Around 40-50 patients from K-P, FATA and Afghanistan visit the OPD every week.
PESHAWAR:
Fifteen-year-old epilepsy patient, Masoor Khan has never been to school, nor has he travelled much outside of his hometown of Mardan. The place he is most familiar with apart from his home is the Neurology Ward of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).
Today, the world will observe epilepsy awareness day – known globally as Purple Day. For Khan, however, it will be like any other day. He has had epilepsy since the age of five and has been confined to his house, unable to even play with other children.
“I want to go to school, but my mother does not let me because at times the epileptic fits leave me lying on the ground unable to move,” Khan told The Express Tribune.
Khan’s uncle Shahzeb said initially, the family did not know what to do with Khan when his seizures would occur so they took him to faith healers and shrines but he showed no improvement.
“A doctor at the Mardan Medical Complex examined him and told us to take him to LRH in Peshawar and he has been receiving treatment from their neurology ward since then,” said Shahzeb.
Hospitals and medical units in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) remain severely unequipped to provide medical facilities for patients suffering from epilepsy. LRH is the only hospital in all of K-P which treats such patients and that too only once a week.
Dr Shabeer Ahmad, a Senior Medical Officer at the Neurology Department of LRH, told The Express Tribune that 40-50 patients from across K-P, the tribal areas and Afghanistan visit the epilepsy outpatient department (OPD) in a week. He added there wasn’t even a specific ward or department for epilepsy patients; the hospital has designated one day for them at the OPD.
“Epilepsy is a brain disorder which involves repeated spontaneous seizures. Abnormally excited electrical signals cause episodes of disturbed brain function which lead to a change in behaviour and attention,” said Dr Ahmad.
The doctor further explained that in a large number of cases the use of proper medication has proven effective in controlling or at least limiting seizures. “A majority of the people never consult with doctors or specialists during the initial stages of the disease attributing it to hysteria or the effect of the supernatural which is an incorrect perception.”
Instead of going to a proper doctor they go to faith healers, which further exacerbates the patient’s condition, he added.
Abdominal pain, vomiting and fear are the main symptoms of epilepsy and a doctor should be consulted as soon as possible so that appropriate medicine is prescribed, the doctor maintained.
Dr Ahmad urged the government to establish drug dissemination centres on district levels for patients of epilepsy in order to provide them free medications. “A majority of these patients cannot afford the medicines or the expenses of travelling to Peshawar for treatment,” he maintained.
According to a report of the K-P’s District Health Information System, in 2013, 8,685 people were diagnosed with epilepsy. Unfortunately, provisions for them are lacking in the province.
According to www.purpleday.org, 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 26th, 2014.
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