Blog Post 1 "Stigma is the toughest foe in an Epilepsy Fight"

            If you were a parent and your child had an illness, would you do everything in your power to seek treatment?  This is not the case in Freetown, Sierra Leone where social stigma on the disease called epilepsy drives parents away from the kids instead of bringing them close together in a time of need. The article “Stigma is Toughest Foe in an Epilepsy Fight” talks about how people with epilepsy are shunned by society and their parents because of their disease. People of Sierra Leone believe that the disease is demon related and somehow it may be contagious. Kids are often put out of school when they have a seizure and workers are fired when they have a seizure on the job. The culture of Freetown believe that those who have this disease will never contribute to society which means they can’t be educated, therefore they can’t get a job and they can’t have a family. There is a woman in the article who proved all these social stigmas wrong. Jeneba Kabba, now 30 years of age has a family and a steady job however she has Epilepsy. Jeneba has been seizure free for over 10 years. As a teen Jeneba recaps a horrifying experience in which she was forced to drink a 2 liter bottle of kerosene, and this is not out of the norm for the people of Leone; because people don’t quite understand the disease this culture have come up with rituals that will heal the sick. Today Jeneba works in the Epilepsy Association of Sierra Leone which opened 11 years ago. The Association is an institution where patients can go and learn as well as other skills such as sewing which may earn them a living.  This is the only place where others with the disease can come and get treatment; however this is a very difficult task because as stated by Dr. Lisk “the first hurdle is whether or not the family believes that this illness can be treated. Many of the families are embarrassed by the fact that a part of the family has this disease.

            Epilepsy as a disease is imbalance of the nervous system which causes seizures. Why is this a global social problem you may ask? Well let’s look at the numbers. Nearly half of Sierra’s children with Epilepsy drop out of school and less than 10% of the population aren’t getting treatment. This issue affects 50 million people worldwide and 90% are from developing countries. We can’t continue to act as if this problem doesn’t exist. There are kids who aren’t getting an education which means we won’t have future business owners, teachers or entrepuneureseres. These people are essential to the continuous growth of the world. There are treatments that can slow down the frequencies of the seizures however most of the people with the diseases can’t afford the treatment. People all around the worlds have identified the problem and have started foundations to fund treatment around the world. We should however put more fire under our bottoms and help more people in poor countries such as Africa. We also should feel obligated to teach everyone about the disease so the stigma can be removed from society. The disease is not contagious and it is not demon related it is a disease that harms millions of humans and their families each day just as any other illness like AIDS or cancer. This is a global social problem. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/health/30epilepsy.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=health