The Bizarre Case of the Tanganyika Laughing Disease

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The Bizarre Case of the Tanganyika Laughing Disease

On 30 January 1962, a girls’ school in Kashasha, twenty-five miles outside of Bukoba on the coast of Lake Victoria in the state of Tanganyika (present day Tanzania), was suddenly afflicted with a bizarre case of spontaneous laughter. Three girls began laughing and couldn’t stop. Stranger still, the laughter spread throughout the school and eventually into surrounding villages. The laughter lasted on average seven days and sometimes as long as six months. By the time the epidemic ended, 14 schools had to be shut down and 1000 people were infected. What happened?

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Medicine and Disease in Canada: The Smallpox Epidemic

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As news of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa continues to grip the world, fears in North America are on the rise after two nurses were infected while treating a patient at Presbyterian hospital in Dallas, Texas. Thus far, the viral hemorrhagic fever has claimed around 4,500 people, mostly in Liberia, neighbouring Sierra Leone and Guinea, and this recent news out of Dallas adds to concerns because the virus eluded the precautions of top US health officials. In Canada, the government announced that it will commit an additional $35 million to the World Health Organization, the United Nations and humanitarian aid groups working the effected regions. These funds will provide necessary health equipment such as mobile labs, and will contribute to an increased international effort and containment strategy to help local authorities in the effected African regions limit the spread of Ebola. While Clio’s Current is certainly not in a position to comment on the dangers of Ebola or the potentiality of an outbreak in Canada, we can provide a snapshot of one disease that has left a historical footprint on our nation.

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The Silent Epidemic of Environmental Sensitivities

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In the first part of this series, we broadly touched on environmental and medical history as new (to us) areas of discussion. We examined the impact of poor policy on lead regulation and the “silent epidemic” of lead poisoning in the 1960s. We wonder what silent epidemics afflict us today as we look for lessons from these fields. So today we turn to what could be a modern day epidemic that has far reaching consequences, chemical contaminants and environmental sensitivities.

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The "Silent Epidemic" of Lead Poisoning

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Clio's Current has wandered widely in its foray into online history, but there are some topics which we have avoided. Some because we know nothing about them, and others because we know just enough that we know we have nothing worth saying. Environmental and medical history fall into the second category. In a two part series, we touch on these unfamiliar fields while exploring the history of lead use in North America.

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