By Mama A Touray
The Ministry of Health and Foundation of Epilepsy and Stigma Support Monday commemorated International Epilepsy Day, held at the Arch 22 in Banjul.
Speaking at the commemoration, president of FESS-Gam Adam Jallow Janneh said: “In November 2022, the 73rd World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted a resolution 73.10 global actions on epilepsy and other neurological disorders, which requested the WHO Director General to develop inter-sectoral global action plan on epilepsy and other neurological disorder. The action plan should address the challenges and gaps in providing care and services for people living with epilepsy through comprehensive coordinated response across all sectors.”
“International Day of Epilepsy is celebrated every second Monday in February every year, as 140 countries globally join together to work 50 million steps to raise awareness for challenges faced by 50 million people living with the condition from Central River Region to the Greater Banjul to raised epilepsy awareness and contribute over one million steps towards the campaign,” she added.
The president of FESS-Gam continued that “Leading institutions in the forefront fighting to make epilepsy a health priority after consultations with 160 participants from fifty countries submitted a letter to the discussion paper circulated by WHO to inspire a decade of action guided by inter-sectoral global action on epilepsy and other neurological disorders and FESS-Gam was a participant in the discussion.
“The IGAP is currently being discussed at executive board level of the WHO and once approved it will then require ratification by World Health Assembly in May 2022, I am hereby appealing to the minster, Dr Samateh to support this ambitious plan. We feel this is a major opportunity for epilepsy to become a global public health priority in the next ten years and to provide example for other neurological disorders to follow major challenges such as access to treatment and care will be addressed by this pain which will also commit to engaging people with epilepsy in its implementation,” she explained.