AFRICA - Thousands of children continue to die due to a "mysterious disease"

Kampala (Agenzia Fides) - A mysterious disease is claiming many victims among the children of northern Uganda, southern Sudan and Tanzania. It is a deadly pandemic which has not yet been identified and registered for the first time in 2003: the syndrome of Nod, or nodding disease. So far experts have failed to cure or contain it. It affects only children between 5 and 15 years of age causing uncontrollable spasms that leads them to death. Moreover, the convulsions from which the victims are affected are strong enough to cause unconsciousness, thus exposing them to various accidents such as burns or drownings, often leading causes of death. Currently, although the data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, United States, speak of 194 cases, there are thousands of children and teenagers who suffer from it. Initially, the CDC suspected that it was a kind of collective hysteria. Shortly after, by scanning the brain performed on patients, it showed that it is a disease that causes a strong brain atrophy. The number of cases is increasing, and an American doctor who took part in the global campaign in Asia against bird flu, is now busy with the Ugandan authorities to fight against this syndrome. He said that the Nodding disease is the first of six mysterious illnesses that the CDC is studying. Unlike bird flu, the pandemic shows no signs of infection from person to person, therefore not a threat to the population. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 20/3/2012)