THE devastating medical mystery known as "nodding syndrome" may be due to a virus carried by the blackfly, a Belgian scientist told delegates to the 16th International Conference on Infectious Diseases in Cape Town last week.If he is proved right, his theory could bring scientists closer to figuring out how to stop its spread and devise a treatment.Nodding syndrome affects thousands of children in East Africa and has no cure. It starts with nodding, and is followed by epilepsy, progressive mental deterioration, and stunted growth. In some villages as many as one in six children have the condition, and many families have more than one ill child."You can imagine the panic in these villages, because the children are the future of the family," said the University of Antwerp’s Institute of Tropical Medicine’s Robert Colebunders.Dozens of hypotheses have been suggested since nodding disease first made its appearance in the 1960’s, ranging from nutritional deficiencies to toxins, but none ...
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