Nodding disease: Top US scientist jets in

By Anne Mugisa                                                                                                                                                              

A US-based lead investigator of the nodding disease has arrived in Uganda hoping to find more clues to the puzzling epileptic epidemic that has so far affected 3000 children.

Dr. Scott Dowell told journalists on Thursday that the numerous tests done at the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, USA have not revealed much about the disease.

He said, however, that two strong leads being followed are the connection to the river blindness (onchocerciasis) and low serum concentration.

Serum is the component of blood which does not contain the white and red blood cells or the clotting factor.

Medical information describes serum as the blood component which includes all the proteins not used in blood clotting (coagulation) and all electrolytes, anti-bodies, antigens and hormones. The substance is used in many diagnostic tests as well as blood typing.

The affected children get stunted, malnourished, dehydrated and mental retardation in addition to nodding which, the doctors say is actually “a series of seizures.”

Several of the victims have died, according to Dr. Anthony Mbonye, the Commissioner for Health Services in the Ministry of Health, but that the number of deaths has not been ascertained yet.

Dr. Dowel who is the CDC's director of the Division of Global Disease Detection said that tests have ruled out close to three dozen causes for the severe seizure disorder including a big number of viruses. But he observed that there was low Vitamin B6 detected.

He dismissed speculation that the disease could be connected to the chemicals in the gun powder that could have been used during the insurgency in the north. He also said that there is no evidence that the disease is communicable.

The studies on the disease started in 2009 when the Government of Uganda asked the CDC to help test the disease, according to Dr. Dowell.

The initial results showed no connection with the hypothesized environmental, food occupational and water exposures.  There was also no connection to exposure to munitions and crushed roots, he said.                      

The medic said that though the tests have not yielded clear leads to the disease, he and his team are here [Uganda] to help the Ministry of Health treat the affected people and also carry out more research. The affected people, over 95% of whom are children aged 5 to 15, will also be treated with epileptic drugs.

In addition to the anti-convalescents, the doctors will treat the other symptoms as more research on the disease goes on.

He noted that some other studies have indicated that epilepsy is on the raise in northern Uganda.

According to Dr. Mbonye, other scientists engaged in different environmental and health research are to be commissioned to carry out further studies in their different fields in the affected areas in a bid to unravel the disease's mystery.