Dracunculiasis in Burkina Faso: results of a national survey.

National surveys using active reporting are essential steps in the global dracunculiasis eradication programme. All the known villages of Burkina Faso were visited at the end of 1990 by teams of field-workers who organized meetings with local informants in order to enquire about all cases of the emergence of Guinea worms during the past twelve months. The annual incidence for 1990 was then calculated using recent demographic data. Data collected were validated by a second survey of a random sample of 221 villages. The national coverage rate was 99.3% of villages; 42,227 cases were reported. The annual incidence for 1990 was 46.4 cases per 10,000. There was a pronounced heterogeneity in the spatial distribution of endemic foci, with a concentration of cases in the north and centre of the country. In Burkina Faso, dracunculiasis has a heterogeneous distribution with a pronounced concentration of cases in the North and Centre that reach mesoendemic incidence rates.

[Morbidity and mortality related to obstetrical referral patients to the hospital of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso]. / Morbidité et mortalité liées, aux évacuations sanitaires d'obstétrique à l'hopital de Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.

The obstetrical referral patients admitted to the Sanon Souro hospital in Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Faso) during 1991 were retrospectively reviewed. During the study period 741 women were admitted. The median distance between the referring centre and Bobo-Dioulasso was 33 km. Median age was 22 years and median parity was 3. Indications for referral were dominated by obstructed labour, haemorrhages and infections. The proportion of maternal mortality in the study was 5.4% and was not related to maternal age or parity. However, there was a linear trend of increasing mortality according to the distance between the referring centre and Bobo-Dioulasso (X2 for trend: 7.56; p = 0.006). The perinatal mortality rate of 420 p. thousand was not related to maternal age, but a parity exceeding 4 was a risk factor for the occurrence of perinatal death (relative risk: 1.4; 95% C.I.: 1.2-1.7). As for maternal mortality, there was a linear increase of perinatal mortality with the distance from the referring centre (X2: 20.8; p = 0.00001). There was no marked seasonal variation in the number of referrals nor in the mortality rates per month.