{"id":1674,"date":"2021-03-13T17:39:48","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T17:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=1674"},"modified":"2021-03-13T17:39:48","modified_gmt":"2021-03-13T17:39:48","slug":"two-stories-of-struggle-overcoming-the-stigma-of-epilepsy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=1674","title":{"rendered":"Two Stories Of Struggle: Overcoming The Stigma Of Epilepsy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/span>\u00a0Sharon Wawira Kiburi\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

NAIROBI, Kenya \u2014 Fifteen-year-old Ian Muriuki has bright brown eyes and the curious look of an innocent child gazing into your soul, trying to understand the kind of person you are. He sits quietly, looking at an interviewer who asks a question and then looking back at his father in anticipation of what his father will say.<\/p>\n

Ian speaks in a low tone, but most of the time chooses not to utter a word. He has suffered epileptic seizures since he was a baby.<\/p>\n

Also plagued by seizures is 35-year-old Jerusha Muthoni. \u201cPeople would say that I was bewitched whenever I would fall and go into a fit, but with time, they learned better and would help me when it happened,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Embu County<\/u><\/a>, Kenya, where Ian and Jerusha live, when a person has seizures, it is seen as a sign of supernatural possession, said Purity Kajuju, manager of noncommunicable diseases in the county for\u00a0Medecins Sans Frontieres<\/u><\/a>\u00a0(also known as Doctors Without Borders).<\/p>\n

A chronic disorder<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEpilepsy<\/u><\/a>\u00a0is a chronic disorder, the hallmark of which is recurrent, unprovoked\u00a0seizures,\u201d the\u00a0Epilepsy Foundation<\/a>\u00a0states. \u201cThe seizures in epilepsy may be related to a\u00a0brain injury\u00a0or a family tendency, but often the cause is completely unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seizures may be triggered by such things as intense light, loud sound, hunger, menstruation, alcohol, trauma, or head injury.<\/p>\n

While a number of drugs are used to treat epilepsy, Kajuju cautions against the use of herbal treatments, which can cause problems \u201cif mixed with conventional medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEpilepsy is not mental health,\u201d said Kajuju. \u201cIt occurs when wrong messages sent to the brain cause convulsions. It cannot, therefore, be treated with psychiatrists\u2019 medication.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Embu County, the management and treatment of epilepsy have improved, thanks to the training of health workers and community health volunteers in local hospitals, combined with patient group support activities.<\/p>\n

Ian\u2019s story<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ian\u2019s father, John Mureithi, said he and his wife\u00a0noticed something wasn\u2019t right when their son was still a baby.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they are still very young, you may not know [something is wrong]. We only came to notice when he would try walking, crawling \u2014 the move would appear to be in a slithering manner,\u201d his father said.<\/p>\n

Ian\u2019s mother suspects that her son\u2019s convulsions may be traced to a time when he fell sick as a baby.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis face changed color, and to date, the scar is evident,\u201d his father said. \u201cAfter an injection, it became black, and he started having a deformation in the right hand and leg.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he started growing and started going to school, he was very sharp. He went up to class three, but his cognitive capacity couldn\u2019t progress past there. I took him back to nursery school \u2026 but he kept deteriorating. He couldn\u2019t grasp the concepts taught in class. The teachers told me to take him to a special school. \u2026 I did not even know where to begin. So, he\u2019s been at home since 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile in school, Ian would get frequent epileptic seizures, and I would receive a call every single day to pick him up. \u2026 The other kids would often run away from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ian is strong, and his mother says he does some minor chores around the house, including laundry, cleaning and even cooking sometimes. He also assists on their farm, where they grow maize, passion fruit, tea, and feed for cattle.<\/p>\n

Managing Ian\u2019s condition has meant that someone has to watch him at all times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t leave him alone, lest he harms himself,\u201d his father said. \u201cWe keep him away from the fire as that is one of the triggers of his seizures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drugs to treat his condition are also costly and not always readily available.<\/p>\n

Ian gets sad sometimes when he sees his brother going to school, and he can\u2019t go. \u201cI feel bad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jerusha\u2019s story<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jerusha was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2002 when she suffered a seizure at home. She had just finished her primary school education and was waiting to start secondary school. She would have seizures up to three times a day, sometimes even while sleeping.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would shout before going into a fit, and we would wake up,\u201d said her mother, Edith Muceru Njuki.<\/p>\n

Jerusha has a warm smile \u2014 without teeth, as they were removed to prevent her from biting herself when she suffered a seizure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would chew my tongue when I got a seizure, so my mother would put sticks or spoons in my mouth to protect me. But with time we decided to have the teeth surgically removed,\u201d Jerusha said.<\/p>\n

Jerusha had to travel to a health center in the distant town of Siakago each month to get the drugs she needed, a journey her mother dreaded.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very far and quite an expensive trip to make. What\u2019s worse is that she would often get seizures on our way to the hospital. I would get scared and worried, but we\u2019d wait there until it fizzles out, then continue with our journey,\u201d her mother said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith time, we were transferred to Kiritiri, which was still too far. When Medecins Sans Frontieres came to Kabuguri [village] here, we got transferred once again, and now it\u2019s effortless for us to get there. We walk,\u201d her mother said.<\/p>\n

When it was discovered that Jerusha was pregnant, it raised many questions. \u201cNo one knew she was pregnant or even how she got that way, owing to her condition until it started showing, but even then, she couldn\u2019t tell how or when it happened at first,\u201d said her mother. \u201cWe, however, later found out who the father was, but he\u2019s an old man, and we couldn\u2019t approach him or make her stay with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerusha\u2019s son is now 13.<\/p>\n

Jerusha\u2019s mother said her major challenge is providing for them, a situation made even more difficult owing to her status as a peasant farmer who lives as a squatter on land not her own.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is like a child. I can\u2019t leave her at any one time,\u201d her mother said. \u201cDespite her condition, she\u2019s still the child that God gave me, and I have to take care of her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Zenger News<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Sharon Wawira Kiburi\u00a0 NAIROBI, Kenya \u2014 Fifteen-year-old Ian Muriuki has bright brown eyes and the curious look of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1675,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-express"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1674"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1676,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions\/1676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}