Long-term observation and mortality of children with nodding syndrome in western Uganda, 1994 - 2018.

Purpose: To assess long-term mortality and causes of death in children with nodding syndrome, an epileptic disorder of sub-Sahara Africa.

Methods: Ten children with nodding syndrome were followed over 24 years. The mortality rate was determined as the number of deaths per 1000 person-years of observation.

Case Report: Nakalanga Syndrome Revisited: Long-Term Follow-Up of a Patient Living in Western Uganda, 1994-2018.

Nakalanga syndrome is a childhood developmental disorder that has been reported from various parts of sub-Saharan Africa with the major sign of retarded growth, regularly combined with physical deformities, impaired mental and pubertal development, and epilepsy. We present a follow-up over a 24-year period of a patient living in the Itwara onchocerciasis focus of western Uganda. We demonstrate the strong similarity of Nakalanga syndrome to the more recently described Nodding syndrome, and we discuss the possible causation of both disorders by onchocerciasis.

Onchocerciasis-Associated Epilepsy with Head Nodding Seizures-Nodding Syndrome: A Case Series of 15 Patients from Western Uganda, 1994.

Nodding syndrome (NS) is an encephalopathy characterized by the core symptom of epileptic head nodding seizures, affecting children at the age between 3 and 18 years in distinct areas of tropical Africa. A consistent correlation with onchocerciasis was found, but so far, the causation of NS has not been fully clarified. With a systematic analysis of features of a cohort of epilepsy patients examined in the Itwara onchocerciasis focus of western Uganda in 1994, we provide evidence that NS actually occurred in this area at this time, and we demonstrate a correlation between prevalence of NS and that of onchocerciasis in different villages.

Relationship between characteristics of volunteer community health workers and antiretroviral treatment outcomes in a community-based treatment programme in Uganda.

Community health workers (CHWs) can help to redress the shortages of health human resources needed to scale up antiretroviral treatment (ART). However, the selection of CHWs could influence the effectiveness of a CHW programme. The purpose of this observational study was to assess whether sociodemographic characteristics and geographic proximity to patients of volunteer CHWs were predictors of clinical outcomes in a community-based ART (CBART) programme in Kabarole, Uganda.

Nodding syndrome, western Uganda, 1994.

Nodding syndrome (NS) is a poorly understood condition, which was delineated in 2008 as a new epilepsy syndrome. So far, confirmed cases of NS have been observed in three circumscribed African areas: southern Tanzania, southern Sudan, and northern Uganda. Case-control studies have provided evidence of an association between NS and infection with Onchocerca volvulus, but the causation of NS is still not fully clarified.