The Management board of Aromowanglobo Primary School in Odek Sub County, Gulu district have called on health officials in Aromowanglobo parish where over 6496 case of epilepsy has been registered to make extinction between epilepsy and nodding disease.

They add that although both disease present similar symptoms characterized by seizures, nodding of the head, mental retardation and stunting, the two needs to be separately treated in order to save lives that are being lost needlessly.

Every day, parents tend to their children at a treatment centre in the school where the children are getting treatment of epilepsy and nodding disease.

“The other day, we were seated around the fire eating, when all of a sudden the child started nodding and fell on the fire and got burnt, “ said Eunice Adero a mother of four children who hails from Aromowanglobo village in Odek sub county.

Adero says that she has lost hope that her children will ever recover. “These children are no more, we are waiting for the day they will die,” she says with an emotional voice.

“Several parents in the villages have given up on their children, they are abandoning the sick ones, citing difficulties of taking care of them,” said Ms Betty Amwony, a primary teacher in Aromowanglobo Primary school, adding further that the school enrolment has been severely affected and children cant concentrate due to the worry of the disease.  “Effectively,” she says, “education here is dead.”

“This term alone, 60 children dropped out of [this] school because they could not cope with the disease and they were traumatised by the mocking they were receiving from their fellow children. It is sad because the disease is affecting learning,” explained Santo Okello, the head of Aromowanglobo Primary School.

The leader of medical personnel dealing with epilepsy and nodding disease in Gulu district Dr Joseph Wamala confirmed that epilepsy and the nodding syndrome are being treated as the same since they have similar traits.

“We have carried out an observation in the sub county affected, what is common is that these areas are located where there is river blindness,” Dr Wamala said.

Dr Wamala noted that the two diseases are the same, adding that nodding is epileptic disorder:  “we have seen the two are associated.”

The Dr said that both diseases (nodding and epilepsy) cannot be cure but they can be control by treating the victim regularly.

He says they registered 6496 epilepsy case compared to nodding cases where they register 90 cases during their research in Odek Sub County in Gulu district

 Epilepsy is a condition in which a person has recurrent seizures. A seizure is defined as an abnormal, disorderly discharge of the brain's nerve cells, resulting in a temporary disturbance of motor, sensory, or mental function.

There are many types of seizures, depending primarily on what part of the brain is involved. The term epilepsy says nothing about the type of seizure or cause of the seizure, only that the seizures happen again and again. A stricter definition of the term requires that the seizures have no known underlying cause. This may also be called primary or idiopathic epilepsy.

If all areas of the brain are affected by the abnormal electrical activity, a generalized seizure may result. This means that consciousness is lost or impaired. Often all the person's arms and legs stiffen and then jerk rhythmically.

The government says that there are clear associations with Onchocerciasis, or river blindness, because 93 percent of those with nodding syndrome live along river banks in areas where this disease is prevalent, and in both ailments a modest deficiency of vitamin B6 and of other micronutrients, such as zinc, vitamin A and selenium are common.

Faced with a rising caseload, the Ugandan government has designed a response plan to address nodding disease in the Acholi sub-region – an aerial spray of pesticides of all affected areas in the region which will begin in August.