In the Central African Republic, neurology is almost non-existent, and epilepsy is among the most widespread and least treated chronic diseases. The Pavilion’s results, however, show that the situation can change: over 75% of the patients followed no longer have seizures. For the others, including those with severe disabilities, seizures are greatly reduced: those who used to have several a month may now have just one.

It all began with the patients who came to the DREAM clinic in Bangui, explains Gabriella Bortolot, head of the DREAM Programme in the Central African Republic. Over the years, the number of people with epilepsy kept growing and the space was no longer enough: hence the request to the Ministry of Health for a dedicated site.

Today the Pavilion offers a complete care pathway. For diagnosis, an electroencephalograph has been in use since June 2021, an instrument that records the electrical activity of the brain and helps choose the most suitable therapy: more than 2,000 tests have been carried out with this machine. Patients are followed by twelve professionals, and care, medicines included, is entirely free of charge.

During the ceremony, the Minister also spoke about prejudice: epilepsy is an illness like any other, it is not contagious, and it has nothing to do with witchcraft or the evil eye. For this reason, he urged those who suffer from it to come to the centre because, as he put it, welcome is part of the cure.

The DREAM Pavilion is the result of a collaboration between the Central African Republic, the DREAM Programme of the Community of Sant’Egidio and Italian Cooperation, together with the Carlo Besta Neurological Institute in Milan and the Italian Society of Neurology.