Epilepsy is a persistent neurological illness because it affects the central nervous system.
This condition typically results in aberrant brain activity, seizures, or sporadic strange behaviour, feelings, or loss of self-awareness.
According to Deegbea, Aziato, and Attiogbea (2019), epilepsy causes seizures by interfering with the brain's regular electrical activity. Around 50 million individuals worldwide suffer from epilepsy, which accounts for 0.5% of the world's illness burden.
According to empirical research, there are 10 million epileptics in Africa. In comparison to most Sub-Saharan nations, Ghana has a greater incidence of epilepsy.
It might be argued that epilepsy is continually misunderstood and that epilepsy sufferers (PLWE) are frequently stigmatised. Because epilepsy is frequently viewed as a terrible and contagious condition in Africa, people with epilepsy are ostracised and discriminated against in marriage, job, and education.
It must be made clear that epilepsy is neither communicable or contagious, therefore someone cannot get it from someone else who has it.
However, epilepsy may affect people of various ages, genders, races, and ethnicities.
reasons, signs, and problems
It is a reality that there is no known aetiology for epilepsy. However, in certain other epilepsy sufferers, a number of relevant variables, including genetic (hereditary) effects, a history of head trauma, brain abnormalities (such as tumours or vascular malformations), infections (such as HIV), and prenatal damage, may be to blame for the illness.
Seizures, which can have a wide range of symptoms, are the main epileptic symptom. During a seizure, some epileptic patients just gaze blankly for a brief period of time, while others twist their limbs repeatedly.
A person may not definitely have epilepsy only because they have one seizure. In order to diagnose epilepsy, a person typically has to experience at least two unprovoked seizures that occur at least twice a day.
Seizures have an impact on any brain-coordinated function, keeping in mind that epilepsy is linked to aberrant brain activity.
A staring spell, tight muscles, uncontrollable jerking of the upper and lower limbs, loss of consciousness, and brief bewilderment are just a few of the symptoms and signs of a seizure.
However, depending on the type of seizure and the individual, symptoms may differ. Clinicians often divide seizures into focal and generalised types.
Generalized seizures originate in both hemispheres of the brain, as opposed to focal seizures, which begin in one part of the brain and may extend across the brain depending on how the electrical discharges spread.
The individual who suffers from epileptic seizures must deal with problems. Falling, drowning, car accidents, burns, pregnancy complications, mental health problems like depression and suicidal thoughts, recurrent seizures without regaining consciousness (status epilepticus), sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), and many other things are examples of these complications. It goes without saying that some of the issues listed here may be fatal.