BackgroundSkin disorders are generally considered to be more prevalent in the rural areas of Cameroon. This study was carried out to verify this assumption by describing the spectrum of skin disorders in a rural setting of Cameroon.MethodsWe carried out a community-based clinical skin examination of 400 consenting subjects from 4 villages of Cameroon: Nyamanga (27%), Yebekolo (24%), Mbangassina (23%) and Bilomo (26%).ResultsThe overall prevalence of skin diseases in our sample was 62% {95% CI: 57.2%, 66.8%} (248/400). The commonest skin disorders were: fungal infections (25.4%), parasitic infestations (21.4%), atrophic skin disorders (11.7%), hypertrophic skin disorders (9.7%), disorders of skin appendages {acne} (8.9%), benign neoplasm (6.5%), bacterial skin infections (5.2%), pigmentation disorders (4.8%), and dermatitis/eczema (4.0%). Skin infections and infestations constituted 52.82% of all skin disorders. The overall prevalence of infectious and parasitic infestation was 32.75% {95%CI: 28.17%, 37.59%} (131/400) as against 29.25% {95%CI: 24.83%, 33.98%} (117/400) for non-infectious disorders.Among people with skin infections/parasitic infestations, those with fungal infections and onchocercal skin lesions were the most prevalent, accounting for 48.1% (63/131) and 35.1% (46/131); and an overall prevalence of 15.75% {95%CI: 12.3%, 19.7%} (63/400) and 11.5% {95%CI: 8.5%, 15.0%} (46/400) respectively.There was secondary bacterial infection in 12.1% {95%CI: 8.31%, 16.82%} (30/248) of subjects with skin diseases. Hypertrophic and atrophic disorders of the skin were mainly keloids (9.68%), scarification marks (6.05%) and burn scars (5.65%). Skin diseases like dermatitis and eczema (4.03%), malignant tumours and pigmentation disorders were rare in our sample.The proportion of subjects diagnosed with skin disorders after examination (62.8%) was significantly higher than the proportion of 40.8% that declared having skin diseases (p < 0.0001).ConclusionThe prevalence of skin diseases in the rural Mbam valley is alarming, dominated by easily treatable or preventable skin infections and their magnitude is highly neglected by the community, contrasting with findings in the urban setting. Similar studies are needed in other ecological/demographic settings of the country in order to construct a better understanding of the epidemiology of skin disorders. This would lead to the development of national policies to improve skin care.

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic, which is an infection due to the SARS Cov-2 virus, mainly causes severe damage to the respiratory system, but several studies have reported neurological damage with different manifestations including headaches, seizures, encephalopathies, and stroke. We report a series of 10 patients infected with Covid-19 who had an ischemic stroke at the Yaoundé General Hospital, Cameroon. Patients and Methods: We carried out a prospective study for 12 months between April 2020 and March 2021 by collecting data from patients admitted for Covid-19 at the Yaoundé general hospital. Were included all patients with a diagnosis of stroke confirmed by brain imaging (CT/MRI) following a focal neurological deficit of sudden onset and whose test (nasopharyngeal swab confirmed by PCR) for Covid-19 was positive. Patients diagnosed with a stroke more than 2 weeks (14 days) after the positive Covid-19 PCR test were excluded. Results: The prevalence of ischemic stroke in this hospital-based series was 1.46%. These were six men and four women. The mean NIHSS score was 13.57. The average age of our patients was 58 years. Brain imaging was performed in each patient revealing hypodense lesion in a large arterial territory in 8 of them, for two patients we found multilacunar infarcts. All patients had negative HIV serology and D-dimers greater than 500 µg/L. Conclusion: This work on strokes in Covid-19 infected patients shows that it is a fairly frequent neurological complication, which can occur even in young subjects without known risk factors, the symptoms of viral infection are not systematically present before the onset of stroke.

Multiple myeloma is a malignant plasma cell disorder occurring mostly in people above 60 years old. The authors describe a case of multiple myeloma in a 36-year-old patient revealed by spinal cord compression and Herpes zoster with a rapidly unfavourable outcome.