Authorities in Pader district have issued a warning of a looming hunger as the nodding disease rages on in Acholi sub region, which has reduced many families to begging as most parents are forced to stay at home to take care of their stricken children, instead of cultivating the land. 

Francis Ocida, a father of two boys undergoing treatment at Atanga Health Center III, hails from Nyero Mwonya village in Atanga Sub County in Pader. He says that since his two sons were admitted at the treatment centre earlier this year, he has not been able to do anything else, let alone tend to his garden.

Ocida explained that he has not been able to open up a piece of land to cultivate since most of his time is occupied with looking after his two sick sons suffering from the fatal, mentally and physically disabling disease that was originally thought to only affect young children between the ages of 5 and 15, but is also beginning to show signs in adults.

Ocida, who last year lost a child to the nodding disease, says that the government is not doing enough to save the lives of the victims and assist families devastated by the syndrome.

Henry Jimmy Ogena, the Acting District Agricultural Officer for Pader district, says the government has to set up a strategic plan to address the problem; otherwise, the disease will wipe out a whole generation of children.

According to a recent report by Pader nodding disease taskforce, the most affected sub counties are Puranga and Awere. The other villages that are hard hit include Bolo and lower Angole, where more than half of every household has been affected.

The district has deployed vehicles to ferry medical personnel to the fourteen outreach centres in hard to reach areas in order to ease the burden of long distant travel for the victims between the treatment centre and their homes.

A medical report on the nodding disease complied from March to July 1st 2012 indicates that over 900 children were diagnosed with the disease in this period alone. 

Experts are at a loss as to what causes the degenerative disease.  The government says that it is still awaiting test results from the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta USA. However, Acholi legislators maintain that the government has shelved preliminary findings it received from the CDC that was published over two years ago.