Kwa-Thema – Epilepsy South Africa had a consultative workshop at the Kwa-Thema Community Hall on Thursday.
The programme comes after the World Health Assembly in the World Health Organisation adopted the Intersectoral Global Action Plan (iGAP) on epilepsy and other neurological conditions in May 2022.
Epilepsy SA national director Sharlene Cassel said, “We are taking the pillars on the iGAP manual and going to the ground to educate people on that.
“We want to hear from the people on the ground what is it that they really need, is it medication, caregivers, campaigns or more?”
ALSO READ: All about epilepsy in children
Cassel explained that epilepsy is a neurological disorder which in layman’s terms is a spasm in the brain with a huge electrical current that will go through one of the four lobes and cause increased brain activity in an electrical surge that could cause a seizure.
“People can die from seizures if unattended to and if there’s no one around who can assist at the time,” said Cassel.
Cassel said often people who have seizures need medical assistance.
She also gave tips on how to look after someone during seizures:
• Put the person on their side.
• Put a pillow under their head.
• Put a finger or spoon in the person’s mouth to put the tongue out.
• Make sure they are and feel safe.
• It’s important to stay calm, a lot of people panic.
• Time the seizure so you can inform the medical personnel on how long it took which will help determine the severity of the condition.
Cassel said epilepsy is not discriminative on age, gender or race and it can start at any time in a person’s life.
She concluded by saying the condition can be generic however, statistically only 6% of those epileptics have inherited the condition.
