By Kemo Cham
The Ministry
of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) should pay more attention to Epilepsy given its
increasingly high prevalence in Sierra Leone, an association representing
suffers has said.
The Epilepsy
Association of Sierra Leone said Monday there is a need for the ministry to
take charge of provision of medication and other services that ensure sufferers
get reliable treatment and live comfortable lives. The call was made as the
country joined the rest of the world to commemorate the International Epilepsy
Day.
The day set
aside by organisations representing epilepsy sufferers falls on the second
Monday of every February. This year it falls on February 12.
In Sierra
Leone, the Epilepsy Association say there are at least 5000 people suffering
from the brain condition which leads seizure. Experts say it is caused by
various factors, usually at young age, especially during child birth. If not
detected early, the condition eventually develops at some point in one’s life.
According to
Professor Radcliff Lisk, the Coordinator of the National Program of the
Epilepsy at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, which works directly with
the association, elderly people too can develop epilepsy as a result of horde
of factors.
“This is a
condition with no barrier. So everyone should be thinking if they have anything
in the brain, like tumor, stroke, or any kind of infection,” he said.
The World
Health Organisation estimates that there are 1.4 percent of people who have
epilepsy in Africa, meaning out of every 1000 people, 14 are epileptic. This
compares sharply with the 0.5 percent rate in in the developed world. This huge
difference in prevalence is also attributable to levels of services provided to
sufferers.
Organisers
of the International Epilepsy Day say it is crucial to focus public attention
on the condition and get people realize its dangers and how to prevent it.
There is also need to handle issues of stigma and discrimination of people
suffering from the condition.
The global
theme for this year’s commemoration is: ‘More than Seizures.’ Organisers say
this is meant to be interpreted as the sickness goes beyond its usual symptom
of seizure, that it also has to do with sufferers’ personal relationship,
stigma, among others.
Locally the
theme was re-coined as: ‘This is me.’ This, explained Professor Lisk, is meant
to encourage people to come out rather than hide their status. In other words,
sufferers are encouraged to come forward for treatment.
Epilepsy is
not a curable illness and therefore sufferers are supposed to be on long term medication
as treatment. But this also means there has to be constant availability of
medication.
Currently
the epilepsy association is responsible for ordering medication, mainly with
the help of international donors. The association wants the ministry to take
over that and ensure that medications are always available in hospital.
“We agree
that the MoHS has a lot more problems than epilepsy, like high maternal and
infant mortality rate, but we don’t want them to neglect this condition too
because the people who are affected are also significant in number,” said
Professor Lisk.
No comments:
Post a Comment