Epilepsy treatment gap in Southeast Nigeria is comparable to that in many developing countries. Fifty percent of the overall treatment gap was caused by patients discontinuing AED treatment of their own volition despite continuing fits. This result may indicate that perhaps with appropriate education on the need to adhere to therapy, the treatment gap in the community may be narrowed.

BackgroundThe prevalence and incidence of stroke vary from community to community worldwide. Nonetheless, not much is known about the current epidemiology of stroke in rural Nigeria and indeed Africa.MethodsWe carried out a two-phase door-to-door survey in a rural, predominantly low-income, community in Anambra, Southeastern Nigeria. We used a modified World Health Organization (WHO) protocol for detecting neurological diseases in the first phase, and a stroke-specific questionnaire and neurological examination in the second phase. An equal number of sex- and age-matched stroke-negative subjects were examined.ResultsWe identified ten stroke subjects in the study. The crude prevalence of stroke in rural Nigeria was 1.63 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.78–3.00) per 1,000 population. The crude prevalence of stroke in males was 1.99 (95% CI 0.73–4.33) per 1,000, while that for females was 1.28 (95% CI 0.35–3.28) per 1,000 population. The peak age-specific prevalence of stroke was 12.08 (95% CI 3.92–28.19) per 1,000, while after adjustment to WHO world population, the peak was 1.0 (95% CI 0.33–2.33) per 1,000.ConclusionThe prevalence of stroke was found to be higher than previously documented in rural Nigeria, with a slightly higher prevalence in males than females. This is, however, comparable to data from rural Africa.

The prevalence of active epilepsy in Southeast Nigeria is comparable to that found in developed and some developing countries but less than that reported in suburban Southwest Nigeria about three decades ago.

Acute symptomatic seizures are seizures occurring in close temporal relationship with an acute central nervous system (CNS) insult. The objective of the study was to determine the frequency of presentation and etiological risk factors of acute symptomatic seizures among adult medical admissions. It was a two-year retrospective study of the medical files of adults patients admitted with acute symptomatic seizures as the first presenting event. There were 94 cases of acute symptomatic seizures accounting for 5.2% (95% CI: 4.17–6.23) of the 1,802 medical admissions during the period under review. There were 49 (52.1%) males and 45 (47.9%) females aged between 18 years and 84 years. The etiological risk factors of acute symptomatic seizures were infections in 36.2% (n = 34) of cases, stroke in 29.8% (n = 28), metabolic in 12.8% (n = 12), toxic in 10.6% (n = 10), and other causes in 10.6% (n = 10). Infective causes were more among those below fifty years while stroke was more in those aged fifty years and above. CNS infections and stroke were the prominent causes of acute symptomatic seizures. This is an evidence of the “double tragedy” facing developing countries, the unresolved threat of infectious diseases on one hand and the increasing impact of noncommunicable diseases on the other one.

No abstract