13 February 2025, Cairo, Egypt – To mark World Epilepsy Day, the World Well being Group (WHO) is elevating consciousness about epilepsy, a typical neurological dysfunction that may have an effect on anybody, at any age.
An estimated 4.7 million folks with epilepsy dwell within the Japanese Mediterranean Area. It’s among the many 3 most steadily encountered neurological issues in major well being care settings in 20 of the 22 nations and territories of the Area.
Regardless of its prevalence, limitations to care and understanding live on, notably in low- and middle-income nations and in emergency settings.
Epilepsy is characterised by recurrent seizures which happen resulting from extreme electrical discharges in a bunch of mind cells. Seizures range of their length, severity and frequency relying on the place within the mind the disturbance begins and the way far it spreads. Signs can embrace adjustments in sensation (resembling altered imaginative and prescient, listening to and style), incontinence, tongue bites and different accidents, unexplained confusion, sleepiness, weak point, lack of consciousness or consciousness and sudden uncontrolled actions of the arms, legs or whole physique.
A lot of the causes of symptomatic epilepsy are preventable and treatable. Fashionable antiepileptic medication are efficient and comparatively cheap. In as much as 70% of individuals, epilepsy may be absolutely managed by antiepileptic medication.
Whereas epilepsy impacts tens of millions of individuals worldwide, stigma stays a serious problem. In lots of societies, folks residing with epilepsy face discrimination, social exclusion and human rights violations. They’re typically denied entry to training and employment, undermining fundamental human dignity and exacerbating the bodily, emotional and psychological toll of the illness. Girls and ladies with epilepsy face heightened dangers. They might be topic to further social discrimination and gender-based violence.
Within the Japanese Mediterranean Area epilepsy stays underdiagnosed, and remedy is usually insufficient. Youngsters face extreme limitations to accessing care, and plenty of are unable to attend college because of the stigma surrounding their situation. The state of affairs is made worse in nations dealing with emergencies and ongoing conflicts the place folks residing with epilepsy – particularly weak populations resembling kids – endure disproportionately from the shortage of obtainable assets and correct well being care companies.
Boundaries to accessing important remedies for epilepsy within the Area embrace:
Remedy prices – many epilepsy drugs are out of attain for sufferers in low- and middle-income nations.
Gaps in insurance coverage protection which frequently depart folks with out entry to the drugs and well being care companies they should handle their situation successfully.
A extreme scarcity of well being care professionals, together with neurologists and epilepsy specialists, limits the flexibility to diagnose and deal with epilepsy successfully.
Emergency conditions, together with conflicts and pure disasters, create additional challenges in accessing constant well being care.
A scarcity of pediatric-specific formulations of antiepileptic medication makes it tough to deal with kids with epilepsy appropriately.
Regulatory limitations round managed medicines – some epilepsy drugs are labeled as managed substances, making it tough for sufferers to acquire them, particularly in emergency and battle settings.
These limitations disproportionately have an effect on weak populations.
A multipronged and multidimensional motion – involving the group, civil society, folks with lived expertise, spiritual students, academia, media and policy-makers – is urgently wanted to cut back stigma, affirm dignity and bridge the present remedy hole for folks with epilepsy.
