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Access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) is a global public health problem. The situation is worst in conflict areas, where people are displaced from their usual homes. Household supply of WASH and the incidence of diarrhoeal disease among children during the war in Tigray are not known or documented. The objective of this study was to investigate the sources of drinking water, sanitation and hygiene practices, and the incidence of diarrhoeal diseases among children during the war in Tigray, Ethiopia. A cross—sectional study was conducted to collect data on selected WASH indicators in six zones of Tigray from August 4-20, 2021. Data were collected from a total of 4381 sample households selected by lottery. Descriptive analysis was performed and the analysed data are presented in tables, figures and explanatory notes. Binary logistic regression was performed to examine the relationship between independent and dependent variables. A total of 4381 households from 52 woredas participated in the study. Approximately 67.7% of the study participants reported that they relied on an improved source of drinking water during the war. Coverage of sanitation, hand washing, and menstrual hygiene during the war was reported as 43.9%, 14.5%, and 22.1%, respectively. The prevalence of diarrhoeal diseases among children was 25.5% during the war. Water source, latrine type, solid waste disposal and health extension worker visits were the significant predictors of the likelihood of diarrhoea in children (p

Background Hepatitis B and C viruses are the major public health concerns of the globe. The two hepatotropic viruses share common modes of transmission and their co-infection is common. Despite the provision of an effective prevention mechanism, the infections caused by these viruses remain a significant problem worldwide, particularly among developing countries like Ethiopia. Methods This institutional-based retrospective study was conducted between January 2014 December and December 2019 from documented laboratory logbooks of Adigrat general hospital serology laboratory, Tigrai, Ethiopia. data were collected and checked for completeness on a daily based, coded, entered, and cleaned using Epinfo version 7.1, exported and analyzed using SPSS version 23. Binary logistic regression analysis and Chi-square test (X2) assessed the association between dependent and independent variables. The corresponding variables with a P-value (P Results Out of 20,935 clinically suspected individuals, 20,622 were given specimens and tested for hepatitis B and C viruses with total completeness of 98.5%. The overall prevalence of hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus was found to be 3.57% (689/19,273) and 2.13% (30/1,405), respectively. The positivity rate of the hepatitis B virus was 8.0% (106/1317) and 3.24% (583/17,956) among males and females, respectively. Additionally, 2.49%( 12/481) of males and 1.94% (18/924) of females were positive for hepatitis C virus infection. The overall prevalence of co-infection for both hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus was 7.4% (4/54). Sex and age were significantly associated with hepatitis B and C virus infection. Conclusions The overall prevalence of hepatitis B and C is low intermediate according to the WHO criteria. Although there was a fluctuating trend of hepatitis B and C through the years 2014–2019, the result shows moreover declining trend. Both hepatitis B and C share similar routes of transmission and affect all age categories but males were more highly affected than females. Therefore, awareness creation of the community about the methods of transmission, education about prevention, and control of hepatitis B and C virus infection, and improving coverage of youth-friendly services in health facilities should be strengthened.

Background Exposure to armed conflicts result in strongly adverse and often irreversible short- and long-term effects which may transmit across generations. Armed conflicts directly cause food insecurity and starvation by disruption and destruction of food systems, reduce farming populations, destroying infrastructure, reducing resilience, and increasing vulnerabilities, disruptions in access to market, increasing food price or making goods and services unavailable altogether. The objective of the present study was to determine the status of household food insecurity in the armed conflict affected communities of Tigray in terms of Access, Experience and Hunger scale. Method Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted to assess impact of armed conflict on household food insecurity among households with children with under one year. FHI 360 and FAO guidelines were used to quantify household food insecurity and Household hunger status. Results Three-fourth of the households had anxiety about food supply and eat undesired monotonous diet due to lack of resources. Households were obliged to eat few kinds of foods, eat smaller meals, eat foods they do not want to eat, or went a whole day without eating any food. Household food insecurity access, food insecurity experience, and hunger scales significantly increased by 43.3 (95% CI: 41.9–44.7), 41.9 (95% CI: 40.5–43.3) and 32.5 (95% CI: 31.0-33.9) percentage points from the prewar period. Conclusions Household food insecurity levels and household hunger status of the study communities was unacceptably high. The armed conflict has significant negative effect on food security in Tigray. It is recommended that the study communities need to be protected from the immediate and long-term consequences of conflict-induced household food insecurity.

Background An unmet need for contraception is associated with unintended pregnancy and adverse maternal and childhood outcomes. Family planning counselling is linked with reduced unmet need for contraception. However, evidence is lacking in Ethiopia on the impact of integrated family planning counselling on the unmet need for contraception. This study aimed to examine the association between family planning counselling and the unmet need for contraception in Ethiopia. Methods We used community-based prospective cohort study data from a nationally representative survey conducted by Performance Monitoring for Action Ethiopia between 2019 and 2020. Women who had received three maternal and child health (MCH) services (n = 769) - antenatal care (ANC), facility delivery and child immunisation - were included in this study. The primary exposure variable was family planning counselling provided during the different MCH services. A weighted modified Poisson regression model was used to estimate the adjusted relative risk (aRR) of the unmet need for contraception. Results The prevalence of family planning counselling during ANC, prior to discharge, and child immunisation was 22%, 28%, and 28%, respectively. Approximately one-third (34%) of the women had an unmet need for contraception. Family planning counselling prior to discharge from the facility was associated with reductions in the unmet need for contraception (aRR 0.88; 95% CI 0.67, 1.16). The risk of unmet need for contraception was 31% (aRR 0.69; 95% CI 0.48, 0.98) less likely among women who had received family planning counselling during child immunisation services. However, family planning counselling during ANC was associated with an increased unmet need for contraception (aRR 1.24; 95% CI 0.93, 1.64). Conclusion Strongest evidence was observed for moderate associations between reductions in the unmet need for contraception and family planning counselling during the provision of child immunisation services in Ethiopia.

Background Despite numerous interventions, child undernutrition continues as a problem of global concern. Although consumption of animal source foods has shown positive associations with child undernutrition, no much evidence exists on its trends and predictors among children in Tigrai. Objectives This study aimed to investigate the trends in and predictors of consumption of animal source foods among children 6–23 months of age in Tigrai. Methodology This study used complex data of 756 children extracted from three consecutive Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys. Data were analyzed using STATA 14.0 by accounting for sampling weight and cluster and strata variables. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine the independent predictors of animal source foods consumption. Odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were used to measure strength of association at a statistical significance of p Results Although statistically not significant (p-trend = 0.28), animal source foods consumption increased from 31.3% to 2005 through 35.9% in 2011 to 41.5% in 2016. For every month increase in the age of a child, a 9% increment in the odds of animal source food consumption was observed. Muslim children showed 3.1 times higher odds of animal source food consumption than Orthodox Christians. The likelihood of animal source foods consumption were 33% lower among children born to mothers who didn’t attend formal education as compared to their counterparts. A unit increase in the number of household assets and number of livestock led to a 20% and 2% increase in the odds of animal source foods consumption, respectively. Conclusion Animal source foods consumption showed a statistically non-significant increase over the three consecutive Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys. This study found out that consumption of animal source foods might be increased through pro-maternal education policies, programs with household asset increasing schemes, and pro-livestock projects. Our study also highlighted the need for considering religion as one important player when planning or undertaking ASF programs.

The present study focused on synthesizing, characterization, and evaluating an in vitro anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic potential of green synthesized silver nanoparticles (TB-Ag NPs) from aqueous stem bark extract of Terminalia brownii (TB-AQ). The TB-Ag NPs were characterized by ultraviolet (UV)-visible, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), dynamic light X-ray diffraction, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, as well as scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The in vitro anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic potential of TB-Ag NPs and TB-AQ were evaluated against RAW 264.7 macrophage and MDA-MB-231 triple-negative breast cancer cells, respectively, by using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Further, the inhibitory effect on LPS-induced production of inflammatory mediators PGE2 and NO in RAW 264.7 cell lines was evaluated. The results showed that TB-Ag NPs were crystalline with face-centered spherical polydispersed shaped nanoparticles with an average size between 20 and 67 ± 0.5 nm. Also, TB-Ag NPs had no cytotoxic effect on RAW cells (normal healthy cells) in the range of 6.25–50 µg/mL. Besides, TB-Ag NPs at 50 µg/mL concentration exhibited 67.02% of cytotoxic effect against MDA-MB-231 cells with observed IC50 values of 29.08 µg/mL. TB-Ag NPs have shown significantly in vitro anti-inflammatory activities by exhibiting dose-dependent NO and PGE2 inhibitory activities with IC50 values of 32.82 µg/mL and 67.25 µg/mL, respectively. This study concluded that the novel green synthesized TB-Ag NPs can be used as a potential novel anti-inflammatory and cytotoxicity agent to treat inflammatory-related diseases and inflammatory breast cancer (invasive ductal carcinoma) with biocompatible nature by targeting the tumor environment.