Search

Malaria control programs in Africa traditionally focus on rural settings, although transmission is also a health concern in some urban settings (1). Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes breed predominantly in urban settings, [...]

BACKGROUND: Rapid Ethical Assessment (REA) is a rapid qualitative study anticipated to understand the ethical sphere of the research setting prior to recruiting study subjects. This study assessed the communities' knowledge about tuberculosis (TB) and research, understand the social arrangements advisable for recruiting research participant and appraised the information provision and consent process. METHODS: The study was conducted in Amhara region, Ethiopia from 5th-30th January 2021. Google-based survey, face-to-face in-depth interview and focus group discussion were carried out to collect the data from researchers, data collectors, health professionals, TB program officers. A structured questionnaire was administered to assess the knowledge of TB patients and healthy controls about TB, research, gene, (co)evolution and consent process. RESULTS: Over 71% of researchers were not satisfied with the current consent process, and 82.7% of researchers agreed that the best interest of the research participants was not adequately addressed in the current research practices in ANRS. TB patients and healthy controls misunderstood research and its goals. Participants advised the researchers to approach the community with the assistance of health extension workers (HEW) or religious/local leaders. Combined use of verbal and written based information provision at individual participant level is the preferred way for information provision. CONCLUSIONS: The adherence of researchers to standard information provision and consent process was very low. Healthy controls and TB patients have low level of knowledge and awareness about research, ethics and genomic researchrelated common terms. Hence, public education is required to strengthen the research ethics in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the leading causes of hospital-acquired infections and the most common antimicrobialresistant pathogens. It is associated with a variety of infections. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of P. aeruginosa and its antimicrobial resistance profile from different clinical specimens at Debre Tabor Comprehensive Referral Hospital (DTCRH). METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from May to July 2022 at DTCRH. Socio-demographic and clinical data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Clinical samples (blood, wound swab, urine, and sputum) were collected from 348 study participants and processed following the standard bacteriological techniques. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was done by the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 25 statistical software. Descriptive statistics was used to present the findings of the study. RESULTS: The prevalence of P.aeruginosa was 74(19.3%). The detection of the isolates was different based on the type of samples that ranged from 0% to 54.5% from sputum and wound swabs, respectively. P.aeruginosa showed resistance against gentamicin at 62.2%, ceftazidime 51.4%, cefepime 50%, amikacin 29.7%, imipenem 28.4% and ciprofloxacin 14.9%. The level of multi-drug resistance (MDR) was 45.9%, and the suspicious extreme-drug resistance (XDR) rate was 9.5%. Being inpatient and wound swab samples were factors associated with the detection of P.aeruginosa from clinical samples. CONCLUSION: The antibiotic resistance profile of P. aeruginosa isolates in the present study area was found to be alarming. Actions to minimize the effect of antimicrobial resistance should be strengthened, and further large-scale study should be conducted to find out the main reasons behind antibiotic resistance of P.aeruginosa and other clinically relevant isolates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]