Epilepsy Care for Millions Without Treatment
BRIDGING THE EPILEPSY TREATMENT GAP
Our Mission
Half of children with epilepsy worldwide receive no treatment for seizures. This "other 50%" of children with epilepsy tend to live in poverty in the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) of the world, where about 80% of children with epilepsy live. In these LMICs, the epilepsy treatment gap (the percentage of those with epilepsy who are not treated) is typically 60-90%. The vast majority of these untreated children, with effective treatment, can live normal lives. Our mission is to help local communities, healthcare providers, and Ministries of Health develop systems to identify and treat these children.
Task-Shifted Epilepsy Care
"Task-shifting",or shifting epilepsy diagnosis and treatment from a few specialized physicians to large numbers of community health workers working in primary healthcare settings in low-resource communities, may eventually bring epilepsy care to millions of untreated children. This method is promising, but not proven. We are now scientifically testing task-shifted epilepsy care compared to traditional physician epilepsy in a cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke (NINDS), U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) - grants 1R01 NS113171, R21TW010899.
Hausa-Speaking Africa
Epilepsy is best diagnosed by a skilled healthcare professional listening to people describing the different types of seizures in their own language. Therefore we are working in the center of Hausa-speaking northern Nigeria, where the most commonly spoken tribal language of west Africa is spoken by all. In the cities of Kano, Zaria, and Kaduna we are training community health workers and conducting studies of epilepsy screening, diagnosis, and treatment by community health workers supervised by Hausa-speaking physician experts in epilepsy.
