Rare 'nodding' disease hits Uganda

Doctors in Uganda are reporting an outbreak of nodding syndrome, a mysterious disease that causes children and adolescents to nod violently when they eat food. The disease, which may be a form of epilepsy, could be linked to the parasitic worm responsible for river blindness, a condition affecting about 18 million people, most of them in Africa, NewScientist.com reported Friday. The current outbreaks are in the northern Ugandan districts of Kitgum, Pader and Gulu, where more than 1,000 cases were reported between August and mid-December, doctors said. Sixty-six children have died in Pader. Onchocerca volvulus, a nematode worm that causes river blindness, is known to infest all three affected districts but the link is not certain, scientists said. "We know that [Onchocerca volvulus] is involved in some way, but it is a little puzzling because [the worm] is fairly common in areas that do not have nodding disease," Scott Dowell, lead investigator into nodding syndrome with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said. There is no known cure for nodding syndrome, but Uganda's Ministry of Health has begun using anti-convulsants drugs to treat its signs and symptoms.