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

Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2020 Dec 21;104(3):902-906. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.20-0979.

Abstract

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. We suggest that the growing knowledge about the tight interconnections between Nakalanga and nodding syndrome, other forms of epilepsy, and onchocerciasis should be taken into consideration in a revised classification system.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Epilepsy, Generalized / diagnosis
  • Epilepsy, Generalized / drug therapy
  • Epilepsy, Generalized / epidemiology*
  • Epilepsy, Generalized / pathology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Phenobarbital
  • Uganda / epidemiology

Substances

  • Phenobarbital