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E.D. Newell, F. Vyungimana, J.E. Bradley, Epilepsy, retarded growth and onchocerciasis, in two areas of different endemicity of onchocerciasis in Burundi, Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Volume 91, Issue 5, September-October 1997, Pages 525–527, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0035-9203(97)90009-2
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Abstract
A high prevalence of epilepsy (up to 1·3%) was observed in an area hyperendemic for onchocerciasis in the province of Bururi, Burundi. Following this observation, epileptics and controls were examined in 2 communes (administrative units) with different endemicity for onchocerciasis. Altogether, onchocerciasis was more frequent in epileptics (81·8%) than in controls from the same households (68·3%; P < 0·05). This difference was more marked in the hyperendemic area. Other possible causes of epilepsy, including cysticercosis, were infrequent (18 possible cases among 110 epileptics). During this survey, 9 epileptics with growth retardation were seen. They showed most characteristics of Nakalanga syndrome, which was described from Uganda. All 9 such cases were suffering from onchocerciasis. These findings give more evidence of a possible association between onchocerciasis and epilepsy, and between onchocerciasis and Nakalanga syndrome.
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