Epilepsy is a common condition that seems to at least strike across all class boundaries. The rule of class, however, does reign in the total picture. Of the approximately 40 million people in the world so affected, almost three-quarters or 30 million, most all in the undeveloped worlds, do not ever receive any treatment for this controllable condition. Poverty is relentless.
Epilepsy is the world's most common serious, yet treatable, brain disorder.
Accounting for about one percent of the world's disease burden, it ranks in numbers to breast cancer in women and lung cancer in men. Its added burden is that it strikes young people in their most productive years. It is one of the oldest conditions known to mankind. Characterized by a tendency to recurrent seizures, more severe cases lead to loss of awareness, sensation, movement, bodily functions such as bowel and bladder control, and moods. Hippocrates' view as a brain disorder did not take hold until the late 18th century.