ZAGREB, February 11, 2019 – There are about 35,000 Croatians diagnosed with epilepsy and although this disease is now usually successfully treated, some of those patients experience everyday prejudices, the head of the Croatian League against Epilepsy, Silvio Bašić, has told Hina. Croatia has joined in observing International Epilepsy Day, a special event which promotes awareness of epilepsy in more than 120 countries each year. Every year on the second Monday of February people join together to highlight the problems faced by people with epilepsy, their families and carers.
Epilepsy is the most common neurological disorder worldwide, and 60 per cent of cases diagnosed with epilepsy have unknown causes. According to estimates made by the World Health Organisation, about 50 million people suffer from this disease.
According to some statistical figures from the recent years, of those 35,000 Croats living with epilepsy, 7,000 of them are children. In Zagreb alone, 800 kindergarten children were diagnosed with neurological problems, including epilepsy, in the past few years.
In 2016, the Zagreb-based “Rehabilitation Centre Silver ” launched new programmes for training of instructors for assistance dogs that should become seizure response dog, and this has been the first programme of this kind to be conducted in Croatia.
Tasks for seizure dogs may include the following: find someone to help, activate an emergency response system, stimulate a person to help them “wake up” after a seizure, act as a brace to help the person up, retrieve a phone or medication, physically remove the patient from an unsafe situation etc.
More news on the health issues in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.
