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MILITARY
MEDICINE

Nodding syndrome
and the fog of war

By David Schulz

Note: San Antonio has great health-related nonprofits, many created by doctors who also practice, research and
teach. They see the dire needs and are moved to address them directly, leveraging community strength through vol-
unteer leadership. San Antonio Medicine Magazine will spotlight a variety of these organizations in coming months,
in this case one with a global perspective — and tell of the inspirations that guide them.

A philanthropic passion is typically passed from parent to child. reliable information. And what I learned was astonishing: there
But when a neurologist’s daughters returned from a trip abroad, were thousands of children afflicted with a condition that im-
reporting on the massive outbreak of a new neurological disease, paired their brains that had never been seen in the area before; it
their stories set Dr. Suzanne Gazda of the Neurology Institute of only affected children, creating intractable seizures, cognitive im-
San Antonio and Medical Director for the South Texas Multiple pairment, behavioral problems and weird growth retardation.
Sclerosis Center on a new mission of service and volunteerism.
In response to her new understandings, Gazda formed her non-
The family had already made a few trips to profit, “Hope For Humans.” After an ex-
Uganda that deeply affected them. “When I ploratory mission to Northern Uganda in
set foot in Uganda in 2008, it changed me, May of 2012, her imperative was simple:
seeing poverty at that level, seeing people that “I have to help these children!!”
live on the edge of life and death every day The onset of this disease coincided with a
with degraded and antiquated healthcare sys- 10-15-year period of a Ugandan Civil War,
tem in shambles and yet they were happy, joy- raging in Northern Uganda from 1983 to
ful and provided a warm welcome to all,” 2005. The conflict was made even more no-
Gazda said. torious by Joseph Kony building an army of
child soldiers, robbing central Africa of a gen-
But it all became more personal, “When my eration.
daughters came home from Uganda in 2011 Some say that Nodding Syndrome has also
and they told me that the women in the vil-
lages are talking about how sick their kids are with a neurological contributed to the demise of the future of this tribe of people by
disease called Nodding Syndrome.” destroying their children. War is an evil encounter.

“Being a neurologist, my first step was to review the literature Says Dr. Gazda, Nodding Syndrome is a brand-new disease
on this topic to try and understand the problem. I soon found with 99 percent of the cases having onset while living in the hor-
that there was little written — a few articles by CDC, and WHO, rid internally displaced person (IDP) camps. Concentration
but all-in-all it was a very mysterious, NEW disease. camps was the original expression.

“So, I researched more broadly and began reading anything I Dr. Gazda says “Something very bad happened to these chil-
could find including reports from the Ugandan newspapers — dren during their time spent in the camps.”
sort of like reading the local paper for medical news in terms of
Was there exposure to a chemical? Or was a vaccine given? Or

36 San Antonio Medicine • August 2017