DOHA ABOUT 2,000 epilepsy cases are treated annually at the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Boulenouar Mesraoua, a senior consultant at the Neurology Department, has said.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the eighth Qatar Neurology Symposium in Doha on Friday, the official said that the cases include all kinds of epilepsy.
“In the outpatient clinic for epilepsy, once a week I treat 10 patients, not including the inpatient and a total of about 60 patients per month. We treat between 600 and 800 patients every year but the number of cases may vary because one patient could be treated more than once. We treat at least 2,000 epileptic cases a year,” he said.
Mesraoua reiterated that amongst these cases, inherited epilepsy constitutes over 10 percent and those with unknown cause accounting for between 40 and 50 percent. There are also cases of symptomatic epilepsy which may be due to road accidents, infection or stroke and cardiovascular issues in elderly people.
He highlighted that neurological diseases are common in Qatar like everywhere else in the world.
“For example, for epilepsy the prevalence might be higher in Qatar due to road accidents which may cause epilepsy and some infections.
This is not the case in Europe and America. It’s also different from India and Africa where it’s probably the highest,” he said.
Talking about juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (disorder characterised with abnormal movement of any part of the body when the patient wakes up in the morning) in Qatar, the official said there were many patients with the condition.
“I am personally following at least 25 patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy aged between 7 and 16 years.
It’s quite a frequent disease.
There has been no genetic or controllable treatment study but it’s well known that we have a lot of patients. This disease is all over the world,” he said.
He however said that the prevalence rate of the syndrome is not known. The first study was done in Saudi Arabia in the Arab world.
“About the prevalence, unfortunately there is no study yet in Qatar but we posted a project to the Qatar National Research Fund about looking for the genetic and epidemiologic of inherited epilepsy. If we get the project we will probably be coming with some results within two to three years.
We will provide good data regarding epidemiology of this disease and other inherited diseases like primary generalised epilepsy and frontal lobe epilepsy,” he said.
Mesraoua, who is also the chairman of the conference, said that the second day of the symposium will feature headache and movement disorders.
The conference will conclude on Saturday.
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