Epilepsy in Africa: Part 2 in a Series
LUSAKA, ZAMBIA – Charles Banda, 13, enjoys playing and helping out with household chores like his siblings. But unlike his siblings, Charles has epilepsy.
Wearing a light blue T-shirt, Charles sits on a plastic chair surrounded by his siblings and friends as they sell dried fish and vegetables outside their home in John Laing, a compound south of Lusaka, the capital. Charles is too shy to say a word.
"It is important that people are sensitized that epilepsy is not cured, but it is controlled."
Mary Banda, his mother, is wrapped in a chitenge, a garment similar to a sarong. She says that while Charles was growing up, saliva poured constantly from his mouth. But she says she and her husband didn’t realize he was epileptic or that he had seizures when all were fast asleep at night.
Then last year, Banda says they heard Charles having a seizure one night in their home.
“I heard a sharp voice scream from Charles’ room,” his mother says. “I rushed to his bedroom he shares with his siblings only to see that my child was fitting.”
Adjusting the wooden stool she is sitting on, she says she was terrified.
“I was so scared because it was the first time I saw him fit,” Banda says.
Banda says the first thought that came to her mind was that her child had been bewitched. So she turned to traditional medicine.
“I have used traditional medicine before,” she says. “I used to apply the medication on my child[’s] lips, and others he [used to] drink.”
But she says the traditional medication didn’t work.
“My child never got well,” she says. “His condition did not improve. I don’t trust traditional medication anymore and couldn’t love to use them again.”
She says she worries about Charles’ safety during his seizures.
“I am worried for my boy because he normally has these fits when he is fast asleep,” she says. “I fear for him.”
Charles attends school at St. Lawrence, a school for vulnerable, mentally and physically challenged children. Banda says her son is not yet on epileptic medication but hopes he will be soon.
“I now take him for prayers and am planning to put him on an epileptic program as well as take him to the clinic for further examinations,” she says.
Although doctors suspect the prevalence of epilepsy in Zambia is high, treatment and statistics are limited because of the stigma attached to epilepsy here. Doctors and people with epilepsy say medication can control seizures. But many still rely on traditional healers, who say they can cure epilepsy. The government provides free medication to people with epilepsy and includes epilepsy under its mental health policy, but some say it deserves its own policy. Meanwhile, organizations strive to spread awareness about epilepsy and dispel myths that prevent people from receiving care to improve their quality of life.
Epilepsy is a serious condition caused by a sudden change in the operation of the brain, causing physical changes called epileptic seizures, says a local medical practitioner, who declined to be named.
