**4. Public health interventions for epilepsy**

The high epilepsy burden, unequaled treatment gap, and low quality of life of PWE in low-income settings have been a global health concern during the pass decades. Following the launching of the Global Campaign Against Epilepsy in the early 2000s by the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE), a number of epilepsy demonstration projects which used a primary healthcare approach were launched in five developing countries: China, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Brazil, and Argentina [43, 44]. In 2015, epilepsy was acknowledged as a major public health problem during the 68th World Health Assembly, and participating countries engaged to step care up epilepsy care [45]. Eventually, the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) enabled the development of evidence-based guidelines for managing neurological conditions including epilepsy in resource-limited settings [30].

Outcomes from the various demonstration projects [46] as well as more recent studies in Guinea [28] and South Africa [47] are in favor of a community-based approach whereby local non-specialized staff and community health workers cater for the PWE. Phenobarbital, a cheap and available first-line AED, is the WHO's recommended molecule of choice for large scale epilepsy treatment [48]. Another important public health component in epilepsy is education and information campaigns, aimed at reducing the epilepsy-related stigma and its consequences on the quality of life of the PWE [32, 46].
