One section of one of our videos this week really haunted me; the section about nodding disease. It seems strange to me that with all the advances in medicine we (the human race) has come up with, we still don't know what causes Nodding Disease and how to treat it. So I thought it might be worth digging a bit. Here's a bit of what I found.
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| A child afflicted with Nodding Disease |
The disease is mostly secluded to areas of Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania, and only affects children between the ages of 5 and 15. My first question then becomes; the fact that this affliction is so limited would seem to give clues to its origin. Environmental seems like the most likely cause. A quick search brings up a possible cause in the parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus (Source). Unfortunately, this brings up even more questions. If we know the bug causing it, how do we not know how to fix it?
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| Onchocerca Volvulus (Source) |
The major symptoms of the disease are characterized by mental and physical lack of development, "nodding seizures", but the weirdest part is that these seizures often occur right after eating, and stop occurring if the patient stops eating. An even more curious occurrence is that the seizures do not seem to happen if the patient is given food that they don't recognize, like a candy bar.
All this said, I'm an engineer. My life revolves around forces, math, numbers, and simulation. The human body is a mystery to me, and this issue could be way more complicated than I think it is. All this to say, why isn't this a bigger deal? Kids are dying of an unknown disease, and I had to take an international affairs class to hear about it. That doesn't make much sense to me.
That video was memorable for me too and the information you found is extremely interesting. I think it's particularly devastating that the triggers to the nodding appear to be so preventable.
ReplyDeletei have personally never heard of the nodding disease, and this blog really gives me information of even more disease affecting the human race. very interesting though. i believe this should be a bigger deal as well in finding the causes of this disease. the international community needs to help aide these weaker countries in finding a cause.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of this disease until now, either. Thanks for the awareness-raising information.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the posts above. I have never heard of this disease and you pointing it out is not only informative but also terrifying.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really creepy disease. Any disease where scientists don't seem to know anything about is scary to me. It makes me think we are just operating on an idea where we hope it doesn't spread!
ReplyDeleteI thought this was very eye opening. I have never heard of this disease. THis opens my eyes to the fact that their is probably so many other diseases out there that we havent even began to look at or understand. It is scary and we should all be aware of this fact.
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