By Mohammad Wasay, MD, FRCP, FAAN
A World Federation of Neurology (WFN) initiative has transformed into a collaborative movement between the World Health Organization, the International League Against Epilepsy and the International Bureau of Epilepsy. This year, July 22 marked a special day in the history of neurology advocacy.
National societies prepared activities, including press conferences, media briefings, CME seminars, public awareness gatherings, awareness walks, epilepsy camps and various other activities for individuals with epilepsy and their families. National neurology societies collaborated with national epilepsy societies and patient support groups for World Brain Day activities.
The WFN Public Awareness and Advocacy Committee prepared a World Brain Day poster, brochure and PowerPoint presentation for media briefing. Banners for display on websites and Facebook pages also were available for promotion of this global activity. Press releases were issued in many languages to all major global newspapers and news agencies.
The main objective of World Brain Day is to promote brain health by preventing and caring for neurological diseases. This year’s theme was epilepsy. All of our awareness campaigns were dedicated toward epilepsy care.
The goal was to reach about 100 million people around globe through these multilingual, multimedia campaign jointly organized by WFN, the World Health Organization, International League Against Epilepsy and International Bureau for Epilepsy.
