Tunisians & Epilepsy: Alternative Medicine Over Conventional Care

World Epilepsy Day is being held today, Monday, February 9, 2026. “This day, which takes place each year on the second Monday of February, constitutes a suitable opportunity to raise awareness among a larger number of people about this neurological disease and effective means of treatment,” said the executive director of the Tunisian association for the fight against epilepsy patients, Hamza Ben Hassen, in a statement to TAP.
In this context, he specified that the majority of Tunisians have not yet accepted this disease and that a large number of patients resort to alternative medicine and healers.
And added: “Alternative therapy is still used for the treatment of epilepsy which cannot cure this type of disease, requiring a chemical treatment protocol.”
He also stressed that awareness of the disease is still insufficient and has not reached average, apart from the stigmatization of patients in their personal and professional environment which generates discrimination and isolation.
On this occasion, Ben Hassen called on the Ministry of Health to redouble efforts to raise awareness of this disease through the organization of information campaigns in all hospital establishments.
He also noted that patients suffer serious psychological consequences after each epileptic attack, requiring intervention and psychological support, particularly in children, emphasizing the importance of ensuring family and professional support for patients.
Ben Hassen announced that the association is looking into the development of a national register of epilepsy patients in Tunisia and is counting on the support of companies to create regional centers within hospitals in order to raise awareness of the importance of treating this disease.
Note that the treatment rate for epilepsy in Tunisia has exceeded 60 percent, said the professor of neurology at Razi Hospital and president of the Arab Union of Neurology Associations, Dr. Amira Gargouri Berrachid, in a recent statement to the media.
Furthermore, the World Health Organization defines epilepsy as a chronic disease that affects the brain and affects approximately 50 million people worldwide.
The organization’s statistics indicate that about 80 percent of people with epilepsy live in low-income countries and that about 70 percent of people with epilepsy can lead seizure-free lives if their condition is diagnosed and treated correctly.
It should be remembered that epileptic seizures result from an electrical overload emitted by a group of brain cells originating from different parts of the brain. These seizures can vary in frequency, from less than once a year to several times a day, and manifest as brief involuntary convulsions that may involve part of the body (partial) or the whole body (general) sometimes accompanied by loss of consciousness and loss of control of bowel or urinary functions.

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