Dr. Mundih Noelar Njohjam
The Untold Story of Women Living with Epilepsy in Cameroon
This piece documents the compounded vulnerability of women and girls living with epilepsy in Cameroon, who face both medical stigma and systematic sexual exploitation. Through testimony and analysis, it exposes how deep misconceptions about epilepsy—framed as contagion or spiritual curse—render these women targets for deception, abandonment, and exclusion from protection and opportunity.
SUDEP: The Silent Killer
Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) is a rare but fatal condition that claims the lives of people with epilepsy, often during sleep, with no apparent cause. While famous cases have brought visibility to the condition, countless others die unwitnessed; the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, though seizure-related cardiac and respiratory failures are suspected.
Stigma and Silence: Epilepsy in Cameroon
A public health worker reflects on fieldwork with persons with epilepsy in Cameroon, documenting the severe social stigma—particularly against women—that compounds the medical burden of the condition. The piece asks why neurological disorder carries such different moral weight than other chronic illnesses, and calls for compassion over judgment.
I Have Epilepsy, But It Is Not My Social Identity
A medical professional and epilepsy advocate examines the gap between the neurological reality of epilepsy and the social stigma that surrounds it in Africa, where the condition is widely attributed to witchcraft, demonic possession, or curses rather than understood as a treatable brain disorder. The piece centers on how this stigma—particularly acute for women—becomes a social identity imposed from outside, with profound psychological and material consequences.