Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190227-kifafa-the-mystery-of-east-africas-nodding-disease
Kifafa: The mystery of East Africa?s ?nodding disease?
Despite decades of research, no one has managed to figure out what?s causing the strange and deadly nodding syndrome. The search for answers could save thousands of lives ? and may unlock new treatments for intractable diseases such as Alzheimer?s.
By Zaria Gorvett
28 February 2019
For the Wapogoro people, there are few worse fates than kifafa.
The tribe lives in the Mahenge highlands in deepest Tanzania: a land of rugged mountains, mist-capped forests and rare underground treasures, from fossils to glittering neon-pink gems. They have survived there in isolation for hundreds of years, quietly going about their lives and largely escaping the notice of the wider world.
Or that was the case, until a Norwegian doctor turned up in 1959. Louise Jilek-Aall was just 28 years old, fresh out of medical school and determined to set up a clinic in the area. But no sooner had she started seeing patients than she noticed something peculiar.
Nearly every day, children as young as two would turn up in her office with severe burns. In one case, a little girl was rendered completely unrecognisable; many others died from their wounds. The burns were often overlaid on webs of pale pink scars, which had built up after years of previous scorchings...
Kifafa: The mystery of East Africa?s ?nodding disease?
Despite decades of research, no one has managed to figure out what?s causing the strange and deadly nodding syndrome. The search for answers could save thousands of lives ? and may unlock new treatments for intractable diseases such as Alzheimer?s.
By Zaria Gorvett
28 February 2019
For the Wapogoro people, there are few worse fates than kifafa.
The tribe lives in the Mahenge highlands in deepest Tanzania: a land of rugged mountains, mist-capped forests and rare underground treasures, from fossils to glittering neon-pink gems. They have survived there in isolation for hundreds of years, quietly going about their lives and largely escaping the notice of the wider world.
Or that was the case, until a Norwegian doctor turned up in 1959. Louise Jilek-Aall was just 28 years old, fresh out of medical school and determined to set up a clinic in the area. But no sooner had she started seeing patients than she noticed something peculiar.
Nearly every day, children as young as two would turn up in her office with severe burns. In one case, a little girl was rendered completely unrecognisable; many others died from their wounds. The burns were often overlaid on webs of pale pink scars, which had built up after years of previous scorchings...
