title: The burden of COPD in Africa: a literature review and prospective survey of the availability of spirometry for COPD diagnosis in Africa.
abstract: To ascertain the known burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Africa and of spirometry use to indicate the possibility of further unpublished data becoming shortly available.
  
  
  
  Literature review.
  
  
  
  Screening of 132 articles yielded 22 relevant articles, of which only six used spirometry based data. A total of 106 physicians in 34 countries were contacted and only 23 reported satisfactory use and availability of spirometry.
  
  
  
  Current estimates of COPD burden in Africa are based on an unreliably small dataset. Acquisition of further data will require substantial investment in lung function equipment and training.
authors.affiliation: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK. anushka.mehrotra@ncl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Anushka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mehrotra
authors.forename: Maxwell Oluwole
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Akanbi
authors.forename: Stephen B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Gordon
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013147:Spirometry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*