AN epilepsy evaluation centre will shortly be established at the Andrews Memorial Hospital in Kingston to cater to Jamaicans as well as people from the wider Caribbean, Health Minister John Junor announced yesterday.

“We anticipate that care for the epilepsy patient will become another flagship programme for health in Jamaica,” said Junor, who noted the centre would be the only one of its kind in the Caribbean.

However, he did not provide a start-up date.

“Few other countries in the developing world are able to provide the level of care that will come into being as soon as we begin full operation of the epilepsy evaluation centre at Andrews Memorial Hospital,” he said, adding that Jamaica would “be offering services in epilepsy care to our neighbours as well”.

Junor was speaking at the opening of a three-day Caribbean Congress on Epilepsy, hosted by the Jamaica League Against Epilepsy and the Jamaican Epileptic Association, at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston.

He said the National Health Fund (NHF) had approved funds for the purchase of specialised equipment capable of performing the evaluations, but did not state how much money had been allocated.

This Video-EEG machine, Junor explained, would simultaneously record the brain’s electrical activity and videotape the patient. These two assessments will allow physicians to determine where in the brain the epilepsy was occurring.

The evaluations, he added, will be at no extra costs to the poor, but patients who can afford to pay will be charged a fee.

At the same time, Junor told the gathering that the ministry had included the epilepsy condition among the fourteen chronic diseases approved for benefits under the NHF.

“The level of subsidy for epilepsy medication ranges from 25 per cent — 50 per cent of the cost of the medication,” he said. “The higher the annual treatment cost the higher the subsidy from NHF.”

The minister also noted that an estimated 50,000 Jamaicans have some form of epilepsy (falling sickness), which is said to be the second most common primary neuro-psychiatric (mental) disorder, next to depression.

Epilepsy is a tendency for recurring attacks of motor, sensory, or psychic malfunction with or without loss of consciousness or convulsive seizures.

“Whenever the condition epilepsy is mentioned, it evokes a lot of emotions, especially fear,” Junor said. “Lack of information regarding the cause of the disease and how it manifests — whether generalised or partial, has led to a number of myths as persons seek to fill the void of lack of information and understanding of the condition,” he added.

He further noted that many Jamaicans associated epilepsy with demonic possession or insanity. “These myths impact negatively on the treatment of the condition and may result in delays in seeking medical treatment for the condition or may cause more harm than good in the provision of first-aid to the epileptic,” the health minister explained.

In addition, he said that these myths also attracted public prejudice and discrimination against the persons with the conditions, which will eventually cause them to isolate themselves from the society.

“Public education on epilepsy is important in overcoming these myths and removing the hindrances so often placed on epileptics,” he said.