Correction to: Foodborne intestinal protozoan infection and associated factors among patients with watery diarrhea in Northern Ethiopia; a cross-sectional study.

In the publication of this article [1], the contributing author name Brhane Berhe contains an error.

Trend analysis of malaria prevalence in Raya Azebo district, Northern Ethiopia: a retrospective study.

OBJECTIVE: Malaria remains still the leading cause of outpatient visits and death in Ethiopia. However, little is known about its trend in the study area. Hence, this study was aimed to assess 6-year (2011-2016) trend of malaria prevalence. A retrospective cross-sectional study design was conducted to assess 6-year trends of malaria prevalence in Raya Azebo district, North Ethiopia. Malaria case recorded from 2011 to 2016 was extracted using similar format. RESULT: A total of 29,930 malaria cases were reported from 2011 to 2016. Of these, 23,018 were confirmed cases while, 6912 were reported as clinical cases. Plasmodium falciparum (56.9%) was the most dominated species. Malaria was reported in all age group and both sexes with highest in male and > 15 age categories. The highest peak malaria distribution was occurred in spring season. The overall trends of malaria case were increased in the past 6 years (2011-2016) with exception slightly decreased from 2012 to 2013. Therefore, Strong effort is needed to improve malaria prevention and controlling method in study area.

Foodborne intestinal protozoan infection and associated factors among patients with watery diarrhea in Northern Ethiopia; a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Intestinal protozoa are parasites transmitted by consumption of contaminated water and food and mainly affect children and elder people and cause considerable health problems. They are the leading causes of outpatient morbidity due to diarrhea in the developing countries. So, assessing water and food source of diarrheal patients and identifying the main associated factors for transmission of protozoan parasitic infections help for effective control measures of protozoan infections. Hence, the current study was aimed at determining the prevalence of foodborne intestinal protozoa infections and associated factors among diarrheic patients in North Ethiopia. METHODS: A health facility based cross-sectional study was conducted among 223 patients with watery diarrhea in four selected government health facilities in North Ethiopia from November 2016-June 2017. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data on socio-demography of study participants and factors associated with foodborne protozoa infections. The diarrheic stool samples were collected, transported, and processed using direct wet mount, formal-ether concentration and modified ZiehlNeelson staining methods. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 21 and descriptive statistics, bi-variate, and multivariate logistic regressions were computed. P-value < 0.05 at 95% confidence interval was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of foodborne protozoa infection was 101 (45.3%). The predominant protozoa species identified was Entamoeba histolytica/dispar 55 (24.7%), followed by Giardia intestinalis 25 (11.2%) and Cryptosporidium species 5 (2.2%). The highest proportion of protozoa infection was observed among males (23.3%) and the age group 15-24 years (13.5%). Statistically significant associations were observed between foodborne protozoan infection and not using any type of recipe to decontaminate salads and fruits (AOR = 2.64, 95 CI: 1.34-5.19, P = 0.005) and using vinegar as a decontaminant (AOR = 2.83, 95 CI: 1.24-6.48, P = 0.014). Eating out (meals at a restaurant) on the other hand was found to be protective for foodborne protozoan infection (AOR = 0.43, 95 CI: 0.23-0.78, P = 0.006). CONCLUSION: Our study revealed that foodborne protozoa infections are of public health significance in the study area. Vinegar, which is frequently used as a recipe for decontaminating salads and fruits, is inversely related to foodborne protozoa parasite infection .