Epilepsy prevalence in rural Zambia: a door-to-door survey.

Objectives: To identify people with epilepsy (PWE) in our Zambian catchment area of 55,000 people.

Methods: A nine-item, previously validated screening instrument for detecting epilepsy in developing countries was forward-and-back translated into Chitonga. Early piloting indicated poor specificity among children, so three questions were added.

The functional status of people with epilepsy in rural sub-Saharan Africa.

Purpose: Little data is available regarding the impact of epilepsy on the functional status of people with epilepsy (PWE) in developing countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, limited medical services and social stigmatization subject PWE to substantial physical, psychological and social deprivation. To better delineate the overall burden and distribution of epilepsy-associated disability in sub-Saharan Africa, we assessed the functional status of PWE in a rural, population-based sample and made comparisons to published reports from urban Zimbabwe.