Epidemiology of inflammatory bowel disease in sub-Saharan Africa: A review of the current status

Abstract

While inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been well characterised in the West and other parts of the world, there are little data from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). To throw light on the current status of IBD in SSA, we performed a systematic review of the literature, extracting relevant publications. We found only 210 documented IBD cases in SSA (excluding South Africa (SA)), which were reported in 34 publications until August 2019. The majority were cases of ulcerative colitis. Only three reports, all from SA, attempted to determine IBD incidence rates. The rest were mostly case reports or small case series; the largest from Nigeria comprised 32 patients. The paucity of documented cases possibly reflects under-diagnosis and under-reporting. Major deficiencies in diagnostic and clinical capacity were noted, which need to be addressed going forward.