BONE AND JOINT DISORDERS IN BLACK-AFRICA

There have been few epidemiological studies of bone and joint diseases in black Africa. Available data were generated by hospital studies which were inevitably flawed by selection bias. They found that the incidence and/or severity of rheumatoid arthritis were reduced in West Africa but not in urban areas of Southern and East Africa, as compared with industrialized countries. Ankylosing spondylitis was infrequent. The human immunodeficiency virus epidemic can be expected to increase the prevalence of spondyloarthropathies despite the fact that few black Africans are HLA B27-positive. Gout was the most common inflammatory joint disease seen in inpatients in West Africa and Equatorial Africa. Osteoarthritis of the fingers or hip and dysplasia of the hip were infrequent. The main causes of hip symptoms were sickle cell anemia and hemoglobin C disease whose manifestations include bone necrosis, osteomyelitis, and attacks of bone and joint pain. Osteoarthritis of the knee was common in West and Southern Africa, especially in obese women. Low back pain and sciatica due to disc herniation were as common as in Europe. Lumbar canal stenosis appeared more common in West Africa than in Southern Africa, with a predominance in females. Postmenopausal osteoporosis was exceedingly rare. Infectious diseases were prevalent as a result of underindustrialization and defective hygiene. The paucity of rheumatologists, young mean age of the population, and scarcity of population-based studies are sources of bias which should be taken into account when interpreting the available data on rheumatological diseases in black Africa. In the future, more rigorous studies made possible by increased access to health care will provide improved insight into the semiology and epidemiology of bone and joint diseases in this area.