Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry logoLink to Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
. 1994 Sep;57(9):1064–1069. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.57.9.1064

Multiple sclerosis in black South Africans and Zimbabweans.

G Dean 1, A I Bhigjee 1, P L Bill 1, V Fritz 1, I C Chikanza 1, J E Thomas 1, L F Levy 1, D Saffer 1
PMCID: PMC1073127  PMID: 8089669

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis is rare among the indigenous black people of Africa. The first account of a black patient with multiple sclerosis in South Africa was published as late as 1987. Since then a search to find black patients with multiple sclerosis in Southern Africa has continued. Seven black patients have now been traced in South Africa and five in Zimbabwe in whom a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis can be accepted. Six of the 12 patients became blind, or nearly so, from severe optic neuritis. Multiple sclerosis in these few black patients more often resembled the disorder as it occurs in oriental people than among white people in southern Africa or the black people of North America or the Caribbean.

Full text

PDF
1068

Images in this article

1065Image
on p.1065
1066Image
on p.1066

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Adam A. M. Multiple sclerosis: epidemic in Kenya. East Afr Med J. 1989 Aug;66(8):503–506. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bhigjee A. I. Multiple sclerosis in a black patient. A case report. S Afr Med J. 1987 Dec 19;72(12):873–875. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cosnett J. E. Multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica. Case report and speculation. S Afr Med J. 1981 Aug 8;60(6):249–251. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. DEAN G. Disseminated sclerosis in South Africa; its relationship to swayback disease and suggested treatment. Br Med J. 1949 May 14;1(4610):842–845. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.4610.842. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dean G. Annual incidence, prevalence, and mortality of multiple sclerosis in white South-African-born and in white immigrants to South Africa. Br Med J. 1967 Jun 17;2(5554):724–730. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.5554.724. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Dean G., Brady R., McLoughlin H. Motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis among immigrants to Britain. Br J Prev Soc Med. 1977 Sep;31(3):141–147. doi: 10.1136/jech.31.3.141. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Dean G., Elian M. Motor neuron disease and multiple sclerosis mortality in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa compared with England and Wales. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1993 Jun;56(6):633–637. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.56.6.633. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Dean G., Grimaldi G., Kelly R., Karhausen L. Multiple sclerosis in southern Europe. I: Prevalence in Sicily in 1975. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1979 Jun;33(2):107–110. doi: 10.1136/jech.33.2.107. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Dean G., McLoughlin H., Brady R., Adelstein A. M., Tallett-Williams J. Multiple sclerosis among immigrants in Greater London. Br Med J. 1976 Apr 10;1(6014):861–864. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.6014.861. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Elian M., Dean G. Multiple sclerosis among the United Kingdom-born children of immigrants from the West Indies. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1987 Mar;50(3):327–332. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.50.3.327. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Elian M., Nightingale S., Dean G. Multiple sclerosis among United Kingdom-born children of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent, Africa and the West Indies. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1990 Oct;53(10):906–911. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.53.10.906. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Foster R. M., Harries J. R. Multiple sclerosis in the African. Br Med J. 1970 Sep 12;3(5723):628–628. doi: 10.1136/bmj.3.5723.628. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Hift W., Moodley T. A possible case of neuromyelitis optica in a Bantu patient. S Afr Med J. 1973 Jun 16;47(23):987–988. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Kanyerezi B. R., Kiire C. F., Obace A. Multiple sclerosis in Mulago Hospital, Uganda. East Afr Med J. 1980 Apr;57(4):262–266. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Mbonda E., Larnaout A., Maertens A., Appel B., Lowenthal A., Mbede J., Evrard P. Multiple sclerosis in a black Cameroonian woman. Acta Neurol Belg. 1990;90(4):218–222. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Tekle-Haimanot R. Multiple sclerosis--a case report on an Ethiopian. Ethiop Med J. 1985 Jan;23(1):27–29. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Vassallo L., Elian M., Dean G. Multiple sclerosis in southern Europe. II: Prevalence in Malta in 1978. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1979 Jun;33(2):111–113. doi: 10.1136/jech.33.2.111. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES