Epidemiology of epilepsy in Cameroon: A review

Abstract

More than 10 million people with epilepsy live in Africa. Many patients in Sub-Saharan Africa do not received appropriate treatment due to socio-economic and cultural factors. Cameroon has one of the highest prevalence in the world. We systematically reviewed research articles, original papers, abstract on PubMed, Google Scholars, African Journals Online (AJOL), ResearchGate with no limitation of period until 2018. The terms of research were “epilepsy” “Cameroon” “epileptic seizures” “convulsions” and regions of the countries. We reviewed 20 publications but only 15 were used for this review. The prevalence of epilepsy in Cameroon varies from 35.4 to 134.5‰. Children are mostly affected. There is a light male predominance, that could be explained by risk behavior in young male. Incidence of epilepsy varies from 98 to 222.7 per 100000 PY especially in village closed to the Sanaga river which are endemic zone of onchocerciasis. This Incidence is highly associated to microfilaria density. This leads to a new entity called Onchocerciasis associated epilepsy. Many studies reported etiologies of epilepsy: poor pregnancy follow-up, CNS infections, stroke and head trauma. The relative risk of mortality in 6.2 times for people with epilepsy compare to people without epilepsy due mainly to: status epilepticus and SUDEP. Consequences of epilepsy include: stigmatization, exclusion, socioprofessional disabilities, burns and neuropsychiatric disorders. Epilepsy is a major public health problem. Many causes and risk factors could be identified and prevented. That is why we should improve awareness and advocacy.