Nodding syndrome devastates Uganda

Nancy Lamwaka is twelve years old, and suffers from a mysterious disease known as nodding syndrome.

Her father must tie her to a tree outside their grass hut in northern Uganda for her own protection.

The disease gives Nancy seizures and has diminished her mental capacity - she has lost the ability to talk and often wanders off, once getting lost in the bush for three days.

(SOUNDBITE) (Luo) MICHAEL ODONGKARA, LAMWAKA'S FATHER SAYING:

"It hurts me so much. In our tradition it is a taboo, it is not something heard of that you would tie someone to a tree but because I want to save her life, I don't want her to go to the bush and get burnt, I don't want her to go and drown in the river nearby and I don't want her to fall in fire. As you have seen, the wounds on her fingers are from falling in fire."

Nodding syndrome - named for the seizure-like episodes of head-nodding it causes - is a disease of unknown origins and no known cure.

The World Health Organisation says thousands of children in northern Uganda and southern Sudan are suffering from the condition.

Nancy's father has watched her slowly deteriorate since she contracted the disease in 2004, and says that if no cure is found, his daughter is as good as dead.

A WHO official said victims find it difficult to eat because of the seizures - which are often brought on by food - and become mentally and physically stunted.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) WHO HEAD OF DISEASE CONTROL FOR NORTHERN UGANDA, DR EMMANUEL TENYWA SAYING:

"There is a general effect in their neurological system to the extent that some can be impaired in vision, in eating even mere recognition of their immediate environment."

Most of the fatalities attributed to the disease are the result of secondary causes, with sufferers prone to accidents such as drowning.

While the effects of the disease - first documented in Tanzania in the 60's - are well known, researchers are still confounded by nodding syndrome, and the search both for its origins and a cure continue.

Nick Rowlands, Reuters.