2025/08/19 by Ntekim, A. I., Abdullhahi, Adamu, Ajekigbe, A +1
paper · doi:10.82235/wajr.vol16no1.194
Jaw tumours in African children were described since 1904. The unique Clinical features were however first described by Dr Denis Burkitts, a British surgeon in 1958 while wurking at Mulago hospital in Kampala Uganda. He described a rapidly growing childhood sarcoma of the jaw and abdomen that was surgically unresectable. Dennis Wright, a Makerere University pathologist described simple method of diagnosis through direct examination of tumour imprints and gave the name Burkitts lymphoma. In 1961, Burkitts and his colleagues undertook the mapping of geographical spread of the tumour with a Grant of 25 Pounds from The Medical Research Council of Britain and they documented a spread corresponding to the Malaria belt. Michael Epstein suspected a viral aetiology after attending one of Burkitts lectures in London and requested for humour tissue sample. Epstein and Yvonne M Barr isolated the virus Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in 1964.