World Brain Day 2017: Stroke Is a Brain Attack: Prevent It and Treat It

By Mohammed Wasay, MD, and Wolfgang Grisold, MD

This year’s World Brain Day commemorates the foundation of the WFN. The prior World Brain Day topics were aimed at epilepsy and dementia, and now it is aimed at stroke. We are partnering this time with the World Stroke Organization (WSO), which puts great global effort into the prevention and treatment of stroke.

The topics of this World Brain Day should be the awareness of stroke, the symptoms, the prevention, and the new evidence for optimized treatment. Neurorehabilitation is increasingly becoming important.

World Brain Day is supported by the Public Awareness committee jointly with the WSO to make this day a success. As in the previous World Brain Days, a special logo will be produced, as well as material for local use, which can be used with the regional societies. Prior to World Brain Day, a template for press mailings will be distributed to help the local organizations. Closer to World Brain Day, a webinar will be accessible and, with invited participants from the press, will spread the news.

Despite these activities and help, the success of World Brain Day depends on your local activities. Please make the World Brain Day your own, use all of the material we provide, and ask for more if needed. Experience has shown that this international day has created much press attention, but local activities and information make the difference.

Please involve patients, caregivers, the public, and interested patient groups who will be interested in this topic. Stroke care faces many global inequalities, in regard to infrastructure, care, and support!

Needless to say, we are eagerly awaiting your reports of your local events, so we can publish them in World Neurology. Also, please post your activities on social media.