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of the disease in zaria has been attribut e d , in part , t o t he
traditiona l postpartum practices of bod y heating and the
intake of a salt rich " Kanwa" whi ch is said to p r ed i s pos e to
blood vo lume overload ( 194 , 2 19 ] .
A study by Davidson and Parry of 224 p a t ient s reported
that 40 (18%) had first notic ed symptoms i n late pregnancy
while the remaining 60% had first observed s ymptoms postpartum
[ 194]. A significant delay between onset of symptoms , and time
o f presentation to hospital was noted . The mean time o f onset
o f symptoms was 3 . J weeks postpartum and the mean time of
presentati on t o hospital vas 9.4 weeks [ 19 4 ) . Only four (a)
SUbjects, for exa mple, presented during p regnancy while 97
( 47t) present ed duri ng t he puerperal period and the rest
presented after six weeks [ 194 ) . The time o f onset of disease
in zaria, however, was s imila r to t ha t reported earl i er i n
South Af r ica ( 211 ) . In I badan a lso, about 80 \ of the 59
episodes in 50 patients studied ha d star ted wi thin t h r ee
months; a third h a d started in the first month of t he
pue r perium (195] .
,9
Five (8 .5\) of the 59 ep isodes i n Ibaaan a nd 15 (6 . 8\ ) of
the 224 case s in Zaria had followed t wi n deliveries [194, 195] .
Eig hty-seven pe r cent and 76\ of all s Ubjects in zaria and
I badan r es p ec t i ve l y , had elevated blood pr e s s ure s at
presentation [194 ,195 ) . The au t hors i n I bad a n r ema r ked t hat,
i n 15\ of their subjects, the blood pressure elevations were