10/13/10 9:59 AM
Luanda
Possible illness hitting Caungula District revealed
Luanda - The medical commission created by the chancellery of the state-run Agostinho Neto University (UAN) suspects that the illness that has been hitting Caungula District, in the eastern Lunda-Norte Province, is the tropical Tropical Spatic Paraparesis, ANGOP has learnt.
This was said in a press conference by the dean of the Medicine Faculty with UAN and co-ordinator of the mentioned commission, Miguel Bettencourt, that travelled to the locality.
"In a clinical assessment made mainly in the villages of Monakaje and Lukwokeza, at Caungula District, it was concluded that the disease is the Tropical Spatic Paraparesis, an illness that was already reported in Mozambique and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
At this moment, it is not possible to say what is the cause of this illness, although there are indications that it is caused by the bitter manioc that contains cyanide, a chemical and toxic element, as the HTLV virus, as the causes of the illness.
The expert said that the illness is characterised by the reduction of muscular strength of the arms, marked by a rigidity of the legs, hindering thus the movements.
"This situation is worrying and with serious social and economic results, particularly in Monacaje village, in which it was recorded 40 per cent of the cases, among children and adults", he explained.
Samples of the bloods of patients, as well as of the manioc, have already been sent to a laboratory in South Africa.
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