Adult-onset Still's disease in a Nigerian woman

Abstract

Adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) is an uncommon systemic inflammatory disorder of unknown aetiology. Although there have been reports and series elsewhere, there have been very few such reports on black Africans. The rarity of the reporting of this disease has been associated with a low index of suspicion and hence delayed diagnosis in patients suffering from it. We report a case of a 28-year-old woman, a teacher, who had been repeatedly treated for malarial fever over a 2-month period. She was also briefly managed elsewhere for systemic lupus erythematosus due to a persistent fever with associated polyarthralgia, sore throat, rash and high erythrocyte sedimentation rate. On presentation to our facility, she fulfilled the Yamaguchi criteria for AOSD and had a markedly elevated serum ferritin level. She was successfully managed with etanercept and methotrexate. This is the first report of AOSD from Nigeria.