International Epilepsy Day is a special event that promotes awareness of epilepsy in more than 130 countries each year. On the second Monday of February, every year people join together to acknowledge and highlight the problems faced by people with epilepsy, their families, and carers.
In an exclusive interaction with Healthwire, Dr. Manjari Tripathi Professor of neurology at AIIMs Delhi shared her insights on Epilepsy and the social stigma related to this:
What is Epilepsy?
Dr. Manjari said, “Epilepsy is a condition which occurs due to the neurons in the brain, there are millions of neurons in the brain and there is an electrical short circuit or electrical current which is discharged excessively in the brain due to which a patient who has epilepsy lose control of them.”
There can be two types of epilepsy convulsions like major ones and minor ones, in major ones the patient becomes unconscious falls to the ground, might bite his tongue, the urine may come out and there is a movement in the hands and the legs, in the minor ones the person may have just the twitching of the face or may have jerking of one hand or may just become blank.
In the minor ones, the patient doesn’t fall, so these are two broad categories of seizures and if anyone has one or any unprovoked seizures then we can say that the person has epilepsy and these seizures can occur at any point in time in life, according to Dr. Tripathi.
For listening to the full interaction click the link below:
What are the common causes of Epilepsy?
Dr. Tripathi explains, “There can be many causes of Epilepsy and in India, many causes are preventable, like the time when the child is bornhttps://youtu.be/rk4F8XvGKrk?t=103 or during birth if there is hypoxia in the brain (When the brain doesn’t get sufficient oxygen) then there can be seizures or epilepsy can be caused.”
However, other than that there are infections in the brain or meningitis or encephalitis then also epilepsy can happen. As well as in the young age when the food hygiene is not good like when we eat a lot of salads outside or we eat a lot of uncooked vegetables or meat then we can get a type of cyst in the brain which is due to the tapeworm and is known as neurocysticercosis.
Along with that open-air defecation and head, inquiry promotes this more.
Head injuries or road accidents can also cause epilepsy:
Dr. Tripathi explains, “One of the common causes of epilepsy in the young adults nowadays the head injuries and road accidents. Like not wearing helmets or putting seat belts while driving they can have a knock on the head, it might seem okay initially but later on, in few years the person may have epilepsy”
Is it inherited or is due to genetics?
It is very few percentages the epilepsy is inherited which are less than five percent but mostly epilepsy is not inherited it can be genetics but it can’t be inherited, said Dr. Tripathi.
What are the social stigmas that are still related to this?
Well, anybody can have epilepsy, a child, a middle aged person and an old person. In our society the male gender is quite privileged than the female gender and majority of them have to face a lot of struggle, so if a woman or a girl who has epilepsy are kind of discriminated in our society because of the wrong information like a young girl with epilepsy cannot get married or have a normal life like others and if she gets married she cannot have children. Even if she has children they will too have epilepsy which is completely wrong, said Dr. Tripathi.
