The prevalence of epilepsy in the Zay Society, Ethiopia--an area of high prevalence.

Very high prevalence rates of epilepsy have been found in some developing countries. The Zay Society of Ethiopia was screened for epilepsy during a door-to-door survey and after neurological assessment, a prevalence of 29.5/1000 was found. Almost all the cases had primary generalised epilepsy in contrast to the predominance of partial epilepsy found elsewhere. Due to its historical isolation, epilepsy genes may have become widely disseminated throughout the Zay Society, accounting for the elevated prevalence.