Ketty Adoch 14 who got burnt when her parents left her alone at home as they attend to the garden, is seeking for an operation that will relieve her of the pains she is currently undergoing.

An American Neurologist has condemned the treatment of nodding disease basing on symptoms saying that there should be more investigation on the strange disease.  Over 7000 cases of nodding syndrome have been registered in Northern Uganda in the past two years. 

Gulu Health workers on Tuesday joined Acholi politicians in pointing the finger at, on the slow response to the nodding disease epidemic, which continues to ravage the region and has caused the deaths of hundreds; at government.

UNICEF has pledged nutritious food supplements to children suffering from the fatal, mentally and physically disabling disease, the nodding syndrome in Gulu district. 

As the resettlement into villages from life in internment continues in Acholi sub region, the “Nodding Disease” which has been sweeping through this region, literally taking out young Acholi generations with it; remains deadly and indiscriminate. 

According to the headteacher of Aromo Wang Lobo Primary School in Odek Sub County, in Omoro County, Gulu district; Mr Santos Okello, the school has lost 15 pupils to the disease in the last six months. 

The Centre for Disease Control  (CDC) in Atlanta USA and the Ministry of Health in Uganda have announced that a study  which aims at testing the effectiveness of conventional anti-epileptic therapy in treating nodding syndrome will start in February 2013 after it has been approved by the CDC.

It's like a second war, say affected families in northern Uganda. While adults recover from the terrors of a 20 year-long civil war, more and more children are suffering from a mysterious illness. 

With Scientists and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yet to figure out exactly what the syndrome is, that is plaguing children across Acholi sub-regions and other parts of northern Uganda; parents of children affected by the nodding disease are appealing for urgent intervention from physical and speech therapists. 

According to a new report by the District Health Department, the number of children affected by the mentally and physically disabling Nodding disease in Pader district has been downplayed to 1,005, “since the outbreak came to light around 2009.”

A child suffering from the nodding disease was last week dumped at the offices of Gulu Resident District Commissioner (RDC).  

The LC5 Chairman for Pader district Mr Alfred Akena has raised deep concerns about the poor state of roads linking areas in the region that have bee worst hit by the nodding epidemic. 

The Minister of Health Christine Ondoa recently downplayed the number of people affected by the nodding disease by “revealing” that the syndrome has so far left 3094 innocent lives victimized and 173 dead.  Ondoa said that the syndrome which is now soaring in places like Lira district and Oyam County, can be handled by the government. 

More than 1,105 nodding disease patients receiving treatment from Atanga Treatment and Feeding Centre in Pader District have gone without drugs following a recent strike by the health workers over inconsistency in their salary payments.

The division in opinion about the nodding disease among members of the Acholi Parliamentary Group (APG) continues to injure any meaningful help from reaching the victims. 

According to the Member of Parliament for Kilak County, Hon Gilbert Olanya, unless a single position is taken by Acholi legislators, victims will continue to die needlessly without any meaningful intervention from government.