Move Forward leader Pita to push for cheaper epilepsy treatment
Move Forward party leader Pita Limjaroenrat said he will seek changes via Parliament so that epileptics in Thailand don’t have to pay for expensive operations to get their lives back on track.
Posting on Facebook a day ahead of International Epilepsy Day on Monday (February 14), Pita revealed that he is among an estimated 700,000 epileptics in Thailand and more than 50 million worldwide.
While 70 per cent of people who suffer from epileptic seizures can be cured with drugs, a minority need expensive surgery costing between 200,000 and 700,000 baht per person, he said.
"Even though patients can use privileges under the gold card scheme and social security system, this is not enough [to cover surgery for epilepsy]."
He added that he would seek to change the law in Parliament so that epilepsy patients and their guardians benefit.
"As an epilepsy sufferer myself, I want to help create public awareness of the disease and encourage patients who are suffering,” said Pita.
Greater awareness of symptoms and how to get treatment was vital to easing burdens on epilepsy patients and their families, he explained. He added that anti-epilepsy drugs can cause side effects such as drowsiness but they enable sufferers to live a normal life.
He also revealed that he has lived with the disease since he was 14 years old.
On Monday, about 140 countries will spread the Valentine’s love to epilepsy, a disease long associated with greatness.
The list of famous people thought to have suffered from epileptic seizures runs from Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte to Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh.