Community ENT Health Promotion: Concepts and Perspectives in Mali

In our countries, more and more basic medical staff are confronted with ENT pathologies that fall within the field of specialized medicine and whose complications are frequent. The majority of our populations mainly frequent peripheral health structures. The promotion of ENT health at this level is useful to better treat patients suffering from ENT diseases. Objective: Identify ENT diseases and propose areas of promotion in community ENT health. Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study of all ENT diseases encountered in ten community health centers of district IV of Bamako in January and December 2011. Results: 1174 patients developed ENT diseases (approximately 13% of general consultations); Children aged 0 to 5 years are the most affected-48%; Female predominated-54%; tonsillitis and otitis media with respectively 35.26% and 31% were the frequent ENT disorders. The concepts and perspectives of community ENT health have been defined and argued. Conclusion: community ENT health has its place in our health pyramid. Our initiative will certainly contribute to better address the ENT problems of communities, which are increasingly confronted with the lack of ENT specialists in our country.