Adult onset polyarthritis in Africa

Rheumatic diseases in Africa are often chronic and sometimes acute but above all their management remains uncertain in terms of treatment. Nevertheless in the last decade there has been a growing interest in rheumatology. Moreover it appears of great interest to establish comparisons between what is observed in the black race and what is known in other races: thus it is possible to specify the place of genetic factors in the often multi-factorial physiopathology. In the context infectious pathology is still frequent. In this work the authors review adult polyarthritis in Africa through time from the past to the present before presenting the particularities related to therapeutics and their applicability. On the contextual level Africa is a land of ambivalence of one thing and its opposite: uniqueness and diversity; mixture and separation among others. Indeed Africa rests on a tectonic plate it is also and above all a continent. Africa is also a land of diversity represented mainly by: contrasting climates very unevenly distributed populations with a predominance of young people a very great genetic and ethno cultural diversity with more than 2000 ethnic groups.