Despite the fact that some articles and books have been published in Cuba dealing with Sudden Death, only three articles relate it to epilepsy (González Pal S et al. 1982, 2004, 2005). These articles include patients suffering from chronic psychosis and epilepsy hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital. In these patients, the following is observed:

• The average age at the time of death of patients suffering from epilepsy was 51.84, which is 25 years less than the average life expectancy of the population in the country.
• SUDEP was present in 8.96% of the patients suffering from epilepsy that died in the Psychiatric Hospital from 1979 to 2004.
• The people that died due to SUDEP were 43.33 years old as an average, which is almost 10 years less that the remaining patients suffering from epilepsy and 32 years less than the life expectancy of the rest of the population in the country.

In postgraduate courses on epilepsy for doctors, SUDEP is a topic that must be discussed by students. In Cuba, both radio programs and published newspapers for the general public have dealt with SUDEP. Doctors and other professionals who deal with patients suffering from epilepsy, and are familiar with SUDEP, consider it necessary to discuss this issue. But the topic is not dealt with in a similar way by all health staff (both doctors and paramedics). Therefore, as health professionals that work with patients with epilepsy, we aim to disseminate information regarding SUDEP in order to raise the general knowledge of the public and of other professionals on this issue.

Salvador González Pal & Erick González Delgado
Cuban League Against Epilepsy

Reprinted with the permission of Epilepsy Australia-the national coalition of Australia epilepsy associations and Epilepsy Bereaved UK.