Browsing by Author "Assefa, Anteneh"

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    Assessment of Overall Quality of Prevention of mother-to-child Transmission of HIV Service in Adama Town, Oromia Region
    (Addis Abeba Universty, 2009-06) Assefa, Anteneh; Mitike, Getnet(PhD)
    Background: Sub-Saharan Africa in which Ethiopia is a part remains the most seriously affected region with AIDS in the year 2007. More than 60% of all new HIV infections are occurring in women, infants, and young children in this region. In 2005 alone, an estimated 540,000 children were newly infected with HIV, with approximately 90% of these infections occurring in this region. Objective: To assess quality of PMTCT services and client satisfaction in private and public health facilities in Adama city, Oromia Region. Methodology: A facility based cross-sectional study which involved quantitative and qualitative approach was conducted from September 2008 to June 2009. It involved 423 pregnant women and 31 health providers. Results: From all pregnant women interviewed, 74.7% of them were found to be fully satisfied with the PMTCT service they received. Only 39% of the clients understood the counseling on MTCT and PMTCT. Not more than 90% of the pregnant women were counseled and accepted HIV testing and partners of 6.34% of the pregnant women were tested for HIV. The average duration of stay of clients with their health care provider was 12.8 minutes where the standard is 15 minutes. The average clients' waiting time was 41.5 minutes and 21.5 minutes in private health facilities and governmental health facilities respectively. From women of reproductive age group who were infected with the virus, 18% of them were counseled on family planning and started to use family planning. About 97% of the HEIs had received ARV prophylaxis. Cotrimoxazole prophylaxis was started at two months of age for 87.4% of the HEIs. More than half (60%) of the pregnant women came to the center they visited after being recommended to come by their friends or partners. Clients gave more weight to the ethical approach of providers to express their degree of satisfaction. Only two third of the health providers who are directly involved in PMTCT services received training on VCT for PMTCT. From the providers’ side the most eminent problems were lack of training to update PDF Creator - PDF4Free v2.0 http://www.pdf4free.com viii themselves with current knowledge/skills, lack of feedback on job performance and lack of incentive for the additional burden added to them. The national PMTCT guideline was available and in use in only two among the eight health facilities assessed. Conclusion: About two third (74.7%) of the clients were fully satisfied with the PMTCT service they received. Little more than half (52%) of pregnant women were counseled on MTCT and PMTCT. Less stay of health providers with the clients, long waiting time of clients, unavailability of advanced medical equipments and laboratory tests, lack of conformation to the national PMTCT guideline, and poor infrastructure were the most significant factors which compromised the quality of PMTCT services. Lack of family planning service provision together with HIV/AIDS services and lack of male involvement in PMTCT services were also among the factors which compromised the achievement of the PMTCT program. Recommendation: Offering counseling on MTCT and PMTCT to all pregnant women, to deliver quality and comprehensive PMTCT interventions by reducing clients’ waiting time as much as possible, enabling women to communicate with their partners about HIV testing, offering strong supportive supervision to health facilities and capacity building, and creating a strong link between HIV/AIDS and reproductive health services are crucial to improve the quality of PMTCT services.
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    An Assessment of the Participation of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia (Cse) in the Secondary School Chemistry Curriculum Development Processes
    (Addis Ababa University, 2008-06) Assefa, Anteneh; Eshete, Akalewold (Associate Professor)
    The purposes of this study were to assess the participation of the Chemical Society of Ethiopian (CSE) in the secondary school Chemistry curriculum development processes; and to identify the factors that impede the participation of CSE in these processes. Instruments used to collect data were questionnaire, interview and document analysis. Forty two members of CSE who were selected by available sampling technique involved in the study. The collected data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively using percentage and mean value. The outcome of the analysis reveal that the participation of the CSE in Chemistry curriculum planning, implementation and evaluation processes was insignificant, except performing limited activities which could be useful to support the implementation of the curriculum. The major identified factors that impede the participation of CSE in the curriculum planning, implementation and evaluation processes were the financial problem; lack of commitment of the executive committee and members of CSE to participate in the planning, implementation and evaluation; the absence of considerable communication between CSE and the government bodies like schools, Regional Education Bureau and ICDR; and CSE was not considered as potential source of information by ICDR and other concerned bodies. Finally, constructive recommendations were suggested to improve the participation of CSE in curriculum planning, implementation and evaluation processes.
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    Physicochemical Characterization of Plectranthus Edulis (Ethiopian Potato) Starch and its Evaluation as a Disintegrant In Paracetamol Tablet Formulations
    (Addis Ababa University, 2015-01) Assefa, Anteneh; Gebre-Mariam, Tsige(Professor); Belete, Anteneh (PhD)
    Plectranthus edulis, Vatke (P. edulis) [fam., Lamiaceae], is an ancient Ethiopian tuber crop and one of the traditional root crops indigenous to Ethiopia. It is a large (~1m high) and an erect herbaceous plant with hirsute, decumbent and glandular stems, and leaves of lanceolate to elliptic and root of swollen nodes which produces edible underground potato-like tubers. Starch from the tubers of P. edulis was isolated using 0.075% (w/v) sodium metabisulphite and it gave a yield of about 80.4% on dry weight basis. The starch was examined for the chemical composition, amylose content, physicochemical properties and evaluated for its applicability as a pharmaceutical disintegrant in tablet formulations. The proximate composition of the starch on dry weight basis was found to be 0.14% ash, 0.21% lipid, 0.43% protein, and 99.22% starch. The amylose content was 30.6%. Its true density, moisture content and pH values were 1.47 g/ml, 11.2% and 6.6, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the starch granules showed characteristic morphology that was oblong (elliptical) with some oval in shapes. The starch showed a monomodal normal granule size distribution with a mean particle size of 36.2 μm and specific surface area of 0.302 m2/g. The DSC thermograms of P. edulis starch exhibited higher T0 (69.2 oC), Tp (74.3 oC) and Te (83.3 oC) values than potato starch. X-Ray Diffraction pattern of the starch was typical B-type with a distinctive maximum peak at 17.5o 2θ. The FTIR spectral features of the starches show characteristic peaks at 3325, 2930, 1462, 1377, 1155, 860 cm-1 attributed to various stretching and bending vibrations of O–H, C–H, C–O, or C–O–C bonds for starches. It has typical swelling power, solubility and moisture sorption pattern at different conditions of temp and relative humidities. It possesses higher values relative to potato starch, but its solubility values are lower than potato starch at all temp studied. The comparative disintegrant abilities of these starches in paracetamol tablet formulations prepared by wet granulation method were studied. The granules prepared with the starches (P. edulis starch and potato starch) at different disintegrant concentrations were characterized for particle size distribution and flow properties. The excellent flow property of the granules was manifested by the weight uniformity of tablets. The crushing strength, friability, disintegration time, and dissolution rate of the tablets were studied using standard methods. The results II indicated that the properties of paracetamol tablets formulated with both starches as disintegrants were affected by their concentration and the compression force (CF). Increasing the concentration of the starches reduced the crushing strength and disintegration time of the tablets and increased the percent friability of the tablets. Conversely, increasing the CF increased crushing strength and disintegration time of the tablets and reduced the percent friability of tablets. The results have shown that P. edulis starch has favorably competed with potato starch as a disintegrant in the paracetamol tablet formulations. The optimization study of P. edulis starch as a disintegrant in paracetamol tablets was carried out by selecting the CF (X1) and P. edulis starch concentration (X2) as factors, and crushing strength, percent friability and disintegration time as response variables; and employing central composite statistical design (CCD). Design-Expert 8.0.7.1 software was utilized in the experimental design, statistical analysis and optimization process. Using the software several statistical parameters were compared, quadratic model for all the three responses were selected, and the adequacy of the models were checked by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The ANOVA results revealed that quadratic model is significant for the terms (factors) and responses studied. A quadratic mathematical model was developed; and the optimum formulation of paracetamol tablet containing P. edulis starch as a disintegrant was obtained by simultaneous optimization of the responses. From the optimum region, a CF (X1) of 14.40 KN and a disintegrant concentration (X2) of 5.96% was selected to check the validity and predictability of the design. The predicted values of crushing strength, friability and disintegration time of the formulation at the aforementioned levels of factors closely matched with the results of actual experimentation. Thus, the optimization technique provided the optimum formulation of paracetamol tablet containing P. edulis starch as a disintegrant. The results of the physicochemical characterization of P. edulis starch, as well as the comparative and optimization study of the starch as a disintegrant in the tablet formulations indicate that P. edulis can be used as an alternative source of starch for applications in the pharmaceutical industry. Keywords: Plectranthus edulis, Starch, Differential scanning calorimetry, Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Tablet disintegrant, Optimization, Central Composite Design