Ebinyo: consequences of an ancient African tradition

Key words: Child abuse, child mutilation, Tropical Medicine, Cerebral abscesses

The paper describes the case of a 9 month-old child, admitted with a history of fever and neck stiffness in the Paediatric Ward of St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor in Gulu, Uganda. The child initially was managed as a suspect case of meningitis, but later the parents revealed that the child had undergone an oral mutilation by a traditional doctor in their village; this poorly known procedure was used in the East African tradition for the management of fever and diarrhoea in the first year of life. The culture of the cerebral spinal fluid was positive for a methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA); unfortunately, despite the adequacy of the antibiotic treatment, the child developed multiple cerebral abscesses.