Federal health agencies have long funded epilepsy research and patient support. Now the future of those efforts is unclear.
For decades, the epilepsy community has depended on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to fund research and patient-support efforts to help people living with this often disabling chronic condition.
But after sweeping federal budget cuts, organizations that help Americans with epilepsy are left with little certainty about the future.
“What we do know is that all of the people who work in epilepsy at the CDC, all of their positions were eliminated as of last week, and there has been absolutely no direction or communication to us as to what we should do,” says Lisa Gallipoli, the executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Epilepsy Alliance America.
