Epilepsy Awareness on Milk Cartons

Brilliant idea: Eight rules for dealing with seizures, printed
on a milk cartons!

Italy is one of my favourite countries, but now I love it even more. The Italian League Against Epilepsy and the Italian Association Against Epilepsy recently launched an initiative to increase public understanding of epilepsy. If you can imagine, information about seizure first aid is now printed on milk cartons! This brilliant initiative is being offered in collaboration with Lattebusche Dairy, a dairy co-op in the north-eastern region of Italy. As well, information about epilepsy has been printed on more than 100,000 flyers.

In Italy 500,000 people have epilepsy and about 30,000 people are diagnosed with it each year. In Canada about 300,000 Canadians have epilepsy and about 15,500 are newly diagnosed every year. Epilepsy is common, and yet in some countries there is a stigma attached to it. It is seen as something that should be hidden.

"This awareness campaign is first and foremost a sign of civilization to cancel the social stigma around epilepsy and to give a rightful knowledge to it," says Sergio Giordan, mayor of Padua, Italy. "It is also a very important tool of information for those who find themselves next to someone during a seizure."

The rules depicted on the milk carton are:

Do not immobilize the person, but turn them on their side.
Remove eyeglasses and other constricting clothes
Do NOT put anything in their mouth.
Ask unnecessary bystanders to move.
Attempt to time the seizure.
Stay calm.
Reassure the person.
At the end of the crisis offer help.

The Italian organizations hope this milk carton initiative will be replicated around the world. Me too! In Canada about 50 percent of our milk is sold in bags ...it's a quirky Canadian thing! Still, for milk that's sold in cartons why can't we follow the Italian lead?

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