Suchergebnisse

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged as a global health and economic security threat with staggering cumulative incidence worldwide. Given the severity of projections, hospitals across the globe are creating additional critical care surge capacity and limiting patient routine access to care for other diseases like tuberculosis (TB). The outbreak fuels panic in sub-Saharan Africa where the healthcare system is fragile in withstanding the disease. Here, we looked over the COVID-19 containment measures in Ethiopia in context from reliable sources and put forth recommendations that leverage the health system response to COVID-19 and TB. MAIN TEXT: Ethiopia shares a major proportion of the global burden of infectious diseases, while the patterns of COVID-19 are still at an earlier stage of the epidemiology curve. The Ethiopian government exerted tremendous efforts to curb the disease. It limited public gatherings, ordered school closures, directed high-risk civil servants to work from home, and closed borders. It suspended flights to 120 countries and restricted mass transports. It declared a five-month national state of emergency and granted a pardon for 20 402 prisoners. It officially postponed parliamentary and presidential elections. It launched the 'PM Abiy-Jack Ma initiative', which supports African countries with COVID-19 diagnostics and infection prevention and control commodities. It expanded its COVID-19 testing capacity to 38 countrywide laboratories. Many institutions are made available to provide clinical care and quarantine. However, the outbreak still has the potential for greater loss of life in Ethiopia if the community is unable to shape the regular behavioral and sociocultural norms that would facilitate the spread of the disease. The government needs to keep cautious that irregular migrants would fuel the disease. A robust testing capacity is needed to figure out the actual status of the disease. The pandemic has reduced TB care and research activities significantly and ...

Abstract
Background
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre report on global human displacement, Ethiopia has the highest number of newly displaced people forced to flee their homes. Displaced people have arrived in other regions, sometimes leading to conflict. Several regions in Ethiopia experience on-going ethnic tensions and violence between tribes, which leaves smallholder farmers suspicious of any outside activities in their locale, assuming other ethnic groups may harm them. Changes in the central Ethiopian government have also led to suspicion of non-local agencies. The Campylobacter Genomics and Enteric Dysfunction (CAGED) research project's objective is to improve the incomes, livelihoods and nutrition of smallholder farmers and was conducted during this period of increasing violence. The project aims to assess the impact of reducing exposure to chicken excreta on young children's gut health and growth. This paper does not report empirical findings from CAGED, but is part of a series that aims to identify challenges in humanitarian research and reports on mitigation strategies during this research.

Discussion
This research is important to determine whether Campylobacter infection in chicken's contributes to illness and stunting in children. However, violence against other researchers in different parts of Ethiopia led to mistrust and lack of engagement by the community with the researchers. Some reactions were so hostile that the team was fearful about returning to some households. As a result, the team designed strategies to respond, including establishing two types of community advisory boards. One used pre-existing village elder structures and another was composed of village youth. Data collection team members received training in principles of ethics, consent, and crisis management, and were provided on-going support from local and international principal investigators and the study's ethics advisor.

Conclusion
The hostility and mistrust led to fear among the data collectors. These and the resulting strategies to address them resulted in delays for the research. However, the interventions taken resulted in successful completion of the field activities. Moreover, the lessons learned from this project are already being implemented with other projects being conducted in various parts of Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre report on global human displacement, Ethiopia has the highest number of newly displaced people forced to flee their homes. Displaced people have arrived in other regions, sometimes leading to conflict. Several regions in Ethiopia experience on-going ethnic tensions and violence between tribes, which leaves smallholder farmers suspicious of any outside activities in their locale, assuming other ethnic groups may harm them. Changes in the central Ethiopian government have also led to suspicion of non-local agencies. The Campylobacter Genomics and Enteric Dysfunction (CAGED) research project's objective is to improve the incomes, livelihoods and nutrition of smallholder farmers and was conducted during this period of increasing violence. The project aims to assess the impact of reducing exposure to chicken excreta on young children's gut health and growth. This paper does not report empirical findings from CAGED, but is part of a series that aims to identify challenges in humanitarian research and reports on mitigation strategies during this research. DISCUSSION: This research is important to determine whether Campylobacter infection in chicken's contributes to illness and stunting in children. However, violence against other researchers in different parts of Ethiopia led to mistrust and lack of engagement by the community with the researchers. Some reactions were so hostile that the team was fearful about returning to some households. As a result, the team designed strategies to respond, including establishing two types of community advisory boards. One used pre-existing village elder structures and another was composed of village youth. Data collection team members received training in principles of ethics, consent, and crisis management, and were provided on-going support from local and international principal investigators and the study's ethics advisor. CONCLUSION: The hostility and mistrust led to fear among the data collectors. These and ...

OBJECTIVE: Globally, interest in excellence has grown exponentially, with public and private institutions shifting their attention from meeting targets to achieving excellence. Centres of Excellence (CoEs) are standing at the forefront of healthcare, research and innovations responding to the world's most complex problems. However, their potential is hindered by conceptual ambiguity. We conducted a global synthesis of the evidence to conceptualise CoEs. DESIGN: Scoping review, following Arksey and O'Malley's framework and methodological enhancement by Levac et al and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, Google Scholar and the Google engine until 1 January 2021. ELIGIBILITY: Articles that describe CoE as the main theme. RESULTS: The search resulted in 52 161 potential publications, with 78 articles met the eligibility criteria. The 78 articles were from 33 countries, of which 35 were from the USA, 3 each from Nigeria, South Africa, Spain and India, and 2 each from Ethiopia, Canada, Russia, Colombia, Sweden, Greece and Peru. The rest 17 were from various countries. The articles involved six thematic areas—healthcare, education, research, industry, information technology and general concepts on CoE. The analysis documented success stories of using the brand 'CoE'—an influential brand to stimulate best practices. We identified 12 essential foundations of CoE—specialised expertise; infrastructure; innovation; high-impact research; quality service; accreditation or standards; leadership; organisational structure; strategy; collaboration and partnership; sustainable funding or financial mechanisms; and entrepreneurship. CONCLUSIONS: CoEs have significant scientific, political, economic and social impacts. However, there are inconsistent use and self-designation of the brand without approval by an independent, external process of evaluation and with high ambiguity between 'CoEs' and the ordinary 'institutions' or ...

Objective- Globally, interest in excellence has grown exponentially, with public and private institutions shifting their attention from meeting targets to achieving excellence. Centres of Excellence (CoEs) are standing at the forefront of healthcare, research and innovations responding to the world's most complex problems. However, their potential is hindered by conceptual ambiguity. We conducted a global synthesis of the evidence to conceptualise CoEs. Design- Scoping review, following Arksey and O'Malley's framework and methodological enhancement by Levac et al and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. Data sources- PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, Google Scholar and the Google engine until 1 January 2021. Eligibility- Articles that describe CoE as the main theme. Results- The search resulted in 52 161 potential publications, with 78 articles met the eligibility criteria. The 78 articles were from 33 countries, of which 35 were from the USA, 3 each from Nigeria, South Africa, Spain and India, and 2 each from Ethiopia, Canada, Russia, Colombia, Sweden, Greece and Peru. The rest 17 were from various countries. The articles involved six thematic areas—healthcare, education, research, industry, information technology and general concepts on CoE. The analysis documented success stories of using the brand 'CoE'—an influential brand to stimulate best practices. We identified 12 essential foundations of CoE—specialised expertise; infrastructure; innovation; high-impact research; quality service; accreditation or standards; leadership; organisational structure; strategy; collaboration and partnership; sustainable funding or financial mechanisms; and entrepreneurship. Conclusions- CoEs have significant scientific, political, economic and social impacts. However, there are inconsistent use and self-designation of the brand without approval by an independent, external process of evaluation and with high ambiguity between 'CoEs' and the ordinary 'institutions' or ...