Document is current

Article History

Received: 18 April 2018

Accepted: 19 October 2018

First Online: 14 November 2018

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: Guidelines for conducting studies on human participants will be followed and the study will adhere to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, Good Clinical Practice guidelines and all other applicable local and international standard scientific regulations. Ethical approval has been obtained from the ethical committee at the Ministry of Health of the Republic of South Sudan and from the ethics committee of the University of Antwerp, Belgium. Meetings with village leaders and community health workers will be conducted prior to the start of the study. The study aims and procedures will be explained and discussed, including the potential benefits to the participants themselves and the community. All study participants will be taken through the informed consent process, and parents or legal guardians will provide written consent for minors. In addition, adolescents (age 12–18 years) will provide assent in the presence of their parents or guardians.Names of individuals will be recorded during the initial household survey to identify those that need to be evaluated by a medical doctor/neurologist for case confirmation. All personal information will be encoded and treated confidentially. Study participants’ name-linked information and ID codes will be used only to communicate clinical results to participants for the benefit of treatment. All data and participants’ private information will be uploaded to a Google server, to which only specified study personnel will have access. Persons with epilepsy will be referred for anti-epileptic treatment and other appropriate care.Participants will be allowed to withdraw from the study activities at any time, without giving reasons.

: Study results will be presented during meetings with community leaders, local healthcare workers and the local population. The results of the study will be disseminated through publications in open source scientific peer reviewed journals and through presentations in scientific conferences.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.