Bengaluru: Free treatment for epilepsy patients at Sakra

Bengaluru: Sakra World Hospital announced the initialization of Phase-2 of the EPIC (Epilepsy Prevention and Integrated Care) program initiated in association with Rotary International and First Meridian. This year-long program aimed at providing quality treatment and education about epilepsy is free.

The EPIC program is India's first distinctive initiative to focus on refractory epilepsy (uncontrolled epilepsy), specially dedicated for epilepsy patients who fall under the category of Below Poverty Line (BPL). This initiative was inaugurated by former CM Yediyurappa in September last year. The progress till date has been tremendous as more than 500 epilepsy patients hailing from different parts of the State have undergone treatment. Out of the 500 patients, for the first time in Karnataka, 20 with refractory epilepsy underwent complex epilepsy surgeries including robotics surgeries, free of cost in a private hospital setup under EPIC program. In addition, 2 patients underwent robotic assisted hemispherotomy for the first time in the State.

Dr Satish Rudrappa, Director of Neurosciences, said, "India has over 12 million people suffering from epilepsy with an overall prevalence of 3.0-11.9 per 1000 population. There is a treatment gap that is prevalent where 75% of the patients fail to receive the necessary treatment due to poor patient workup and follow up at Primary Health Centre's (PHC), poor family and education, lack of school health programs, and thus, early identification. In order to address this, Sakra World Hospital, with their EPIC Program has taken an optimistic step forward to enable various medical and surgical treatment under supervision for all the epilepsy patients."

In order to create a systematic sole platform for PWE, Rotary Bangalore IT Corridor (RBITC) has launched a mobile application based on EPIC Program known as the EPILEPSY-Rotary App, developed by First Meridian under their CSR program across the state of Karnataka to help the needy. This app will be available in both Kannada and English for all the Android and iOS Users.

The agenda of the program lies in educating people about identification of the disease with the help of distinguished education programs conducted by experienced school teachers and caretakers said Sudhakar Balakrishnan, Group CEO of FirstMeridian. The team has also decided to launch free epilepsy camps at various parts of Karnataka in association with local Rotary Clubs following the main objective of this program which is creating awareness in the community to remove the stigma attached to epilepsy.

Speaking about the EPIC Program, Dr Shivakumar, Senior Consultant - Neurology and Epileptology said, "Epilepsy is a treatable illness and in order to cure or control epilepsy among the prevalent, it is necessary to provide them with the right education and treatment at an affordable price. With the initialization of the EPIC, in the last one year, we have successfully managed to screen over 500 patients and also provide complex surgical treatments for PWE free of cost."