No cure has yet been found for the Children in Kitgum district who are suffering from the nodding disease.
The nodding disease in Kitgum was reported in August 2009 and blood samples were taken to Kampala virus research institute and to Atlanta in the USA to verify the nature of the disease.
The nodding disease affects mainly children aged between eight and fifteen years.
The children experience incessant nodding, mental and physical problems, and lack of appetite and loss of consciousness.
Eight months down the road, the cure seems to be far from the affected children. Sister Grace Ogwang, the district health visitor, says results from the blood samples have not yet been brought back making it difficult to prescribe any form of treatment for the affected children.
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Last year, A team of 20 medics from the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), Mulago and Butabika hospitals conducted a two-week study of the disease in Kitgum district.
Dr. Monday Busuulwa, the AFENET medical epidemiologist, said they had taken samples of blood, urine, cerebral spinal fluids and skin snips from the affected children for tests.
The disease that manifests itself with strong convulsions and fit is associated with epilepsy and onchocerciasis.
Sister Ogwang, explains that guardians to the affected children tend to nod much more frequently when exposed to food.
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Betty Olana, a 31-year-old mother in Alune, said when the disease first hit her 10-year-old daughter in November 2003, residents and relatives were quick to conclude that it was witchcraft.
She said being a staunch catholic, she rejected the idea of witchcraft and asked religious leaders to pray for the child and before a month could pass after the attack on her daughter, several other children in the camp were infected.
Reports from the affected areas indicate that the affected children claim to see visions from God. However, sister Ogwang says that the visions are a sign of onchocerciasis.
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The Nodding disease was first reported in Sudan in the 1980s.
