Epilepsy in Asian countries
Alhamdu Adamu, Rui Chen, Li An, Guofang Xue
Abstract
Epilepsy affects 50 million people worldwide. Nearly 80% of people with epilepsy live in resource-constrained low-income and middle-income countries. In Asia, which has a population of over 4 billion or has 50% of the world's population, about 23 million people have epilepsy. In this review, we discuss the difficulties in managing epilepsy in Asia due to the limited resources. The medical expense, limited access to treatment, premature mortality, health transitions from pediatric care to adult care, and the huge population size make it challenging for epilepsy management. Even though certain countries have access to highly innovative treatments, up to 90% of patients with epilepsy do not receive proper care due to limited resources. The insufficiency of research on epilepsy in most countries makes it difficult to obtain accurate data to analyze the progress of epilepsy management. However, the current influx of research studies, acceptance of the latest international practices, and funding will contribute a long way to closing treatment gaps in communities.