Neurology in Africa

“Ex Africa semper aliquid novi [Out of Africa always something new],” wrote the Roman historian Pliny the elder. Neurology in Africa is no different, with the recent emergence of new diseases ranging from HIV to konzo. Historically, neurology in Africa has been included under the heading tropical neurology or neurology in the tropics and is well-reviewed by Poser and Poser.1 Some of the earliest descriptions of the more common neurologic disorders (ND), including stroke, migraine, paralysis, and seizures, come from ancient Egypt and Greece. These accounts include diseases like lathyrism, which occurs in temperate as well as tropical climates, and was described by Herodotus (61 bc). More recent descriptions of tropical neurologic diseases, mostly infections, coincide with the exploration and colonization of the tropics. In 1803, Winterbottom described sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis) in Sierra Leone; its cause was later elucidated by Bruce2 in 1895. An example of an imported disease is the neuropathy of leprosy described in Norway by Danielssen and Boeck in 1848, and its cause elucidated there by Armauer Hansen3 in 1873. The subspecialty of tropical neurology came into being in the 1960s. It was led in Africa by neurologists Henri Collomb and Michael Dumas in Senegal; Neville Proctor (neuropathologist) and J.E. Cosnett in South Africa; George Monekosso and Benjamin Osuntokun4 in Nigeria; John Spillane5 in Africa and Wales; and Redda Tekle-Haimanot in Ethiopia. Several books on tropical neurology have been written.5–7