On the occasion of the International Day of Epilepsy, Deputy Prime Minister of Public Heath Ghassan Hasbani release a press conference to support the National Awareness of Epilepsy in the Ministry of Health-Bir Hassan, in the presence of the General Director of the Ministry Dr. Walid Ammar, and a number of doctors and professionals.

Hasbani said that Epilepsy affects about one percent of people in the world. Which is a neurological disorder marked by sudden recurrent episodes of sensory disturbance, associated with abnormal electrical activity in the brain. In Lebanon, we have many of these cases, and the Ministry of Health offers medicines for almost 1340 patients a year at a cost of 2 billion according to the statistics for 2016.

We are trying to reduce this cost and increase the number of people who benefit from the coverage of the Ministry of Health as much as possible to treat the largest number of Lebanese suffering from diseases.

In addition to this, the progress in technology provides us with great help.
In some cases, we can not treat with drugs and traditional methods so we are obliged to resort to operations.
So with the technological development, a new generation of devices are improving patient’s lifestyle because of a battery that is placed in the chest area of ​​the patient and connected to the nerve in the neck, that predict the occurrence of seizures and try to stop them before they happen.

Many operations have been conducted so far in the hospitals noting the American University of Beirut Medical Center and Saint Georges Hospital and have been successful, which prompting the Ministry of Health to take on these operations and increase the coverage.