Page 1928 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 June 1993
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NATIONAL EPILEPSY WEEK
Ministerial Statement
MR BERRY (Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (3.42): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement relating to National Epilepsy Week.
Leave granted.
MR BERRY: I am pleased to be making a statement today for National Epilepsy Week. Epilepsy means different things to different people. For people who are not familiar with epilepsy and are confronted by a person having a seizure, it can appear to be a dangerous condition, but it is a relatively common disorder which takes the form of recurring seizures. Seizures occur when there is a sudden uncontrolled surge in the normal electrical activity in the brain. Seizures range from major or grand mal to temporal lobe attacks to absence or petit mal seizures.
In a major seizure the person suddenly falls to the ground, rigid and unconscious, and may begin to shake or convulse. Attacks of this kind are usually over within four or five minutes. A temporal lobe attack occurs when a sudden increase in electrical activity takes place in the brain immediately behind the temples. This type of attack can involve a range of confused, repetitive and inappropriate behaviour and the person is usually unaware of their surroundings or what they are doing. Absence seizures are mostly seen in primary school age children and consist of a brief period of unconsciousness, usually around 30 seconds, without any falling over or convulsions.
Epilepsy can affect people of all levels of intelligence and from all age groups, but it most commonly begins in childhood or youth. Most people with epilepsy can lead an essentially normal life and, in the majority of cases, seizures can be well controlled by continuing treatment with a range of effective drugs. Indeed, Madam Speaker, about 50 per cent will have no seizure at all if their medication is taken regularly, while a further 30 per cent will have the frequency and severity of their seizures greatly reduced.
It is estimated that 320,000 Australians have epilepsy, and, of those, 50,000 are children attending preschools and primary schools. In the ACT the Epilepsy Association provides a support service for an estimated 3,000 people, with 60 to 150 new cases diagnosed annually. The association is funded through government grants, fundraising events and donations. The long-term goal of this year's appeal is the purchase of a video telemetry unit, costing approximately $45,000, for Woden Valley Hospital. A video telemetry unit is a unit which links a video camera with an EEG machine. This linkage allows a videotape record to be taken of the person while they are having a seizure. That videotape record is then carefully matched to the EEG results to give a more accurate diagnosis of the type of epilepsy suffered.
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