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Background: Non-adherence to tuberculosis (TB) treatment is an important barrier for TB prevention and control. Poor adherence may result in prolonged disease infectiousness, drug resistance, relapse and death. The aim of this study was to assess factors influencing adherence to tuberculosis treatment in selected health facilities in Asmara, Eritrea.Methods: A qualitative study which included in-depth interviews with 12 TB patients, three focus group discussions in selected health facilities in which one group comprised eight patients and key informant interviews with three health workers. Data analysis was done by translating and transcribing the verbatim of the interviews and focus group discussions. Transcribed data was then analysed using thematic framework procedure.Results: This study found that patients lacked knowledge about the cause, transmission and duration of treatment of TB. The most common reason mentioned for discontinuing treatment was the patient "felt cured". Almost half of the respondents did not know the standard treatment duration and the consequences they face if they halt treatment. Patients reported losing their job when their diagnosis was known, were too ill to continue working or unable to find daily work due to time-consuming treatment arrangements. With few exceptions, the majority of patients reported that the short distance to the clinic encouraged them to attend regular treatment follow-up. Most of the respondents were unable to get enough food, leading to stress and feelings of hopelessness. Lack of social support for most of the patients was a critical factor for adherence as were stigma, medication side effects and long treatment duration. Recognized as an enabler to treatment adherence, health workers had good communication and positive attitude towards their patients.Conclusion: Lack of knowledge, loss of income, stigma and lack of social support, drug side effects and long treatment duration emerged as important barriers for treatment adherence. Short distances to health facilities, good communication and accepting attitude of health care providers emerged as enablers for treatment adherence. For better treatment adherence, comprehensive health education at treatment sites, patient's family members and the community at large and strengthening of social support structures need to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dental caries is one of the most prevalent diseases of childhood in developing countries. However, there is a paucity of epidemiological data on the prevalence and associated factors of dental caries in Eritrea. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of dental caries among 12 years old school children in Eritrea. Methods: A school based cross sectional study was conducted among 225 twelve years old students in two selected schools. One school from randomly selected urban and rural subzones of the country were selected. WHO adopted questionnaire and a standard checklist were used to collect relevant data. To assess dental caries, two examiners were calibrated by a certified dentist and inter observer agreement was calculated using the Cohen's Kappa statistic (0.82). All data analysis was done using SPSS version 20. Results: The prevalence of dental caries was 78%, without significant difference between males (78%) and females (79%).The mean DMFT value was 2.50 (±2.21). The decayed component contributed 98.3% of the score as it had 2.44 (±1.2) share to the mean DMFT value. The first molar was the most affected tooth with a DMFT value of 1.55 (±1.36). The mean significant caries index score (SiC) was 4.97 (±1.9) which is higher than the upper limit of SiC value of 3 set by the WHO as a global average. More than half of the respondents had never visited a dentist and out of the students who had utilized a dental health facility, 82% of visits were due to dental pain while visits for regular checkups were cited by only 6.6% of the respondents. Conclusion: Dental caries was found to be a common public health problem among 12 years old Eritrean students. The prevalence of dental caries, mean DMFT and SiC scores were higher than the average score of other developing countries. Gaps in dental health service utilization, dental health practices and suboptimal water fluoride levels contribute to poor dental health among school children in Eritrea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]