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Background COVID-19 pandemic posed a major impact on the availability and affordability of essential medicines. This study aimed to assess the knock-on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the supply availability of non-communicable chronic disease (NCD) medicines and paracetamol products in Ethiopia. Methods A mixed methods study was conducted to assess the supply and availability of twenty-four NCD drugs and four paracetamol products listed on the national essential medicines list for hospitals. Data were collected from twenty-six hospitals located in seven zones of Oromia region in the southwestern part of Ethiopia. We extracted data on drug availability, cost and stock out for these drugs between May 2019 and December 2020. The quantitative data were entered into Microsoft Excel and exported to statistical package software for social science (SPSS) version 22 (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA) software for analysis. Results The overall mean availability of selected basket medicines was 63.4% (range 16.7% to 80.3%) during the pre-COVID-19 time. It was 46.3% (range 2.8% to 88.7) during the pandemic. There was a relative increase in the availability of two paracetamol products [paracetamol 500 mg tablet (67.5% versus 88.7%) and suppository (74.5% versus 88%)] during the pandemic. The average monthly orders fill rates for the selected products range from 43 to 85%. Pre-COVID-19, the average order fill rate was greater or equal to 70%. However, immediately after the COVID-19 case notification, the percentage of order(s) filled correctly in items and quantities began decreasing. Political instability, shortage of trained human resources, currency inflation, and limited drug financing were considered as the major challenges to medicine supply. Conclusion The overall stock out situation in the study area has worsened during COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID-19 time. None of the surveyed chronic disease basket medicines met the ideal availability benchmark of 80% in health facilities. However, availability of paracetamol 500 mg tablet surprisingly improved during the pandemic. A range of policy frameworks and options targeting inevitable outbreaks should exist to enable governments to ensure that medicines for chronic diseases are consistently available and affordable.

Additional file 1: Forest plot and meta-regression result of the prevalence of soil-transmitted helminths infections by region and species.

Additional file 1. Connected Woreda checklist and point allocations.

Tsigereda Alene,1 Asmamaw Atnafu,2 Zeleke Abebaw Mekonnen,3,4 Amare Minyihun2 1University of Gondar Specialized Comprehensive Hospital, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia; 2Department of Health System and Policy, Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia; 3Department of Health Informatics, Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia; 4Health Systems Directorate, Federal Ministry of Health, Addis Ababa, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Amare MinyihunUniversity of Gondar, P.o. Box: 196, Gondar, EthiopiaEmail amarebdr@gmail.comBackground: Cervical cancer is one of the profound threats to women’s lives and the fourth most common cancer among women. Ethiopia launched the human papilloma vaccination for the first time, with the support of the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI) in 2018. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the acceptability of the human papillomavirus vaccine and associated factors among parents of daughters in Gondar town, Northwest Ethiopia.Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study with a total sample of 946 study participants was conducted in Gondar town from April to May 2019. The study participants were selected using a multistage sampling technique from parents having a daughter of 9− 17 years age. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. The data were entered into EpiData version 4.2 and exported to STATA version 14 for analysis. Variables having a p-value of < 0.2 and < 0.05 in the bivariable and multivariable logistic regression were considered as a statistically significant factor for the acceptance of HPV vaccination.Results: A total of 899 study participants with a response rate of 95% were included in the study. Among participants in this study, 81.3% with 95% CI (78.6, 83.7) accepted to vaccinate their daughters for HPV vaccination. The acceptance to vaccinate daughters for HPV vaccination was affected by being from the richest household [AOR= 3.44, 95% CI = (1.97, 6.01)], good knowledge about cervical cancer [AOR=5.49, 95% CI= (2.62, 11.52)], and positive attitude towards HPV vaccination [AOR=21.53, 95% CI= (11.60, 39.96)].Conclusion: The study revealed that the acceptance to human papillomavirus vaccination is high and was significantly associated with the level of knowledge about cervical cancer, the attitude towards HPV vaccination, and the wealth status of the households. Therefore, community education on cervical cancer and its prevention is crucial to increase awareness and acceptance as well.Keywords: cervical cancer, HPV, acceptance, Gondar town, daughters

Standard diagnosis of human soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections is based on the microscopic detection of helminth eggs in stool and supports programmatic decision making in control programs. However, the current standard diagnostic techniques still show a number of limitations. Recently, the FECPAKG2 method was developed to detect helminth infections and asses drug efficacy in sheep or cattle. It includes a device that takes digital images of helminth eggs that have been concentrated into one microscopic field of view and stores these images online for future evaluation. The goal of this study was to introduce a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the detection and quantification of human STH eggs using the FECPAKG2 and to optimize 2 crucial steps of the protocol, namely the sedimentation step (aimed at separating sinking eggs from floating debris) and the accumulation step (aimed at concentrating the eggs by flotation).; A total of 55 stool samples from naturally infected children were used from 4 different geographical areas (Ethiopia, Laos, Tanzania and Brazil). The results showed that Trichuris eggs generally moved slower than eggs of the other two STH species during both sedimentation in water in the FECPAKG2 sedimenter as during accumulation in flotation solution in the FECPAKG2 cassettes. The highest number of eggs were present in the slurry of the sedimenter after overnight sedimentation (Ascaris: 95.7%, Trichuris: 89.8% and hookworm: 94.2% of the eggs). A minimum of 24 minutes were needed to ensure the accumulation of at least 80% of the eggs from all three STH species in the FECPAKG2 cassette (Ascaris: 96.1%; Trichuris: 88.2% and hookworm: 87.6%).; This study introduces for the first time a SOP for the FECPAKG2 method. Different aspects of the method for diagnosing human STH infections were optimized. Our study forms the basis for a thorough and objective evaluation of the system as a diagnostic tool that could be implemented in STH control programs.