Molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis in the Somali region, eastern Ethiopia.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in low-income countries like Ethiopia. However, because of the limited laboratory infrastructure there is a shortage of comprehensive data on the genotypes of clinical isolates of () complex (MTBC) in peripheral regions of Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to characterize MTBC isolates in the Somali region of eastern Ethiopia.

Do retreatment tuberculosis patients need special treatment response follow-up beyond the standard regimen? Finding of five-year retrospective study in pastoralist setting.

Background: Treatment outcomes serve as proxy measures of the quality of tuberculosis treatment provided by the health care system, and it is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of Directly Observed Therapy-Short course program in controlling the disease, and reducing treatment failure, default and death. Hence, we evaluated tuberculosis treatment success rate, its trends and predictors of unsuccessful treatment outcome in Ethiopian Somali region where 85% of its population is pastoralist.

Methods: A retrospective review of 5 years data (September 2009 to August 2014) was conducted to evaluate the treatment outcome of 1378 randomly selected tuberculosis patients treated in Kharamara, Dege-habour and Gode hospitals.