Al-Khadra Teaching Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Tripoli University, Tripoli, Libya.
East Mediterr Health J. 2012 Feb;18(2):184-8. doi: 10.26719/2012.18.2.184.
Data on autism are lacking for Libya. We conducted a hospital-based study in the Neurodevelopment Clinic of AI-Khadra Hospital in Tripoli to estimate the prevalence of autistic spectrum disorders in children attending the clinic. All children referred to the clinic between 2005 and 2009 with a diagnosis of speech and language disorders or behavioural difficulties were assessed. There were 38 508 children in total seen during 2005-09,180 of whom had a history of delayed speech and language and/or behavioural difficulties. Of the 180, 128 children were diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder: 99 had classical autism, giving the prevalence of about 4 in 1000. The male:female ratio for autistic spectrum disorders was 4:1 and for autism was 4.5:1. The most common age at presentation was 2-5 years (58%) and 56% presented 6-18 months after the onset of symptoms. Physicians should consider autism in the differential diagnosis of any child presenting with a speech and language disorder and/or behavioural difficulties.
利比亚缺乏自闭症相关数据。我们在的黎波里 AI-Khadra 医院的神经发育诊所进行了一项基于医院的研究，以评估在该诊所就诊的儿童自闭症谱系障碍的患病率。2005 年至 2009 年间，所有被转介到诊所并被诊断为言语和语言障碍或行为困难的儿童都接受了评估。在 2005 年至 2009 年期间，共有 38508 名儿童就诊，其中 180 名儿童有言语和语言延迟以及/或行为困难的病史。在这 180 名儿童中，有 128 名被诊断为自闭症谱系障碍：99 名患有典型自闭症，患病率约为每 1000 名儿童中有 4 名。自闭症谱系障碍的男女比例为 4:1，自闭症为 4.5:1。最常见的就诊年龄为 2-5 岁（58%），56%的儿童在症状出现后 6-18 个月就诊。医生在对任何出现言语和语言障碍及/或行为困难的儿童进行鉴别诊断时，应考虑自闭症的可能。
