Epileptics suffer from lack of medicine

Epileptic people in Burundi say they still face lack of medicines because they are very expensive.

Jean Pierre Nshimirimana: Epileptics still suffer from lack of anti-epileptic drugs

Jean Pierre Nshimirimana, the legal representative of the Centre of Action against Epilepsy – APLE, says most of Burundians cannot afford to buy anti-epileptic drugs. “Like some other brain related medicines, anti-epileptic drugs are very expensive and most of Burundians cannot afford to buy them”.

He says some patients who begin to take antiepileptic drugs do not continue until they recover because of their high prices. “Some of the patients are obliged to interrupt drugs because they have no money to buy them. This causes the disease to be resistant and it becomes difficult to cure it”.

Eric Nibitanga is a father of an epileptic child. This thirty-year-old man struggles to get the medicine for his daughter aged three. “I am a member of a state-owned health insurance organization-MFP but when it comes to buying an anti-epileptic drug for my kid, it is very difficult. Sometimes I buy it with my own money and it’s very expensive. If I am struggling to buy medicine being a MFP member, how about farmers and other low class people?” he wonders.

Mr. Nibitanga says that apart from the high prices, there is also the lack of this medicine especially in the country. “For example where I live in Makamba, I can’t find that medicine and am obliged to come to Bujumbura to get it. This increases the cost”.

The APLE legal representative calls on the ministry of health to make available antiepileptic drugs at an affordable price. “It is among chronic and non-communicable diseases. As the ministry of health is tackling issues regarding other chronic diseases, epilepsy should also be included and the prices of its drugs should therefore be reduced”.

Mr. Nshimirimana says APLE Centre has received around 3,000 epileptic people since its opening in 2016.
Every 12 February, the world celebrates the Epilepsy Day in order to raise awareness of this disease.