Technology can treat epilepsy, claim experts

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Health experts claim that epilepsy can be treated and the treatment is simpler with advanced technology.

With significant advancement in healthcare technology, epilepsy can be taken care of say experts.

Nearly 70% of patients who are initiated to the advanced treatment, as a result of latest technology, become free of seizures or epileptic fits within 1 to 2 years and in about half of them, the drugs can be tapered off in due course.

Neurosurgeons from across the world deliberated the latest technological advancement in treating persons with epilepsy.

From mapping brain deficiencies to localising the deficiencies and surgically correcting it without affecting the complex areas around, neurosurgery has come of age, with advanced mapping devices, technological assistants to carry out surgery with optimum precision.

India has one-sixth of the global burden of epilepsy, with 12 out of every 1000 people affected and an annual increase of six per every ten thousand Indians. Of the 70 million persons with epilepsy worldwide, nearly 12 million are estimated to be in India.

Ironically, almost 90% of people with epilepsy in India do not receive any treatment. Lack of knowledge of anti-epileptic drugs, poverty, cultural beliefs, stigma, poor health infrastructure and shortage of trained professionals contribute to the treatment gap. There are not more than 20 centers in the country that are capable of treating drug resistant epilepsies.

(With ANI inputs)