A silent yet serious epidemic. That's the theme at a conference about brain injuries this week in South Charleston.

Nine national experts spoke this week at the conference at the Ramada Inn. It's sponsored by the Brain Injury Association of West Virginia.

One of the speakers was president of the North American Brain Injury Society. Ron Savage says prevention is really the only cure for traumatic brain injury. That means not only wearing safety belts and using booster seats, but also wearing helmets.

"A lot of children are out on bicycles, all-terrain vehicles, ATVs, and those types of things, and their heads aren't properly protected. Of all the things to protect on a child, we want to protect their brain," Savage said.