Table 1.
Case definitions for children admitted with acute symptomatic seizures and the number of cases admitted from the demographic surveillance system area
| Case category | Criteria | Number of casesa |
|---|---|---|
| Acute seizures | Seizures in the current illness and within 1 week prior to admission | 4486 |
| Slide-positive seizures | Seizures in children admitted with malaria parasitaemia | 2762 |
| Slide-negative seizures | Seizures in children admitted without malaria parasitaemia | 1724 |
| Repetitive seizures | More than one seizure in the current illness | 2181 |
| Focal seizures | Convulsions localized to one part of the body | 512 |
| Definite convulsive status epilepticus | Seizures lasting >30 min or intermittent seizures for >30 min with a Blantyre Coma Score ≤2 on admission and documented by nursing or medical staff | 219 |
| Probable convulsive status epilepticus | Convulsions on the way to hospital until admission | 462 |
| A Blantyre Coma Score ≤2 on admission and definite history of a seizure in last 30 minutes or definite history of >10 seizures in last 24 h | ||
| Use of phenytoin or phenobarbital to stop uncontrolled seizures | ||
| Possible convulsive status epilepticus | A Blantyre Coma Score ≤2 on admission and either a definite history of a seizure in last 30 min or possible history of 5–10 seizures in last 24 h | 266 |
| Definite history of a seizure lasting 30 min | ||
| Definite history of >5 seizures in last 24 h | ||
| Non-malaria attributable seizures | Sum of malaria slide-negative seizures and slide-positive seizures not attributable to malaria | 1844 |
| Malaria attributable seizures | Malaria slide-positive seizures attributable to malaria | 2642 |
| Febrile seizures | Seizures in children aged 1 month to 6 years who had a febrile illness without evidence of parasitaemia or bacterial meningitis or encephalitis | 1126 |
| Total person-years | The total population figures for children were made at the midpoint of the years of study by fitting a log-linear regression line through the observed population counts. | 689 053 |
aThe total numbers identified and summed together for each case category. Blantyre Coma Score (Molyneux et al., 1989).