While the epilepsy treatment gap is a complex problem, simple solutions can have a life-changing impact.
For example, our partner, Guiding Light Orphans (GLO) in Uganda. Its “Village Health Team” goes into rural villages to assist people with epilepsy and connect them with medical care and medication. The team was limited in how far they could travel on foot but GLO’s Executive Director Jolly Lux came up with a simple solution—bikes and boots.
A generous donation from a friend of ROW allowed GLO to buy the equipment. The number of people who were helped soon rose from 200 to almost 270, a 35% increase in GLO’s outreach! It also adds to GLO’s monthly costs, so if you’re interested in helping with this, please contact our program director, Lori Hairrell, at lori.hairrell@rowpharma.org.
Another simple solution is getting people on the right medication. ROW makes regular grants of Roweepra (levetiracetam USP) to partners in low-income areas. Levetiracetam is the #1 treatment medication for epilepsy in the U.S. but it’s essentially unavailable and unaffordable in most low-income regions.
We’ve received several video testimonials from people in Sierra Leone whose frequent seizures, even while on other medications, were brought under control when they switched to Roweepra. One video came from a young man who’d had daily seizures for 17 years, sometimes as many as five a day. Since changing to Roweepra, his seizures have completely stopped. Imagine the change in his life!
Expanding Support to Paraguay
The Pan-American Health Organization reports an epilepsy treatment gap of over 50% throughout Latin America. Those treated encounter drug shortages, with only 62% of countries reporting that anti-seizure medications (ASMs) are consistently available at primary care facilities. Since 2016, ROW has partnered with Solidarity Bridge to deliver ASMs for patients in Bolivia. Kurt Florian—ROW Advisory Council member and Solidarity Bridge board member—told us about Solidarity’s recent expansion into Paraguay and we’re now providing an ongoing supply of Roweepra for their neurology programs in both countries.
Together with partners like Guiding Light Orphans, Solidarity Bridge, AND YOU, we are working to make a difference, one life at a time!
