Re: UGANDA: Nodding disease or "river epilepsy"? Hundreds of children infected
Re: UGANDA: Nodding disease or "river epilepsy"? Hundreds of children infected
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ished Date: 2012-04-22 21:42:17
Subject: PRO/EDR> Undiagnosed cerebral disease - Uganda (06): nodding disease
Archive Number: 20120422.1109909
UNDIAGNOSED CEREBRAL DISEASE - UGANDA (06): NODDING DISEASE
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[1]Date: Sun, Apr 22, 2012
Source: Friedrich MJ. Targeting Nodding Disease. Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA 2012;307(15):1573.doi: 10.1001/jama.2012.477 < http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/307/15/1573.1.extract>
Task force to address nodding disease in Uganda
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The Ugandan Ministry of Health is setting up a task force to raise awareness about a mysterious illness called nodding disease or nodding syndrome ? characterized by repetitive head nodding and seizures?that is affecting thousands of children in East Africa (
http://tinyurl.com/73zj53r).
The plan is to establish screening and treatment centers and mobile clinics in the affected districts, enhance surveillance, and continue efforts to determine the etiology of the disease.
In the last several years, an increase in nodding syndrome has been reported in children between the ages of 5 and 15 years in northern Uganda, as well as South Sudan and southern Tanzania, but the cause and natural history of the disease remain unclear.
Earlier in the year, findings from a case-control study of 2 clusters of nodding syndrome assessed in 38 matched case-control pairs in South Sudan indicated a positive association between the disease and infection with a nematode that causes ? [onchocerciasis].
(Full text only available to registered users or after purchase).
[Communicated by
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
flounder9@verizon.net]
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[2]
Date: Fri, 13 Apr, 2012
Source: Science 2012;336(6078) :144-146. DOI: 10.1126/science.336.6078.144
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6078/144
Mystery Disease Haunts Region
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In Mahenge, a town in a mountainous and isol
ated area of southern Tanzania, a great number of people suffer from epilepsy. Some of the most severe cases are found in people who were normal until they were around 4 or 5 years old, when they began to have seizures characterized by repeated downward
movements of their heads. For many years, Western colleagues doubted or dismissed reports of the nodding seizures, first described in a 1964 paper.
Now an apparent outbreak of a similar nodding syndrome in Uganda and southern South Sudan over the past few years has attracted many more researchers to look for possible causes. They are chasing several suspects, including a parasitic worm, but so far there's no proven culprit. Without a clear explanation of the condition's cause or effective treatments, defeating the disease will be no easy task.
(Full text only available to registered users or after purchase).
[Communicated by
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
flounder9@verizon.net]
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[3]
Date: Thu, 12 Apr, 2012
Source: United Against Infectious Diseases [edited]
http://uaidintl.org/2012/04/12/um-uaid-nodding-disease-a-ugandan-mystery/
Nodding Disease: A Ugandan Mystery
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In the northern plains of Uganda, thousands of children convulse, writhe, and wander uncontrollably. They aimlessly crawl across the grounds of their villages, serving only to scare their worrisome mothers and leave the rest of the community wondering what has happened to the boisterous, playful children they once knew. You see, these once ?normal? children have developed what is now being referred to as nodding disease.
Though nodding disease was actually first documented in Tanzania during the 1960s, only recently has it gained media attention from its increased prevalence in Uganda. Usually affecting children between the ages of 3 and 11, nodding disease causes seizures, personality changes, permanently stunted growth, increased aggression (though this is debated), mental retardation, and peculiarly persistent nodding, from which the disease derives its name. One mother says of her daughter, ?Her personality has changed greatly from before. She was normal ...[but] now she just moves around and serves no purpose.? Another says of her son, ?I feel dark in my heart. This boy has become nothing.?
Sadly, physicians and health professionals are still unsure of what exactly causes the disease. Though they have noted a high correlation between the presence of Black Flies ? which carry the parasitic worm _Onchocerca volvulus_ responsible for river blindness ? and nodding disease, there is much evidence suggesting that this correlation may be mere coincidence. Other hypotheses for means of infection include tainted monkey meat and chemical exposure resulting from Joseph Kony?s Lord?s Resistance Army. Whatever the cause, much more field and laboratory research must be conducted before effective treatments or cures can be implemented.
To learn more about this mysterious disease, check out this video made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the resources listed below, and the related material in UAID?s own awareness campaign, Educate Yourself.
[Byline: Nathan Wood]
References:
Wadman, M. (2011, July 13). African outbreak stumps experts. Nature, 475, 148-149. doi:10.1038/475148a
McKenzie, D. (2012, March 19). Mysterious nodding disease debilitates children. CNN. Retrieved from
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/19/world/africa/uganda-nodding-disease/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
Ferguson, D. (2012, March 21). Mysterious ?zombie? disease afflicts thousands of Ugandan children. The Raw Story. Retrieved from
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/...sease-afflicts-thousands-of-ugandan-children/
Mick, J. (2012, March 20). Baffling illness strikes Africa, turns children into mindless ?zombies.? Message posted to
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=24276
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Communicated by
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
flounder9@verizon.net
[ProMED thanks Terry S. Singeltary Sr. for communicating these 3 news pieces about the Nodding Disease outbreak in Uganda. We agree that the evidence for onchocerciasis and the cause of the disease is circumstantial and not convincing.
The hypothesis put forward in message no. 3 above, that it may indeed be a prion disease has to our knowledge not been investigated as post mortems of the central nervous system have not been performed to our knowledge.
We have previously hypothesized that food items may be involved, for instance the use of mineral oil instead of vegetable oil caused the ?Spanish oil syndrome,? and mycotoxins in mouldy food may also cause symptoms from the central nerve system. Neither of these two possibilities have to our knowledge been investigated.
Health Map location:
http://healthmap.org/r/2fMh - Mod. EP]
[If the cause is a food item, one would have thought all ages would show symptoms, unless susceptibility wanes dramatically with age.
Case photo:
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/NoddingDisease.jpg.
- Mod.JW]
