The ILAE Newsletter | Volume 14, Issue 1 | Winter 2012
| Epigraph |
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It is intended that Epigraph be circulated to all ILAE members worldwide. If you are aware of a member not on the e-mail circulation list, please send details to the Epigraph office at epigraph@ilae.org.
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If you would like to submit an article to Epigraph, please send suggestions or ideas to epigraph@ilae.org.
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Acknowledgment
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| This publication is made possible in part by an unrestricted educational grant from Pfizer Inc. |
| Information Officer |
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Edward H Bertram
As we close out 2011 and 2012, it is a good time to consider some of the major events that have happened in the epilepsy world in the last year or two, as they should influence how the epilepsy community focuses its attention on the coming year and beyond. As in every year, there are the good and the bad, but even in the bad, there are rays of hope and lessons to be applied. On the good side, the last year has seen an unprecedented advance in the attention epilepsy has received from governmental bodies. On the bad side, there were the well publicized natural disasters. In these disasters, epilepsy, as is frequently the case, received little attention amidst the chaos, so people with epilepsy, often cut off from their medications, were left to fend for themselves. More. . .
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| PAHO/WHO Strategy and Action Plan Developed |
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The countries of the Americas, with support from the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), will work together to create national programs for the care and treatment of epilepsy, a neurological disorder that affects some five million people in the Americas.
Only 10 countries in the hemisphere currently have a national epilepsy care program in place. At a meeting of the 51st PAHO Directing Council this week, representatives of PAHO/WHO Member States approved a strategy and plan of action that calls for the creation of similar programs in the rest of the region’s countries, setting a target of 20 countries with such plans by 2015 and 30 by 2020. More . . .
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| Epilepsy Care After The March 2011 Earthquake And Tsunami in Japan |
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A catastrophic earthquake and tsunami occurred on March 11 in the Tohoku district, on the northeast coast of Japan. Roughly 20,000 people are dead or missing, mainly as a result of the tsunami. In contrast, only about 5,600 were injured, which is a relatively small number for such a huge disaster. However, 200,000 people were obliged to move to evacuation centers. Many people living in the devastated area were suffering from chronic diseases, including epilepsy, and were abruptly deprived of their medications due to the sudden nature of the disaster. The tsunami affected a huge area including more than 600 km of coastline, and resulted in severe disruptions to the transportation system and critical shortages of gasoline for about two weeks. It was clear that special actions were needed to reach our epilepsy patients and assure that they were receiving their medications, Tohoku University in Sendai was in the area of the disaster, and it became a major center for coordinating medical care in the region. More . . . |
| Epilepsy and Natural Disasters in Pakistan |
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Prof Hasan Aziz
Pakistan was singularly struck by two of the largest natural calamites in the world within five years (an earthquake in 2005 and river-flooding in 2010) with now the third ongoing (in 2011). An earthquake of 7.6 Richter scale (RS) jolted the Himalayan areas of Pakistan on October 8,2005 at 08:52 am. Massive floods hit Pakistan in July 2010. Epilepsy care unfortunately, under such disastrous catastrophes gets no priority, even in the more advanced countries. An extensive internet search does not mention any data on epilepsy during almost any such calamity in the world, including
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| Epilepsy and Natural Disasters: The Haiti Experience |
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Lionel Carmant, MD
On 12 January 2010, on the Island of Hispaniola, in Haiti, the world stopped spinning at 16:53 PM. Haiti was hit by an earthquake of 7.0 on the seismic scale. The epicenter was in Léogane, a small town 25 km west of the capital of Haiti, Port-Au-Prince. But most of the damage was in Port-Au-Prince, an over-populated city with more than 2 million inhabitants, but with an infrastructure built to accommodate less than 500 000 people. The result was a disastrous death toll of between 200 000 and 300 000 people. For the first two weeks after the earthquake, all communications were lost with CLIDEP (Clinique d’Ipilepsie de Port-Au-Prince). During that time, neurological care was provided by the USNS Comfort, a United States of America naval hospital ship who arrived in Haiti within 8 days with a neurologist, a child neurologist, two neurosurgeons and three physical therapists. They were able to see most patients with neurological injuries and requiring admissions. The most common reasons for admission were traumatic monoparesis, paraparesis and tetraparesis. More . . . Return to top |
| Earthquake in Chile |
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Dr Carlos Acevedo
On February 27 of 2010 at 3:34 a.m. a magnitude 8.8 Richter scale earthquake and tsunami occurred in Chile that lasted 1 minute 30 seconds in the epicenter and 2 minutes 45 seconds in Santiago, the capital. The earthquake covered the central region of the country from Valparaiso to the Araucanía, a distance of 620 km, and it affected 13 million people or 80 percent of the population of Chile. Thirty-five minutes after the earthquake there was a tsunami. The first two waves were 8 and 10 meters respectively, and they razed coastal towns causing an additional 300 deaths and the disappearance of 25 people. LICHE took a number of actions including shipment of clothes, water, blankets, food, batteries and AEDs to the affected areas. More. . . |
| Free Webcasts of the 5th World Congress on Controbersies in Neurology (CONY2011 - Asia Pacific) |
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At the October 2011 Controversies in Neurology Meeting in Beijing there were several debates about the issues relevant to epilepsy. To see those discussions you may visit 5th World Congress.
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| ILAE New Website Launched |
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ILAE is pleased to announce the launch of its newly redesigned website, at the same address as the old one (www.ilae.org). We have reorganized the website to be more logical and easier to navigate. We hope you will find the new site more effective and more visually pleasing. New features include: · Improved Search function
· A 'News About Epilepsy' section to keep you constantly informed about epilepsy news from around the world, and about news regarding important clinical and research developments.
· Congresses related to epilepsy can be found easily. · New sections called Epilepsy Care and Global Outreach. · An 'Epilepsia' section that lists a selection of the most recent Particles as well as the most downloaded articles in Epilepsia.
Please send suggestions and comments regarding the web site to Jean Gotman,
ILAE Director of Interactive Media, at jean.gotman@mcgill.ca, putting “ILAE website” in the subject line. Return to top |
| New Journal Announced |
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A new journal has been launched in Turkey. The Journal of Pediatric Epilepsy (JPE) launched it's first issue in May of 2011. The journal, which is published quarterly in English, includes editorials, review articles, original articles and case reports. Special issues are being considered that are focused on specific topics. Suggestions are welcome and can be sent to jpe@adu.edu.tr. The Editor-in-Chief is Prof Huseyin Caksen at Yuzuncu Yil University in Turkey. For more information go to http://childscience.org/html/jpe/index.html. |
| Bookstore on the ILAE Web Site |
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There has been a steady increase in the number of books published that are relevant to epilepsy that members of the League will likely find useful for their practice or research. However, keeping up with the books that are available is no easy task. To help make the job easier we have created this Bookstore as a service to our membership. In it publishers can provide information on their epilepsy-related books. They may also provide information on where and how to purchase the books. The League does not sell the books. http://www.ilae-epilepsy.org/booksales/index.cfm.
The Bookstore is in the early stages of evolution, and we expect to add new titles and publishers on a regular basis, so please check back frequently for new additions. There are currently six books listed. If you have authored a book, please encourage your publisher to list their book on this Web site. The cost is minimal.
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| Farewells Listing on Web Site |
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ILAE hosts a Web page where we commemorate our departed colleagues in epilepsy and the contributions that they have made to the field. It is our intention that this section for memorials be open to obituaries for anyone who has been active in the field of epilepsy in any capacity: clinical, social, scientific, psychological, to name but a few. There are no academic, professional or geographical requirements to be considered for inclusion in this section. There are many great things that are done locally to improve the lives of people with epilepsy, efforts that are critical in the battle against this condition. Unfortunately some of the most important contributions are done away from the limelight and may not catch the attention of the larger international community. It is the intention of this section that anyone who has been active in the field be included and have their efforts and successes more widely known. The only real criterion is that the individual worked to help relieve the burden of epilepsy somewhere in the world.
The memorial articles will be written by those who knew the person. The goal is to tell your colleagues in epilepsy who this individual was and what the contributions were. Photographs are welcome. http://www.ilae-epilepsy.org/visitors/farewells.
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| Upcoming Congresses and Educational Events |
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3rd North American Regional Caribbean Congress on Epilepsy
17 - 18 February 2012 in Antigua 14th Annual Meeting of the International Symposium on Surgery for Catastrophic Epilepsy in Infants
18-19 February 2012
Tetusmon Memorial Hall, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
6th Latin American Summer School on Epilepsy
24 February to 2 March 2012 in Sao Paulo, Brazil
9th Asian and Oceanian Epilepsy Congress
21 – 25 March 2012 in Manila, Philippines http://www.epilepsymanilla2012.org Eleventh Eilat Conference on New Antiepileptic Drugs (Eilat XI)
6 – 10 May, 2012 in Eilat, Israel http://www.eilat-aeds.com under Forthcoming Conferences 3rd Annual Congress of NeuroTalk
18 - 20 May 2012
Beijing, China
12th International Child Neurology Congress and 11th Asian and Oceanian Congress of Child Neurology
27 May - 2 June 2012 at teh Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Center, South Brisbane, Australia
22nd Meeting of the European Neurological Society
9 - 12 June 2012
Prague, Czech Republic
1st African Epilesy Congress
21 - 23 June 2012
Nairobi, Kenya
6th Baltic Sea Summer School
8 - 13 July 2012 in Rostock, Germany Deadline for applications is 15 April 2012 More information: Petra Novotny, Prof Peter and Jytte Wolf Foundation for Epilepsy, petra.novotny@wolfstiftung.org, or under BSSSE6 on http://www.epilepsiestiftung-wolf.de/7.html. 10th European Congress on Epileptology 30 September – 4 October 2012 in London, UK http://www.epilepsylondon2012.org 7th Latin American Congress on Epilepsy
14 - 17 November 2012 in Quito, Ecuador |