A shipment of antiseizure medications has been sent to a hospital in Armenia, following a mass exodus from the neighboring region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Brother’s Brother Foundation partnered with the ROW Foundation to send 432 starter kits of Lamotrigine to Arabkir Medical Center, located in Armenia’s capital city, Yerevan. Each kit provides medication for five weeks and treats several types of seizures in people ages two and older.

Azerbaijan’s takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh in late September caused more than 100,000 people to cross the border into Armenia in the span of a week, creating a humanitarian crisis in the country.

In the months leading to the exodus, Azerbaijan blocked the only road from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, preventing many people in Nagorno-Karabakh from accessing food and critical medicines. In December 2022, the Armenian newspaper Asbarez reported that the closure prevented a hospital in Nagorno-Karabakh from supplying 87 children with their routine epilepsy medications.

The influx of refugees in Armenia has overwhelmed the country’s healthcare system, leaving many still without access to critical medications.  

For people with epilepsy, missed doses of antiseizure medication can trigger status epilepticus, long seizures that sometimes result in death.

According to the World Health Organization, around 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, making it one of the most common neurological diseases globally.  Antiseizure medications can eliminate seizures in 70% of people with the condition.

Armenia is the fourth country in the past year to receive antiseizure medications from Brother’s Brother Foundation, following shipments to Ukraine, Syria and India.