Prevalence of active convulsive epilepsy in an urban slum in Enugu South East Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose To determine the prevalence of active convulsive epilepsy and treatment gap in two Urban slums in Enugu South East Nigeria. Methods A 3 phase cross-sectional descriptive study was done to survey individuals ≥15 years in 2 slums in Enugu, South East Nigeria. Results The prevalence of epilepsy was 6.0 (95% CI: 5.9–6.0) per 1000 (men 4.4/1000, 95% CI: 2.3–6.4, women 7.8/1000, 95% CI: 4.9–10.4), p = 0.06. The peak age of active convulsive epilepsy was 40–44 years (11.2 per 1000) with two smaller peaks at 25–29 and ≥50 years. The age and sex adjusted prevalence using WHO standard population and 2006 Nigerian census population were 5.9 per 1000 (95% CI: 4.0–7.9) and 5.4 per 1000 (95% CI: 3.4–7.4). Conclusion The prevalence of epilepsy is high in urban slums in Enugu. Nationwide studies should be done to find out the true prevalence in the country.

Taenia solium Cysticercosis in Pigs and Human: A Review of Epidemiological Data in West Africa (1990–2019)

“…Burial of PWE far away from home prevents people from getting epilepsy. Eating, sleeping together or wearing same clothes with PWE is said to be a source of infection [43,44]. Eating of pork by someone with epilepsy promotes cysticercosis and corroborates with a study that found a significant link between cysticercosis occurrence and epilepsy [78].…”

“…Also included are protozoon and helminthic infections, including admission to hospital with malaria, exposure to T. c a n i s , T. gondii, O. volvulus and T. s o l i u m [40] of which Taenia solium has received attention in sub-Saharan Africa over the past few years. Neurocysticercosis is a common cause of epilepsy in pig breeding area [76], however the wide variation in the frequency of epilepsy in the continent could be due to different definitions and type of epilepsy including the population studied and type of sample [44]. Some studies in the region showed the association between epilepsy and cysticercosis using different diagnostic criteria both for epilepsy and cysticercosis.…”

“…Those affected go through social seclusion and people will not marry PWE unless both parties have epilepsy. For example, consanguineous marriage is forbidden by culture in South East Nigeria [43], and may potentially force them to intermarry thereby promoting genetic transmission of epilepsy [43,44]. Other beliefs include that inheriting properties from PWE will get one infected but if a medicine man performs burial rites for the dead person and takes away their properties and burn it then it stops.…”

“…Human cysticercosis from Nigeria was obtained from two studies [47,48] by using Ab ELISA with prevalence of cysticercosis ranging from 9.6 to 14.3% in a total of 425 individuals. There were five studies selected for epilepsy [43,44,51,70] with prevalence ranging from 4.3/1000 to 20.8/1000 in a total of 64,979 individuals for the epilepsy study. Five studies in the region were case report of cysticercosis [45,49,50,71] involving the ocular and breast cysticercosis.…”

Pattern and determinants of self-reported enacted stigma among rural dwellers living with epilepsy attending a tertiary health facility in Enugu State Nigeria

“…Patient's/ caregiver's beliefs about epilepsy may expose them to stigmatizing factors and environments [23]. With a prevalence of epilepsy ranging between 4.3-6 per 1000 and low levels of knowledge and practice of epilepsy in urban and sub urban areas in south east Nigeria [24,25], enacted stigma is expected to be a common experience among PWE. Understanding of stigmatization in epilepsy and its correlates is relevant to the understanding of the burden of epilepsy in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA).…”