20. Results. The study included 271 TB patients with a response rate of 96.4%; 58.3% were males and 64.9% were Gamo by ethnicity. The overall nonadherence was 67 (24.7%) (CI = 20.0–30.4). Nonadherence was high if the patients experienced side effects (AOR = 13.332; 95% CI = 2.282–77.905), were far from the health facility (AOR = 21.830; 95% CI = 0.054–77.500), and experienced prolonged waiting time to get medical services (AOR = 14.260; 95% CI = 2.135–95.241). Conclusions. The proportion of TB patients that did not adhere to anti-TB drugs was high in Arba Minch governmental health institutions.

Background: Maternal health service uptake remains an important predictor of maternal outcomes including maternal mortality. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to summarize the available evidence on the uptake of maternal health care services in developing countries and to assess the impact of place of residence, education status, and wealth index on the uptake of these services.Methods: We examined the databases MEDLINE, Web of Science, Global Index Medicus, and Scopus until June 14, 2022. Cross-sectional studies done between 2015 and 2022 were considered. Mothers of reproductive age and all states of health were included in the study. Independently, two authors determined the eligibility of studies, extracted data, evaluated the risk of bias, and ranked the evidence’s degree of certainty. To combine the data, we performed a random-effects meta-analysis. The PROSPERO registration ID is CRD42022304094.Results: We included 51 studies. Mothers living in urban areas were three times more likely to receive antenatal care (OR 2.95; 95% CI 2.23 to 3.89; 15 studies; 340,390 participants) than rural mothers. Compared with no education, those with primary education were twice as likely to utilize antenatal care (OR 2.36; 95% CI 1.80 to 3.09; 9 studies; 154,398 participants) and those with secondary and higher education were six and fourteen times more likely to utilize antenatal care, respectively. Mothers in the second wealth index were twice as likely as mothers in the lowest wealth index to utilize antenatal care (OR 1.62; 95% CI 1.36 to 1.91; 10 studies; 224,530 participants) and antenatal care utilization increased further among mothers in the higher wealth index. We observed similar relative inequalities in skilled delivery care and postnatal care utilization based on the pace of residence, education, and wealth index.Conclusion: In developing countries, the problem of inequity in utilizing maternal health care services persists and needs considerable attention.

Complementary and alternative medicine covers a wide variety of therapies and practices, which vary from country to country and region to region. The study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of complementary and alternative medicine among the residents of Wayu town, Western Ethiopia. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 302 residents. A systematic sampling was used to select households. Data were entered in SPSS (version 20; IBM Corp) and descriptive statistics was carried out. Of 302 participants, 51.65% have a good knowledge, 78.6% were aware of complementary and alternative medicine, and 74.22% used it in the past 2 years. A total of 23.83% believe that complementary and alternative medicine is more effective than modern medicine and 28.8% preferred complementary and alternative medicine to modern medicine. This study revealed that in Wayu town, there is relatively high public interest in complementary and alternative medicine practices and a significant number has a good knowledge but generally the attitude toward complementary and alternative medicine is relatively low.

Background: An intrauterine contraceptive device is suitable for women of all reproductive age groups for preventing unwanted pregnancies. Immediate postpartum family planning (PPFP) services need to be emphasized when the woman leaves the hospital. Despite the accepted demand for PPFP, many women do not access the services. Therefore, this study aimed to assess acceptability and factors associated with immediate postpartum intrauterine contraceptive device use among women who gave birth at government hospitals of Gamo Zone, Southern Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from March 1 to 30, 2019 with 452 participants studied using systematic random sampling technique. Data was collected using a pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire from March 1 to 30, 2019. The data were coded, cleaned and entered into Epi-data manager version 4.2.2.1 and exported to SPSS version 23 for advanced analysis. Binary logistic regression was performed to identify associated factors of immediate PPIUCD acceptability. Results: This study revealed that about 161 (35.6%) in 95% CI (31.0, 39.6) of the study participants accepted immediate PPIUCD. Multiparty (AOR = 2.33, 95% CI, (1.29, 4.20)), completed antenatal follow up (AOR = 3.65, 95% CI, (2.22, 5.99)), counselling (AOR= 8.38, 95% CI, (4.85, 14.48)) and prior discussion (AOR=2.57, 95% CI, (1.51, 4.36)) were statistically significant. Conclusion and Recommendation: Even though 58% of the mothers were counselled about PPIUCD during the important cascade of pregnancy and 53% of the mothers completed antenatal service, efforts need to improve antenatal care services and integrate counselling services through the whole cascade of pregnancy.

During pregnancy, due to the physiological and hormonal change, the requirement of iron–folic acid is enhanced. Therefore, the occurrence of iron/folic acid deficiency is relatively high and it is responsible for 95% of anemia during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to assess adherence to prenatal iron–folic acid supplementation (IFAS) and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care services at public health facilities of Dilla town. Facility-based cross-sectional study design was employed selecting 403 pregnant women attending antenatal care services in three public health institutions of Dilla town. The women were included in the study by simple random sampling. Data were collected by interview and document review. Then it was entered into EPI Data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regression techniques were used to identify independent predictors. A p-value <0.05 was taken as indication of statistical significance. From the total of planned 403 pregnant women, 396 participated in the study, with a response rate of 98.2%. Of these, 172 (43.4%) pregnant women were adhered to IFAS. The study also revealed that history of previous anemia (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.87; 95% confidence interval (CI): (1.01–3.47); p = 0.04), frequency of antenatal care center (ANC) visits (AOR = 2.51; 95% CI: (1.17–5.37); p = 0.01), knowledge of IFA supplement (AOR = 2.28; 95% CI: (1.36–3.82); p = 0.002), and knowledge of anemia (AOR = 2.30; 95% CI: (1.40–3.77); p = 0.001) were independent predictors of adherence to IFAS. The finding of this study showed that less than half of the pregnant women were adhered to IFAS. History of previous anemia, frequency of ANC visits, knowledge of IFA supplement, and knowledge of anemia were the factors associated with adherence to IFA supplement.

Proper hand hygiene practices are critical in disease prevention and control, including preventing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, but according to a recent global report, three billion people lack access to basic hand washing facilities (soap and water) at home. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the challenges related to safe and adequate water provision for hand hygiene in the prevention of COVID-19 in Gedeo Zone, SNNPR, Ethiopia. An institutional-based cross-sectional study design was used to assess the challenges associated with safe water supply in the prevention of COVID-19 in Gedeo Zone. Simple random sampling was used. The water sector's challenges were assessed using in-depth interviews with key informants. Water samples were collected from hand washing stations using a sterile bottle and the standard tap water sampling procedure. Bacterial analysis was carried out using membrane filtration techniques. The Wagtech Palin test and the Delagua portable water testing kit procedure was used to analyze World Health Organization (WHO) critical physicochemical parameters. The physicochemical analysis of the sample water from the hand washing facilities reveals that the pH (6.5–8) is within the WHO guideline in all samples except Gedeb town (11.1%). The residual chlorine in the samples was less than 0.2 mg/l, which is below the standard in all towns, but 15.8% of the samples in Wonago town were between 0.2–0.5mg/l. Faecal coliforms were not found in 27.5%, 21.0%, 16.6%, and 40.7% of the samples collected in Dilla, Wonago, Yirgachefe, and Gedeb town, respectively. The remaining samples were all positive for faecal coliforms. Unbalanced demand versus supply, inaccessibility, supply interruptions, financial constraints, a scarcity of competent human resources, a lack of regular water quality assessments, and a lack of stakeholder support were all identified as major challenges by all water sectors of the study towns. The majority of hand washing water samples from all of the study towns were bacteriologically unsafe. The water sector must work hard to ensure that the community has safe drinking water. All responsible bodies and potential stakeholders must support the water sectors in the Gedeo zone.