Beliefs and attitudes of traditional healers regarding epilepsy in Cameroon.

INTRODUCTION: People living with epilepsy suffer from stigmatization, overprotection, or exclusion, thus, part of these population in developing countries uses traditional medicine as a first resort. METHODS: We prospectively conducted a study to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of traditional healers (THs) concerning epilepsy. Over a 9-month period, we included 208 THs practicing in the Littoral, Center and West regions of Cameroon who agreed to participate in the study. The THs were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Epi Info version 7.2 software. RESULTS: Two-hundred and eight THs were recruited, with a mean age ± standard deviation (SD) of 49.9 ± 11.4 years, and 169 (81.2%) were male. Primary 77(37.0%) and secondary 67(32.2%) levels of education were the most represented, and most of the THs had more than 10 years of professional experience. One hundred and forty-one TH (68,7%) had poor knowledge about epilepsy. The independent factors associated with poor knowledge were female sex, Muslim religion, and marital status of cohabitation. One hundred and eighty-four THs (88.4%) had a good attitude and practices toward people with seizures. Factors independently associated with poor practices and attitude were rural residence, Muslim religion, and education level. CONCLUSION: Our result confirmed that THs had poor knowledge about epilepsy but good attitudes and practices about epilepsy. THs were in favor of future collaboration with modern medicine in the care of people living with epilepsy.

The pattern of neurological diseases in elderly people in outpatient consultations in Sub-Saharan Africa.

BACKGROUND: Neurological diseases are frequent in older adults, affecting between 5% and 55% of people age 55 and older. They are associated with a high risk for adverse health outcomes, including mortality, disability, institutionalization and hospitalization. Little is known about the epidemiology and clinical pattern of neurological disorders of the elderly in developing countries. Although many studies have demonstrated the areas where the burden of neurological diseases lies, elderly patients in Sub-Saharan Africa have received little attention. We performed this descriptive study to understand the burden of disease faced by Cameroonian neurologists and geriatricians. METHODS: The records of all out-patient neurological consultations from May 2005 to December 2011 were collected at the Clinique Bastos, the sole clinic with adult neurological consultations during the study period in Yaoundé, the political capital of Cameroon. All medical records were reviewed by a neurologist and neurological diagnoses were classified according to ICD-10. RESULTS: Among a total of 912 patients, 187 (20.5%) were aged 60 and older. According to the ICD-10 classification, episodic and paroxysmal disorders were present in 18.7% of patients, extrapyramidal and movement disorders in 14.6%, and nerve, nerve root and plexus disorders in 13.3%. The most common neurological diseases of the elderly in this study were lumbar arthrosis (14%), dementia (Alzheimer's type, vascular) (12.4%), Parkinson's disease (10.2%), and polyneuropathy (9.1%). CONCLUSION: Degenerative diseases like dementia and Parkinson's disease as well as strokes and headaches are frequently encountered neurological diseases in elderly patients in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is important that standard treatment regimes, often Ministry of Public Health based, are adhered to these diseases.

Occipital lobe epilepsy secondary to posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) during a post-partum eclampsia in Mali (West Africa).

BACKGROUND: Eclampsia is known to cause posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) that is often associated with an extensive neurovascular damage affecting preferably posterior regions, often leading to reversible cortical blindness. In spite the magnitude of these lesions, post eclamptic symptomatic epilepsy is rare. We therefore report a case of symptomatic occipital lobe epilepsy secondary to PRES. CASE PRESENTATION: A 39-year-old female right handed teacher who presented with headache of progressive onset, phosphenes, rapid decline of visual acuity to blindness, vomiting, repeated generalized tonic-clonic seizures followed by altered consciousness and very high blood pressure (HBP) of 240/120 mmHg, all of which started about 12 hours following a normal delivery. Nine months later, the patient presented with paroxysmal visual symptoms predominating in the right visual field followed by partial tonic clonic seizures with secondary generalization and recurrence of partial occipital lobe seizures. The pathophysiologic mechanism of irreversible tissue damage during PRES syndrome could result from a combination of events including the delay for early treatment, inadequate antihypertensive drugs that could worsen the brain damage by hypo perfusion, inadequate or delayed treatment for seizures or status epilepticus. CONCLUSION: Despite its high incidence in the third world, eclampsia is not a usual cause of epilepsy. Our case is the first description of post eclamptic occipital lobe epilepsy in Africa. With this report, we draw practitioners' attention on this rare complication.