---
license: gemma
language:
- am
- en
tags:
- medical
- amharic
- question-answering
- bilingual
pretty_name: Bilingual Amharic-English Medical QA
size_categories:
- 1K<n<10K
task_categories:
- question-answering
- text-generation
---

# Bilingual Amharic–English Medical QA Dataset

A parallel medical question-answering dataset in **Amharic** and **English**,
used to fine-tune [`Walelign/Gemma_3_4B`](https://huggingface.co/Walelign/Gemma_3_4B)
and its 12B counterpart.

> ⚠️ **Medical content notice.** This dataset contains health information intended
> for research and educational use only. It is **not** a substitute for professional
> medical advice.

---

## Dataset summary

Each row contains a medical question and its answer in **both** English and
Amharic (four columns), letting a model learn the same medical facts in two
languages.

| | |
|---|---|
| Number of rows | ~2,300 |
| Languages | Amharic (am), English (en) |
| Domain | Medical / health |
| Format | CSV |
| Answer length | Short (1–2 sentences, typical) |

## Data fields

| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| `English_question` | The medical question in English |
| `English_answer` | The answer in English |
| `Amharic_question` | The same question in Amharic |
| `Amharic_answer` | The same answer in Amharic |

## Example row

| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| `English_question` | What happens if women show syphilis signs early? |
| `English_answer` | Syphilis has stages where the earlier stages can be skin lesions, while the later symptoms include complications to organs including the brain and heart. |
| `Amharic_question` | _(parallel Amharic translation of the question)_ |
| `Amharic_answer` | _(parallel Amharic translation of the answer)_ |

---

## How it was used for training

Each row was expanded into **two** training examples (English pair + Amharic
pair), so ~2,300 rows produced ~4,600 examples. A 90/10 train/validation split
was applied (seed 42), and each example was formatted with the Gemma chat
template.

---

## Provenance and curation

**Sources.** The question–answer content was compiled from a combination of:
public health websites and articles, medical textbooks and clinical guidelines,
expert/clinician-written material, and content adapted from an existing medical
QA dataset.

**Amharic translation.** The Amharic questions and answers were produced by
**professional translation** from the English source content.

**Clinical review.** The medical content was **reviewed by a qualified health
professional**.

**Ownership.** The dataset compilation, curation, arrangement, and translation
are the joint work of Walelign Tewabe Sewunetie (PhD) and Surafel L. Tilahun (PhD).

## Limitations and biases

- **Small size.** ~2,300 pairs cover only a limited slice of medical knowledge.
- **Coverage gaps.** Topics not represented will be answered poorly by models
  trained on it.
- **Translation quality.** The text was professionally translated, but some
  specialized terms may still be inconsistent across items.
- **Not a clinical reference.** Answers may be simplified, outdated, or incorrect
  and must not be used for real medical decisions without expert review.

## Intended use

Training and evaluating bilingual (Amharic/English) medical QA models for
research and educational purposes only.

## Citation

```bibtex
@misc{sewunetie_tilahun_amharic_medqa_dataset,
  title  = {Bilingual Amharic-English Medical QA Dataset},
  author = {Sewunetie, Walelign Tewabe and Tilahun, Surafel L.},
  year   = {2026}
}
```