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An Epilepsy Crisis

500px-Purple_ribbon.svgIt is time to shine a spotlight on the fact that we are in the midst of an epilepsy crisis. In preparing Living Well With Epilepsy’s Donate Online page, I discovered a few statistics I thought were worth sharing.

Epilepsy Crisis

I’ve known for a while that Epilepsy is as prevalent and as deadly as breast cancer. However, I didn’t realize how far the prevalence and mortality statistics surpass other conditions.

Below you will see how Epilepsy and AIDS compare:

Epilepsy AIDS
65 Mil living with epilepsy 1.2 Mil living with AIDS
200K new cases each year 50K new cases each year
50K deaths each year 16K deaths each year(2008)

Stigma as a common thread

Epilepsy, Breast Cancer and AIDS are vastly different in their functionality. However, the comparison is important.

Stigma was an issue for people diagnosed with both breast cancer and AIDS. Yet, through a groundswell of community support, the negative stigma surrounding both conditions was overcome. This overwhelming support made way for research dollars and programming to bring both conditions out of the shadows.

Let me know your thoughts on the stats above.

Statistics are available via the Institute of Medicine and CDC.

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Founder and CEO Jessica brings a unique perspective to this leading epilepsy blog as she was diagnosed with epilepsy as a teen. She also brings 20+ years experience in marketing.

4 Responses

  1. kev tav murray
    | Reply

    was diagnosed when 10 didn’t really bother me all way through school and til 22.have my fits when wake up. don’t which it is called what kind. am 36 now find it hard finding which jobs a can do cause at the moment there a lot worse frequent. not scerd anymore you get ust to them still very hard tho..

    • Jessica
      | Reply

      Hang in there and check out the other stories on the site. It may help to know you are not alone.
      Best,
      Jessica

  2. Dan Dougherty
    | Reply

    Thank You for sharing the satistics. On the Stigma end, the only way to dispel the stigma is to put a positive face on epilepsy by speaking to organizations as I have and still scheduled to do so.

    Dan Dougherty, Epilepsy Advocate and Public Speaker

    • Jessica
      | Reply

      Dan,
      Thanks for being such a steadfast supporter. You should be proud of all the work you are doing to raise awareness!
      Best,
      Jessica

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