Angela Ssempala
11 November 2009
Kampala — LAST week as I travelled in a taxi, a child who was crossing, suddenly fell in the middle of the road in a fit. It took about three minutes before he regained consciousness. This child must have been epileptic.
Epilepsy is a condition caused by disturbance in the brain waves, making a person get fits. Eighty percent of people with epilepsy can be treated and their condition controlled by medications which they may have to take for the rest of their lives.
Many people in Uganda have this condition and are not aware it is epilepsy. A number of students suffer from seizures leading to poor performance; they are grouped as 'dense' yet great potential lies in them if the condition could be diagnosed and treated. Others have been sent out of school on grounds of disrupting class sessions.
It should be noted that a person with epilepsy when under tension, scared, anxious or traumatised, can get a seizure. Take the case of a student who recently died in a teacher's house (the Sunday Vision October 11). This girl may have suffocated as a result of a seizure. Precautionary measures should have been taken. Not that people with epilepsy should be looked after like babies, but having knowledge of the consequences of unattended to epilepsy is necessary.
Socially, people with epilepsy are stigmatised and most times left out of development and leadership initiatives. Most do not disclose their condition and in the villages they are kept metres away from the main house in small huts.
So many myths surround epilepsy, one of which is that epilepsy is contagious. It is not and it is our role to support and care for people with epilepsy.
Some people with epilepsy have been denied employment, an infringement on their rights. True, medication may not be sufficient in health centres, but how can the Government plan for what is not known?
It is, therefore, our responsibility to refer people with epilepsy to hospitals or health centres so that they do not get secondary disabilities and permanent brain damage.
Until we appreciate epilepsy, Uganda will keep losing valuable human resource over a controllable condition. Together, let us bring epilepsy out of the shadows.
The writer is an an advocacy officer with the Epilepsy Support Association Uganda
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