Introduction:The extent of neuromeningeal cryptococcosis (NMC) has increased since the advent of HIV/AIDS. It has non-specific clinical signs but marked by high mortality.Objective:To analyze the characteristics of the NMC in sub-Saharan Africa.Materials and Methods:We have conducted a literature reviewed on the NMC in sub-Saharan Africa from the publications available on the basis of national and international data with keywords such as “Cryptococcus, Epidemiology, Symptoms, Outcomes and Mortality” and their equivalent in French in July 2011. All publications from 1990 to 2010 with 202 references were analyzed. The following results are the means of different studied variables.Results:We selected in final 43 publications dealing with the NMC which 24 involved 17 countries in Africa. The average age was 36 years old. The average prevalence was 3.41% and the average incidence was 10.48% (range 6.90% to 12%). The most common signs were fever (75%), headaches (62.50%) and impaired consciousness. Meningeal signs were present in 49% of cases. The mean CD4 count was 44.8cells/mm3. The India ink and latex agglutination tests were the most sensitive. The average time before the consultation and the hospital stay was almost identical to 27.71 days. The average death rate was 45.90%. Fluconazole has been the most commonly used molecule.Conclusion:The epidemiological indicators of NMC varied more depending on the region of sub-Saharan Africa. Early and effective taking care of patients to reduce diagnostic delay and heavy mortality remains the challenges.

Despite the development of knowledge in diagnosis and therapeutic of epilepsy it remains to be cause of rejection and stigma. We aimed to study the knowledge, attitude and practice toward epilepsy and the stigma in a rural community. The cross-sectional study was carried out from 1st to 31st March 2011 in a rural community (Tourou) at Parakou in the northern Benin. It was a door-to-door survey and included 1 031 adults older than 15 years. The diagnosis of epilepsy was based on International League Against Epilepsy. The specific questionnaire was used and comprised 16 items which explored knowledge, attitude and practice toward epilepsy. Another questionnaire was developed to study stigma among epileptics. The associated factors to the misconception toward epilepsy have been studied. All adults have heard about epilepsy and knew the generalized tonic-clonic form of epilepsy and knew someone with epilepsy. Hereditary (98%) and witchcraft (97.9%) and social problems (65.9%) were mentioned as the most cause of epilepsy. Epilepsy was cited as contagious disease by 90.6% of respondents and the associated factors were the sex (p=0.005) and occupational status (0.024). The saliva (98.1%) and witness of the place of seizure (97.8%) were the frequently mentioned modes of transmission. 65% of all mentioned that epileptics can not get marriage and the main associated factors to this belief were the advanced age (p=0.008) and occupational status (0.004). 64.4% believed that children with epilepsy shouldn't be attend to school, age (0.004), ethnicity (0.047) and occupational status were the associated factors with this misconception. Despite 99.4% considered epilepsy as treatable disease only 12.7% would have referred epileptics to the hospital. All the seven epileptics considered themselves as victims of stigma and rejected by their family and the community. The misconceptions associated to the epilepsy can explain the stigma and the therapeutic gap in this rural community.

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Introduction: Cognitive disorders frequency arising after a cardio-cerebral vascular disease (stroke) is currently on the rise due to the ageing population and the increase in the number of survivors after stroke occurrence. Objective: Determining post-stroke cognitive decline and identifying associated factors. Method: It consists in a cross-sectional, prospective, descriptive and analytical study which was conducted from April 1 to August 31, 2013 in the Neurology Department of CNHU-HKM in Cotonou. The study involved 100 patients who have known stroke for at least the past 6 months and were all admitted and discharged later on. The disease survivors were re-contacted and examined again at home or at hospital. The cognitive decline (CD) was estimated by using a modified and adapted MMSE to suit our cultural era. Results: All patients were aged 58.9 years ± 13.6 years. Sex-ratio was 1.4. Cognitive decline frequency was 20%. Post-stroke cognitive decline frequency per sex was 11.6% and 8.4% respectively for females and males. Ischemia stroke patients had a higher cognitive decline (22.5%). 58.3% had severe CD. Moreover the CD frequency increased with time, from 16.7% in a year to 50% in 3 years. Total MMSE varied from 6 to 23 with 21 as median. From the unvaried analysis, the presence of sphincter disorders (1.26 [0.35 -4.59], p = 0.004), consciousness disorders (15.67 [1.46 -168], p = 0.04), and convulsion disorders (3.77 [1.01 -14.00], p = 0.003) was associated with cognitive decline. From multi-varied analysis, the sole presence of convulsive attacks (11.5 [1.79 -73.58], p = 0.01) was individually associated with post-stroke cognitive decline. Conclusion: This study reveals the importance of CD after stroke. The occurrence of convulsions at stroke acute stage is a prognostic factor of CD medium or long-term occurrence. The overall coverage improvement depends on the integration of these data in stroke reach-out programs. D. D. Gnonlonfoun et al.

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