Chapter 1: Introduction

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HealthWiki > Epilepsy and Seizures > Chapter 1: Introduction

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In this chapter:

 

In this chapter:

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Understanding epilepsy and seizures
• How do we support people with epilepsy?
• Improving care for people with epilepsy
• Community action makes change happen

One Sunday, Alfredo was driving his family home from church when their car was hit by a truck. It was a bad accident—his brother was killed and Alfredo spent weeks in the hospital. After his head injuries healed, he went back to work. His company valued him as lead accountant and held his job for him. He could still find and fix errors better than anyone else in the company. But now, Alfredo sometimes gets an odd feeling in his stomach and his coworkers tell him he starts rocking from side to side, no longer paying attention to what they were doing together. After a minute or so, he feels a little tired but returns to normal.

Sultana is a popular young woman, always involving her friends in projects around town. After painting a mural about protecting the environment, she was walking home when suddenly she stopped, fell to the ground, and began shaking. Her friends called her mother, who came and gently comforted her and brought her home. Sultana’s mother knew about seizures because her sister used to have them before she started taking medicines to control them.

Everyone thought Kinjal was a sweet, spacey child. He enjoyed helping with household chores, but sometimes he just seemed to be off in his own world. It wasn’t until he started school that people noticed how often he would drift off. His teacher suggested he visit a clinic at their city hospital. He and his family went and the doctors there explained that they thought epilepsy was causing him to have absence seizures. They gave him a medicine which helped. Now Kinjal’s absence seizures happen much less frequently. He has gotten into the habit of checking with his friend Ran to make sure he does not miss homework assignments or anything else important at school due to his seizures.

What Alfredo, Sultana, and Kinjal have in common is epilepsy, which each experiences as a different kind of seizure. One of the most common brain (neurological) conditions in the world, epilepsy affects 50 to 70 million people. Even though epilepsy occurs in every country, among people from every walk of life, and in every age group, religion, ethnic group, and gender, there is a lack of clear, accessible information about epilepsy.

Alfredo, Sultana, and Kinjal were also fortunate that the people around them—in their families, schools, workplaces, and clinics—were aware of epilepsy and seizures and had access to medicines, so their right to health was respected. For more than half of the people with epilepsy in the world, over 25 million people, that is not the case. Despite the need, there is a lack of epilepsy training among health workers and a lack of access to the medicines that treat it, creating a huge “treatment gap” that prevents most people with epilepsy from getting the care they need. Some data shows that people in low-income countries (LICs) are up to 3 times more likely to have epilepsy than those in wealthier countries. And to make matters worse, 3 out of every 4 people with epilepsy in LICs cannot get treatment. Lack of treatment adds to misinformation about epilepsy, fear of people who have epilepsy, and discrimination and stigma against them.

The goal of this book is to share clear, accurate information about epilepsy—its medical and physical effects as well as its social and emotional effects. It is different than other medical books because it focuses on care and treatment for epilepsy and seizures in communities where people may lack adequate access to healthcare, education, safety, decent housing, enough food, and all the other things that make wellbeing possible. We hope you will use this book to:

• learn how to give first aid when someone has a seizure.
• understand different kinds of seizures and what can cause or trigger them.
• learn about medicines that treat seizures.
• stop the spread of epilepsy stigma, misinformation, and discrimination.
• support healthy pregnancies and births for people with epilepsy.
• talk to children about epilepsy.
• support people with epilepsy to live the healthiest, most fulfilling lives they can.
• stop the physical and structural violence that can cause epilepsy and make it worse.
• convince people in your community, in local and national governments, and in the health system to protect the health and rights of people with epilepsy.

This page was updated:19 May 2026