The Epilepsy telemedicine Centre was inaugurated at the Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) on Thursday by the Provincial Health Secretary, Shafiq Khoso. At the centre doctors of neurology and epilepsy will be trained and patients will be treated via satellite.

“This is the first time in the country that an Epilepsy telemedicine programme by a satellite has been launched,” said Dr Fowzia Siddiqui, former director of the Epilepsy programme, John Hopkins University, USA who is now associated with the said centre.

Dr Siddiqui said that the Sindh government has set up seven centres, one each in a district to deal with epilepsy, which will be linked with the JPMC’s centre. “Our purpose is to initiate outreach programmes for training doctors for specialised care and medicines for epilepsy,” she said.

Around two million people suffer from epilepsy in the country, said Dr Siddiqui, adding that, out of them, only 1.9 per cent receive treatment in the rural areas and 24 per cent in the urban centres. She added that epilepsy is treatable for the 70 per cent of the patients while 30 per cent require surgical treatments and other methods. She said there are around 100 types of epilepsy and 20 different kinds of treatment can be used. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, only three types of treatments are available.

Dr Rashid Jooma, executive director of the JPMC said that Dr Siddiqui is the first properly qualified woman in “EG” reporting, who will perform her services at the National Epilepsy Centre (NEC). He stated that the service of EG has been available since the last 40 years but so far, no one has done its reporting.

He added that patients suffering from epilepsy are being properly treated at the NEC by Dr Khalid Sheikh and his team. When The News visited the NEC, the doctors were performing their duty without electricity. The office attendant informed that around 252 patients visited the OPD that day.

Dr Jooma added that the basic facilities like a dispensary will also be shifted there soon to provide medicines to the patients free of cost.