Inborn errors of immunity are rare and underdiagnosed. The unavailability of some complementary tests contributes to delaying confirmation and management. This worsens the evolution and prognosis, with significant morbidity and mortality and impaired quality of life. Our aim was to present the challenges and perspectives in their management in Senegal.
We recorded children monitored for inborn errors of immunity at the Albert Royer National Children’s Hospital in Dakar, in specialized pediatric consultation, from 2014 to 2024. We report the overall evolution, mainly in the field of care activities organization, the training, patients’ association, partnership, and collaboration.
A total of 42 children are followed with an average of four new inclusions per year. The activity is provided by two pediatricians specialized in pediatric immunohematology, once a week, in addition to the children followed in dermatology. A teaching unit titled Immune Pathology has been taught in the fourth year of pediatric specialization since 2016. Since 2015, parents have been organized in a Senegalese Association Against Primary Immune Deficiencies (ASDIP), affiliated with the International Association of Patients (IPOPI) in 2024. Since 2022, some children have been included in poliovirus surveillance, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO-AFRO), in the global polio eradication initiative. This recruitment concerned 10 children in 2022 and 9 in 2023, with negative results in all children. In addition, the Moroccan Society of Primary Immunodeficiencies (MSPID) contributes to the training through scientific conferences. The collaboration with the IMAGINE Institute of Necker in Paris has enabled the identification of genes in some children. However, the challenges remain genetic analysis, hematopoietic stem cell transplants, and genetic counseling.
Inborn errors of immunity are little-known and insufficiently explored conditions. The difficulties of their management are explained by a lack of training.
