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Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are hepatotropic viruses whose primary replication occurs in the liver. Despite the significant clinical importance of early screening of hepatitis B and C virus infection in decreasing the hepatotoxicity effect of anti-tuberculosis drugs, screening of hepatitis B and C virus among tuberculosis (TB) patients before treatment has not been practiced in Ethiopia. Thus, this study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence and associated factors of HBV and HCV infections among pulmonary TB (PTB) patients attending health facilities in Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 145 bacteriologically confirmed PTB patients from January 1 to May 30, 2019. After obtaining a signed informed consent from each participant, data on socio-demographic, clinical, and associated factors were collected using a structured pre-tested questionnaire. Besides, a blood sample was collected to determine HBsAg and HCV antibodies by enzyme linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA). The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 21. A Fisher's exact test was used to see the relationship between dependent and independent variables, and a p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Out of the 145 PTB patients screened, 5 (3.4%) patients tested positive for HBsAg, yet none of them were found to be positive for anti-HCV. Besides, the proportion of HIV-positive was 12 (8.3%). History of hospital admission (P= 0.005), tattooing (P= 0.009) and dental extraction (P=0.003) were significantly associated with HBsAg. Conclusion: Although anti-HCV antibodies were not detected, the prevalence of HBV was relatively high in tuberculosis patients. This study highlights the need for the introduction of routine screening of viral hepatitis markers for all TB patients before anti-TB treatment for better management of patients. Likewise, further clinical and epidemiological studies are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sexually transmitted infections are among the most common causes of illnesses in the world and have far reaching health, social and economic consequences. They are important because of their magnitude, potential complications and interactions with HIV/AIDS. Though the problem may be generally similar to other developing countries, there is scarce information on the incidence and prevalence of sexually transmitted infections in Ethiopia. This study was then aimed to determine the magnitude of sexually transmitted infections among patients visiting a clinic in Gondar town, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods: Medical records of patients who visited the clinic from January 2011 to December 2011 were reviewed. Sociodemographic and clinical data were extracted using data extraction form. The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16 statistical package. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests were carried out. Results: A total of 1071 clients visited the clinic during the study period. Among these, 383 (35.8%) had complained symptoms of sexually transmitted infections. The mean (SD) age of the patients was 26.8 ± 7.4 years. The commonest chief complaints were vaginal discharge (38.4%) and urethral discharge (13.6%). Seventy seven percent of the cases did not bring their sexual partners for treatment. Conclusion: There was a high magnitude of STIs in the clinic according to the syndromic approach. However, the actual prevalence of STIs and the associated factors in the community need to be determined through further studies. The results of this study also urge the need for evaluation of the syndromic approach and test for antimicrobial resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. About 10% to 15% of in-hospital urinary tract infections (UTIs) are due to Candida species, and the prevalence is still increasing. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine fungal causative agents of UTI in asymptomatic and symptomatic diabetic patients and associated risk factors. Materials and Methods. Between May and June 2010, a total of 422 diabetic patients with asymptomatic UTI (n = 387) and symptomatic UTI (n = 35) were investigated for UTI at Gondar University Hospital. Clean-catch midstream urine specimens were collected from each participant. Fungal urine culture and identification were done using standard microbiologic procedure. Results. The age range of the participants was 20 to 84 years (mean, 42.3 years). Significant candiduria was detected in 7.5% and 17.1% of asymptomatic and symptomatic diabetic patients, respectively. The overall prevalence of significant candiduria in both groups was 8.3%. Candida species were isolated in 38 urine samples. Of these, 84.2% were from the asymptomatic diabetic patients and the remaining 15.8% were from the symptomatic patients. The most common species were C albicans (42.0%), C glabrata (34.2%), and C tropicalis (15.8%). Significant candiduria was strongly associated with being female. Conclusions. The presence of candiduria in diabetic patients should not be neglected. Although C albicans is the organism most often associated with serious fungal infection, other Candida species are also isolated as clinically important opportunistic pathogens in type 2 diabetic patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) plays a significant role in the clinical management of HIV infected people by preventing morbidity and mortality. This benefit becomes, the most terrible when treatment failure develops. Thus, this research aims to assess the prevalence and associated factors of treatment failure among HIV/AIDS patients on HAART attending University of Gondar Referral Hospital Northwest Ethiopia. Results: Patients on ART with a minimum of 6 months and up to 12 years of treatment were being enrolled. The prevalence of treatment failure, immunological failure and virological failure among people living with HIV/AIDS attending University of Gondar referral hospital were 20.3, 13.2, and 14.7%, respectively. Patients who had no formal education (Adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 3.8; 95% CI, 1.05–13.77), primary level education (AOR: 4.2; 95% CI, 1.16–15.01) and duration on ART < 6 years (AOR: 2.1; 95%CI, 1.12–3.81) were a significant risk factor. However, initial adult regimen D4T + 3TC+ EFV (AOR: 0.025; 95% CI, 0.002–0.36), AZT +3TC + NVP (AOR: 0.07; 95% CI, 0.01–0.71), AZT + 3TC + EFV (AOR: 0.046; 95% CI, 0.004–0.57) andTDF+3TC + EFV (AOR: 0.04; 95% CI, 0.004–0.46) were significantly protective for treatment failure. Conclusions: Timely and early identification of associated factors and monitoring antiretroviral therapy treatment failure should be done to enhance the benefit and to prevent further complication of the patients. It is preferable to initiate ART using any one of the following ART regimens: AZT +3TC + NVP, AZT + 3TC + EFV and TDF + 3TC + EFV to prevent treatment failure. Since the prevalence of this treatment failure and its associated factor may be different from other ART centers and community in Ethiopia, further national representative institutional based cross-sectional researches are needed across all ART centers of Ethiopia in order to determine the prevalence of treatment failure and its associated factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]