Recently on the Huffington Post, Lynda Resnick, author of Rubies in the Orchard, posted an article on epilepsy.
Resnick notes: “The numbers surrounding epilepsy are staggering. At any given time, nearly 1% of the world’s population has active epilepsy — that’s 60 million people. Ten times that number will have at least one seizure in their lifetime. In the United States, it is a disease that is more common than autism, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease combined. In the U.S., where over 3 million people are currently affected, the annual cost of epilepsy is $15 billion.”
Yep, you read that right, 60 million people worldwide. Oh, and by the way, there are 3 million people with epilepsy in the U.S. In fact, there are an estimated 200,000 new cases of epilepsy diagnosed each year. Surprised?
To read the complete article visit the Huffington Post.
Jessica Keenan Smith is a patient advocate and epilepsy community leader with more than 15 years of experience. As Founder and CEO of Living Well With Epilepsy and Executive Director of ASENT she bridges the gap between the scientific and patient communities, with a particular focus on the needs of the epilepsies. Jessica Keenan Smith is Founder and CEO of Living Well With Epilepsy, an award winning online resource for people affected by epilepsy to share stories and access in-depth information on the disease. Since 2009, Living Well With Epilepsy (https://livingwellwithepilepsy.com) has been featured in Forbes, Wired, NBC, NPR and the cover story of Epilepsy Advocate Magazine and has partnered with companies such as UCB, Lundbeck, Sunovion, Eisai, and more. Ms. Smith is also the Executive Director of the American Society for Experimental Neurotherapeutics (ASENT) (https://asent.org), an organization that brings together leaders from industry, academia, government and advocacy who are engaged in bringing drugs and devices to market across all neurologic disease states. In this role she is responsible for leading a successful scientific journal and annual scientific conference with speakers from all over the world.
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