Onchocerciasis-related epilepsy? Prospects at a time of uncertainty.

Benoît Marin (1) , Michel Boussinesq , Michel Druet-Cabanac (1, 2, 3) , Joseph Kamgno , Bernard Bouteille (1, 4, 5) , Pierre-Marie Preux (1, 6, 7)

1 NETEC - Neuroépidémiologie Tropicale et Comparée
2 Service de Santé au Travail [CHU Limoges]
3 UFRGC - Unité Fonctionnelle Registre Général des Cancers du Limousin
4 UNILIM - Université de Limoges
5 Service de Parasitologie Mycologie [CHU Limoges]
6 SIME - Service de l'Information Médicale et de l'Évaluation [CHU Limoges]
7 Laboratoire de Biostatistique et d'Informatique Médicale

Epilepsy and onchocerciasis (river blindness) constitute serious public health problems in several tropical countries. There are four main mechanisms that might explain a relationship between these two diseases: (i) the presence of Onchocerca volvulus in the central nervous system; (ii) the pathogenicity of various O. volvulus strains; (iii) immunological mechanisms involving cross-reactive immunization or cytokine production during infection; and (iv) the triggering role of insomnia due to itching.

Domaines: Santé publique et épidémiologie

Benoît Marin, Michel Boussinesq, Michel Druet-Cabanac, Joseph Kamgno, Bernard Bouteille, et al.. Onchocerciasis-related epilepsy? Prospects at a time of uncertainty.. Trends in Parasitology, 2006, 22 (1), pp.17-20. ⟨10.1016/j.pt.2005.11.006⟩. ⟨hal-00288970⟩