Nodding disease: MPs threaten to ferry ill children to Kampala

Frantic move. Government says it will put up rehabilitation centres for the affected children and send a team to assess the situation in Acholi Sub-region.

The disease affects children between the age of two and 15, especially boys. The children are likely to die because they lose consciousness, get seizures which can make them fall in fire or water. School often becomes too difficult for the victims to cope and they drop out.

A child with nodding disease gets stunted physically and mentally. Nodding and seizures begin when the child is eating. Most children thus shun food and become malnourished.

Other symptoms include body stiffness, running nose and saliva, occasional defecation and urination during attack. The seizures can also cause children to collapse and injure themselves or die

The cause of the disease is unknown and few children are said to have recovered from it.

Some say nodding disease may be caused by effects of biological and chemical weapons used during the two-decade insurgency in the area.

Another possible cause is said to be tainted food such as spoiled plants or meat, especially monkey meat.
Another theory is that the disease is connected to a parasitic worm, Onchocerca volvulus, which is carried by a black fly and also causes river blindness.