30 August 2000
BAMAKO, Mali — The president of the Malian Society for oto-rhino-laryngology and cervico-facial surgery, Prof. Alhassane Ag Mohamed, has said that tonsillitis was turning into a serious public health problem in the country.
Ag Mohamed said this in a statement he issued last week during the society's third conference, on the theme: Tonsillitis and Free Communication.
According to data provided at the meeting, the infection mainly affects young people.
They indicated that 26.7 percent of cases were among people aged between 20 and 29 years. On the other hand, 39.2 percent of the patients were students, which explains a high rate of school absenteeism in Mali.
While tonsillitis is on the decline in Europe, Mali's prevalence rate stands at 46.3 percent, Ag Mohamed said.
He called for "thorough pathological research" in hospitals and the medical school to find the underlying causes.
He suggested that people should act fast once they notice symptoms of the disease by making patients to swallow penicillin for 15 to 20 days.
Former Malian health Minister Prof. Mamadou Dembele, the society's honorary president, and honorary professor of surgery at the Faculty of Medicine, deplored the fact that most rural dwellers had no access to treatment.
Bamako's Gabriel Toure hospital is the only specialised centre for dealing with tonsillitis.
According to Dembele, it is high time to regional hospitals were empowered to deal with the disease.
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