International Epilepsy Day

• According to the World Health Organisation’s official website, International Epilepsy Day has been observed on the second Monday of February every year since 2015.
• In 2024, International Epilepsy Day will be observed on February 12.
• The theme for International Epilepsy Day 2024 is “Milestones on My Epilepsy Journey”.

ABOUT EPILEPSY

• Epilepsy is a non-communicable neurological disease.
• In epilepsy, the affected individual gets recurrent seizures, sometimes in a brief episode that consists of involuntary movement.
  • It sometimes gets critical when people get unconscious and lose control of bowel and bladder functions.
• Different factors lead to or cause epilepsy. These categories include structural, genetic, infectious, metabolic, immune, and unknown.
  • Some of the most common causes are brain damage from prenatal or perinatal reasons; congenital abnormalities or genetic conditions with associated brain malformations; a severe head injury; a stroke; certain genetic syndromes; and a brain tumour.
• Symptoms – loss of awareness or consciousness, and disturbances of movement, sensation (including vision, hearing, and taste), mood, or other cognitive functions.