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incidence o f hyper t e ns i ve disorder i n pr eg na nc y in one study
wa s even h i g he r , 41% [ 18 5] . Hi g h rates of eclampsia are also
reported by studies in Africa and o t her developing countries
which reflect t he poorer o bs t e t r i c c a r e in these r egions
[ 17 0 ] .
In studies i n Niger ia, incidence rates of eclampsia have
ranged between 0 . 1- 2.5% [8,163,186 ] _ In Ta nzania [182) , about
a tenth of pre-eclamptic pri migr'avictae were obs e rved to
de v e l op e d e clampsi a . About 10 percent of the se eclamps ia c a s e s
also die from the disorder ( 182 ] . In South Africa , the
i ncidence of eclampsia i n one study was observed to be 2 . J pe r
1000 wi th a case-fatality rate of about 12\ ( 187) . In studies
in Ni geri a and Mexico similar eclampsia c ase- f a t alit y rates o f
14.4\ a nd 13 .9 \ respectively are reported [186 ,188 J .
These h i gh e clampsia i nci de nc e s c a n be co mpared to t he
very l ow incidence of 0 . 2 and :;. 2 per 1000 in Sweden and
Memphis , U. S.A respec t ively [ 189 , 190 ] . The reported eclampsia
case fatality rates in the developed c ountries are also very
low and range from 0-5\ [190- 193]. As can be seen from the
figu r e s i n t hese poor countri es, the increased occurrence o f
eclampsi a. i s ac companied by high case fata lity rates as most
hos pit.als in the r eg i on l ac k a dequate facilities to c a r e for
those with this very severe condition.
I n the l arge zaria study [8], the incidences of pre-
e clampsia, eclam psia, a nd pos t pa r t um hypertension among the
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