[Investigation of the konzo outbreak in Africa: a mysterious paralytic illness swept a region without any cause. Viral outbreak? Chemical/biological warfare being used as part of the ongoing civil war? Rare diseases from medical journals were unearthed and then dismissed for not matching the symptoms. Gradually, a nutritional cause began seeming more likely, and investigators focused on what people were eating. Specifically, in the dietary mainstay cassava—residual cyanide? The disruption of the civil war prevented normal food processing traditions. Finally, chemical testing confirmed dangerously high cyanide levels, and further tracking revealed spikes at cassava harvest time.
Why was konzo so hard to diagnose? Many plants are high in cyanide but are harvested & cooked safely, with poisoning being rare. Cassava is harvested throughout the world, yet konzo is almost unheard of. And the symptoms were not classical cyanide poisoning. It was exacerbated by other nutritional deficiencies, drought increasing cyanide levels, and the civil war. But all this still seems inadequate and the full reasons konzo was so bad, and the symptoms unique, remain a mystery.]