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Introduction: Zinc and copper are essential for normal human development and functioning of the body. They have been implicated to play important roles in immuno-physiologic functions. Studies assessing the interactions between diarrheal diseases, HIV/AIDS and micronutrient status are too few in Ethiopia, as in other sub-Saharan Africa where morbidities from diarrheal diseases and HIV/AIDS are serious health problems. Hence, the present study was undertaken to investigate the level of zinc and copper as well as zinc/copper ratio among HIV positive diarrheic patients with sex and age matched HIV negative diarrheic patients. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted amongst 206 diarrheic patients (109 HIV seropositive and 97 HIV seronegative) patients. Concentration of serum level of zinc and copper was determined by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer. Reference intervals were defined according to recommended guidelines. Results: Mean serum zinc level were not significantly different between diarrheic patients with (68.13 ± 44.53µg/ dL) and without (62.39 ± 43.64) HIV co-infection. Deficiency of zinc was seen in 69.7% and 80.4%% of diarrheic patients with and without HIV co-infection, respectively. HIV infected diarrheic patients with shigellosis (100%) and with intestinal parasites (63.3%) were deficient in serum zinc level. Unlike zinc, no diarrheic patients with or without HIV co-infection were found significantly deficient in serum copper levels. Conclusion: Zinc deficiency is a severe public health problem in Gondar, Ethiopia, among diarrheic patients ir respective of HIV co-infection. Further studies are required to establish the role of these low concentrations in host defense against diarrheic patients with or without HIV, so that appropriate and beneficial strategies for micronutrient supplementation can be planned.

Background: Selenium deficiency is known to be a major public health problem, associated with increased risk of mortality with AIDS and AIDS-related complex, diarrhea included compared to those of healthy controls. In Ethiopia, there are no studies conducted on serum selenium status diarrheic patients with and without HIV infection. Therefore, the present study was aimed at determining the level of serum selenium in HIV infected and sex and aged matched HIV negative diarrheic patients.. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 206 (97 HIV seronegative and 109 HIV seropositive) diarrheic patients of both genders seen at University of Gondar Hospital, Gondar, Ethiopia. Serum selenium was measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer. Results: The mean and standard deviation of serum selenium levels in HIV seropositives was 5.90 ± 2.78 μg/dl and in HIV seronegatives was 6.99 ± 4.26 μg/dl. Deficiency of selenium was seen in 95.9% and 71.56% of diarrheic patients with and without HIV co-infection, respectively. The over all selenium deficiency was observed in 83.0% of patients included in the study irrespective of their HIV serostatus while 85.3%of the patients infected with HIV and 80.4% of patients without HIV infection had serum selenium level below 7μg/dl. The low serum selenium level was not associated with presence or absence of intestinal parasites neither with sociodemographic variables such as age, residence, marital status, occupation, monthly income. The mean serum selenium level of all male cases was statistically significantly lower than that of the females (P

Background: The ocular manifestations of HIV may lead to visual impairment or blindness. In Ethiopia, patients typically initiate antiretroviral treatment (ART) with low CD4 cell counts when the risk of ocular complications may be high. Objective: To determine the prevalence and types of HIV associated ocular conditions in patients referred for on HAART in Ethiopia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was undertaken between March 2010 and August 2010 at the ART clinic of Gondar University Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia. Ophthalmic examinations were performed on all consecutive patients satisfying the criteria for enrolment into the ART clinic irrespective of the presence or absence of ophthalmic/visual symptoms. Results: Enrolled patients (n = 126), of these 70 (57.6%) were females with male to female ratio of 1:1.25 and had a median CD4 cell count of 183 cell/μL (inter-quartile range [IQR], 105-253 cells/μL). About 76.2% of the patients had either Stage I or II. Ninety one (72.3%) of the patients had a CD4 count more than 200 cells/μL at the time of examination. The prevalence of HIV-associated ocular disease was 21.4%. Retinal Microvasculopathy was the commonest finding seen in 9 (7%). The other ocular manifestations noted included: uveitis 4 (3.2%), ophthalmic Herpes Zoster 3 (2.4%), Seborrheic blepharitis 3 (2.4%) and Molluscum contagiosum 3 (2.4%). One patient was found to have disseminated Kaposi sarcoma that had involved the eyelids. Conclusion: The study demonstrates that HIV/AIDS affects the eyes patients on HAART. It is, hence, recommended that eye care should be a part of the package of medical care in the management of patients on HAART.

Background: HIV/AIDS remains a major health problem in Sub-Saharan Africa. Co-infection with intestinal parasites has been suggested to worsen the outcome of infection by polarizing the immune response towards Th2. This study investigated the IgE profile in patients with diarrhea and with or without HIV and/or intestinal parasites co-infection at the time of diagnosis. Methods and Materials: A cross-sectional study was conducted among diarrheic patients with and without HIV/AIDS attending at the outpatient Department of the University of Gondar teaching hospital, in Gondar, Ethiopia. Stool samples were examined using standard parasitological procedures. The presence of HIV antibodies was determined by an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay following the manufacturer’s instruction. Results: Among tested diarrheic patients, 109 (52.9%) of them were seropositive for HIV. Chronic and acute diarrheas were diagnosed in 114(55.3%) and 92(44.7%) of the patients, respectively. Intestinal parasites were detected in 30(27.5%) among HIV seropositive and 36(37.1%) of HIV seronegative diarrheic patients. Diarrhea and marked weight loss were found to be significantly associated with HIV infection (P 0.05) higher than in HIV negative diarrheic patients (618 IU/ml, IQR 304.50-739 IU/ml). Significantly higher association of median total IgE level was obtained in diarrheic male patients (624 IU/ml, IQR 325.50-857.25 IU/ml) than diarrheic female patients (490 IU/ml, IQR 39-835 IU/ml), P

The study aimed to determine the prevalence, etiological agents and drug susceptibility pattern of bacterial pathogens isolated from postoperative surgical site infections and hospital environment in Gondar University Teaching Hospital. Specimens were taken from patients with post operative surgical site infections seen at wards and from hospital environment. Specimens were processed for bacteriological analysis and antibiotic susceptibility test according standard procedures. Antimicrobial susceptibility test for isolated organisms was done using disk diffusion method. Of 111 pathogenic bacteria, Escherichia coli 27 (24.3%), Staphylococcus aureus 26 (23.4%), Coagulase negative Staphylococci 22 (19.8%) and Enterobacter spp. 11 (9.9%) were dominant isolates. The prevalence of methicillin resistant S. aureus was 9 (34.6%). Seventeen (77.3%) and 1 (4.5%) of coagulase negative Staphylococcus were methicillin and vancomycin resistant, respectively. Coagulase negative Staphylococcus 41 (41.8%), S. aureus 19 (19.4%) and P. aeruginosa 16 (16.3%) were the major isolates from 75 sites of the hospital environment with an isolation rate of 41 (54.7%). The prevalence of methicillin resistant S.aureus from the environment was 2 (2.0%). High level of multi-drug resistance was observed in bacteria isolates from patients compared to the bacteria isolated from the hospital environments. This study demonstrated high level of multi-drug resistance. Thus, antibiotic sensitivity testing should be carried out for all bacterial isolates of surgical wounds before chemotherapy administered to detect drug resistant strains.