Epilepsy Care - The WHO/ILAE/IBE Global Campaign Against Epilepsy
Epilepsy Care - The WHO/ILAE/IBE Global Campaign Against Epilepsy
Epilepsy is one of the most common serious neurological disorders in the world; it has been estimated that around 1% of the world’s population has some form of epilepsy. More than four-fifths of the 50 million people with epilepsy are thought to live in developing countries.1 The treatment gap is alarming in these countries, where more than 80% of people with epilepsy do not receive appropriate treatment. 2 Epilepsy also leads to multiple interacting medical, psychological, economic, and social repercussions, all of which need to be considered. Fear, misunderstanding, and the resulting social stigma and discrimination surrounding epilepsy often force people with this disorder ‘into the shadows’.The social effects may vary from country to country and culture to culture, but it is clear that worldwide the social consequences of epilepsy are often more difficult to overcome than the seizures themselves.
Since the problem is too complex to be solved by individual organizations, and to bring epilepsy ‘out of the shadows’, a Global Campaign Against Epilepsy was launched in 1997, “to improve acceptability, treatment, services, and prevention of epilepsy worldwide”.The campaign is conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in partnership with the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE). The aim of the campaign is principally to reduce the treatment gap by providing better information about epilepsy and its consequences and to assist governments and those concerned with epilepsy to reduce the burden of the disorder.
A key concept of the campaign is that it includes interrelated global, regional, and national components. The strategy of the campaign includes two parallel and simultaneous tracks: raising general awareness and understanding of epilepsy; and supporting Departments of Health in identifying needs and promoting education, training, treatment, services, research, and prevention.3 The objectives of the campaign are:
- to increase public and professional awareness of epilepsy as a universal, treatable brain disorder;
- to promote public and professional education about epilepsy;
- to change attitudes, dispel myths, and raise epilepsy onto a new plane of acceptability in the public domain;
- to identify the needs of people with epilepsy on a national, regional, and global basis; and
- to encourage governments and Departments of Health to develop their own national campaigns to improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care, services, and public attitudes.
- Murthy J M K, "Medical management of epilepsy: some problems and pitfalls in developing countries", Epilepsia (2003); 44 (Suppl 1): pp. 38 42.
- Shorvon S D, Farmer P J, "Epilepsy in developing countries: a review of epidemiological, sociocultural, and treatment aspects", Epilepsia (1988); 29 (Suppl 1): pp. 36 54.
- De Boer H M,"Out of the shadows: a global campaign against epilepsy", Epilepsia (2002); 43 (Suppl 6): pp. 1 3.
- Epilepsy in the WHO African Region: Bridging the Gap,World Health Organization (2004).
- Epilepsy in the Western Pacific Region: A Call to Action.World Health Organization (2004).
- Wang W Z,Wu J Z, Ma G Y et al.,"Efficacy assessment of phenobarbital in epilepsy: a large community-based intervention trial in rural China", Lancet Neurol (2006); 5: pp. 46 52.
- Project Atlas Geneva:World Health Organization (2005), http://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/en/
- Atlas: Epilepsy Care in the World, Geneva:World Health Organization (2005).
- Detailed information is available on the websites at http://www.who.int/mental_health/neurology/en/ and http://www.globalcampaign-epilepsy.org/
