Managing epilepsy in primary health care in developing countries: challenges and perspectives

Epilepsy remains the most common serious neurological disorder and is one of the world’s most prevalent non-communicable diseases. Epilepsy is expected to affect 50 million individuals worldwide, with over half of them living in developing countries. Due to the lack of neurologists in these countries, managing epilepsy involves numerous health workers, among them the non-specialized health workers in primary health care who are more available. Different challenges that they deal with retain the attention of stakeholders and have to be deeply discussed. For this webinar, we aim to exchange challenges and perspectives in managing epilepsy in primary care in a low- and middle-income setting.

Objectives:

• To describe an overview of guidelines for managing epilepsy in developing countries.
• To describe challenges witch non-specialized health workers deal with in primary care.
• To describe the current perspective on managing epilepsy in primary care.

Speaker: Doctor MUMBERE VAGHENI Martial(Neuropsychiatrist), a Ph.D. student in Community health and development at GLUK and WHO Team Lead Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in East DRC. Medical Doctor, from East DRC, Mastered in Neuropsychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry/Faculty of Medicine/University of Kinshasa. I am very interested in the mental health problems of the population of Eastern DRC. In the meantime, I have joined two research teams where I have recently participated in the publication of a few articles, with other research projects in progress.

My main research areas are:
• Population resilience in the face of adversity, including armed conflict and health emergencies.
• Determinants of population behavior during health emergencies (MVE, Covid-19)
• Neuropsychiatric manifestations of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases
• Community-based mental health

Facilitator: Elie Badjo