International Epilepsy Day 2026: Highlighting Gaps in Pediatric Care, Stigma, and Education

Epilepsy is a seizure disorder that affects young patients and their families worldwide, yet access to care for this common neurologic condition depends largely on the availability of clinics, medicines, and trained specialists. In regions with the greatest barriers to care, seizures often continue unchecked in pediatric patients not because effective treatment is unknown, but because of distance, cost, and limited health infrastructure that keep it out of reach.¹

International Epilepsy Day, observed February 9, 2026, is a global awareness event that aims to unite clinicians, patient advocates, and communities to narrow these health disparities, especially for pediatric epilepsy. By fostering open discussion, challenging stigma, and promoting policies that expand access to diagnosis and treatment, this internationally celebrated observance affirms that geography should not bar patients from the care they need.

NeurologyLive® spoke with Charuta Joshi, MD, president of the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Consortium, about global challenges in pediatric epilepsy. Throughout the interview, she highlighted shortages in the trained health care workforce, limited access to diagnostic tools, and the role of stigma in delaying diagnosis and treatment. Overall, Joshi emphasized the need for community education, clinician advocacy, stronger epidemiological data, and expanded training programs to improve access to care.

NeurologyLive: What educational gaps still need to be addressed to improve pediatric epilepsy diagnosis and long-term management internationally?

Charuta Joshi, MD: Although more than 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, 80% live in low middle-income countries with an appallingly insufficient workforce. General and midlevel practitioners in these areas need to be empowered with tools to talk about the fact that epilepsy is among the top 5 neurological disorders of the brain, that it is treatable and not a condition to be stigmatized. However, the tools to diagnose epilepsy (clinical knowledge, [electroencephalogram] capability, imaging on a case-by-case basis, blood work to diagnose treatable metabolic disorders associated with seizures) are not uniformly available. Long-term surveillance to increase knowledge about outcomes doesn’t exist.

How does stigma around epilepsy continue to affect patient outcomes in practice, and what role can pediatric neurologists play in reducing its impact on patients and their families?

Stigma associated with epilepsy is a huge barrier to patient outcomes. As a first step, hiding the fact that someone has epilepsy prevents the patient from getting access to diagnosis, further investigation, and appropriate treatment. Stigma can also stem preventive treatment in the form of better overall heath because preventive causes of epilepsy include birth trauma, stroke, and infections.

It is important to send the message that epilepsy is not contagious, that it is treatable in 70% of cases, that causes of epilepsy are preventable. When you hide a particular diagnosis, you are actually blocking analysis of all the associated factors related to that diagnosis. So when epilepsy is not even acknowledged, then the reversible causes of epilepsy in low middle-income countries like birth trauma, meningitis, and stroke, are also not cognitively acknowledged as preventable causes of future epilepsy.

Antiseizure medications are affordable. Patients with epilepsy can and should be allowed to lead a normal life. Child neurologists should take an active role in educating locally at camps, schools, sporting organizations, small community groups, canvassing for greater resources for themselves and their patients at the community level, as well as regional and national levels.

Where do you see the greatest unmet needs in pediatric epilepsy research globally, and how could addressing these gaps meaningfully change clinical practice and patient quality of life?

As has already been established by [the World Health Organization’s] Intersectoral Global Action Plan on Epilepsy, robust epidemiological data on epilepsy are missing in most countries, lived experiences of people with epilepsy are not heard. Obtaining more information on indicators for quality of life of people with epilepsy will drive meaningful research.

One of the first steps in getting there is increasing access to care for everyone with epilepsy irrespective of where they are born or live in the world. This can be achieved by a dedicated plan to train more practitioners to become comfortable with treating epilepsy while increasing capacity to train more child neurologists. Many of us are contributing our time to produce lectures that learners can access on digital platforms and case discussions online to improve overall education.

Transcript edited for clarity. Click here for more of our coverage on epilepsy.

REFERENCES
1. Mehndiratta MM, Wadhai SA. International Epilepsy Day - a day notified for global public education & awareness. Indian J Med Res. 2015 Feb;141(2):143-144. doi:10.4103/0971-5916.155531