“ Nodding syndrome ” is a poorly - understood disease that causes children and adolescent to nod violently , as if have a seizure , when in the presence of intellectual nourishment or when they get cold . liken to epilepsy because of its essence , the disease is thought to be concern to parasitic worms that also cause river blindness . First discovered in the Sudan in the 1980s , a raw eruption of nodding syndrome is sweep across Uganda , and could circulate elsewhere too .
New Scientist reports :
The current outbreaks are concentrated in the territory of Kitgum , Pader and Gulu . In Pader alone , 66 youngster and teenagers have perish . More than 1000 typesetter’s case were diagnose between August and mid - December .
Onchocerca volvulus , a nematode dirt ball that causes river blindness , is known to infest all three affected districts . Nearly all the children with nodding syndrome are retrieve to live near lasting rivers , another hint of a connexion with river blindness .
The connection is not clear shortened , though . “ We recognise that [ Onchocerca volvulus ] is involved in some fashion , but it is a niggling puzzling because [ the dirt ball ] is fairly common in area that do not have nod disease , ” says Scott Dowell , who researches paediatric infectious diseases and is lead investigator into nodding syndrome with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
nod syndrome can cause dangerous neurological harm , and there are report that it can stunt the growth of its young victims . There is presently no known curative , and doctors are seek to fight the symptoms with anticonvulsants .
MedicineScience
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