Epilepsy Still Remains a Cursed Disease in African Countries
By George Okore
Cultural interpretation and supernatural beliefs are among the factors hindering effective management and treatment of epilepsy in Africa. These factors are exacerbated by lack of specialized personnel, insufficient materials, lack of drugs and high cost of the same.
Consequently, many African countries have made little progress towards the management and treatment of epilepsy, which has been slow with the treatment gap due to several factors. Dr Ammou Gallow Diop, from Department of Neurology at University Hospital of Dakar, Senegal says around 5 per cent of people worldwide suffering from epilepsy reside in developing countries with Africa having 10 million cases .
During an Epilepsy and Stigma Conference, in Lusaka in April, then Zambian Vice President George Kunda urged health care providers to treat all patients equally and to give the needed care to people with epilepsy. The conference noted that there are many different types of seizures that can affect people in different ways. While seizures can be easy to diagnose and controlled for some people, for many others, epilepsy is a lifelong problem that can affect people in many different ways.
One of the exciting new developments in 2011 is the introduction of new antiepileptic drugs that has recently been approved and will soon be available for use is Ezogabine (Potiga). The drug will take center stage at the 3rd World Epilepsy Conference scheduled for February 2-4, 2012 at Hyatt Regency San Francisco, USA. Stakeholders view the conference as a major catalyst in accelerating epilepsy drug and device development and will assemble companies and scientific entrepreneurs at the cutting-edge of epilepsy. The conference will showcase the most promising epilepsy therapies from emerging and mature healthcare companies dedicated to pioneering and advancing drugs, biologics, technologies and devices for epilepsy.
According to a recent study, women often report worsening of their seizures in association with menstrual cycles. The study says that in overall, 46.8 per cent of women had increased seizures either during the menstrual cycle or the ovulatory phase mid-way between menstrual cycles. Seizures are also common during ovulatory cycles, which is a menstrual cycle without secreting ova. Seizure frequency tended to be lowest during the mid-luteal phase after ovulation, when progesterone hormone levels are high. These observations offer support for continuing to search for hormonal therapies that might be helpful for seizure control in women with catamenial epilepsy.
Epilepsy is a disorder of the central nervous system, specifically the brain. Normally, the brain continuously generates tiny electrical impulses in an orderly pattern. These impulses travel along the network of nerve cells, called neurons, in the brain and throughout the whole body via chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. A seizure occurs when the brain's nerve cells misfire and generate a sudden, uncontrolled surge of electrical activity in the brain.
If seizures arise from a specific area of the brain, then the initial symptoms often reflect the functions of that area. The right half of the brain controls the left side of the body, and the left half of the brain controls the right side of the body. If a seizure starts from the right side of the brain, in the area that controls movement in the thumb, then the seizure may begin with jerking of the left thumb or hand.
In many African countries, epilepsy is thought to be contagious and brought on by witches. Still, many African countries face challenges in tackling epilepsy. These challenges include poor resources for epilepsy care within the government budget resulting in poor health facilities for people with epilepsy. Other challenges are lack of comprehensive data and adequate skills among medical personnel thus creating a wide treatment gap. Still, high poverty levels have has resulted in poor drug compliance as many cannot afford the drugs at the market price. Worse still, lack of government policies on epilepsy has resulted to issues affecting people with epilepsy not being addressed adequately.
Notably, many African countries are taking concrete steps to contain this debilitating condition. For example, Kenya Association for the Welfare of People with Epilepsy (KAWE) was formed in 1982 as a non-profit making organization that comprehensively targets and addresses issues of people with epilepsy. Credibly KAWE not only provides of medical treatment, but lobby and advocate for legislation and policies which affect people with epilepsy.
Listed among other critical but neglected tropical diseases including malaria ,tuberculosis, trypanosomiasis, polio, mental retardation, dengue fever, leprosy, tuberculosis, gonorrhoea, syphilis, rabies, schistosomiasis, trachoma and snakebite, epilepsy blight the lives of many Africans by hindering economic productivity, maiming, debilitating and killing, with costly consequences.