Slideshow by Maya Thompson

Location:

mayathompson5 — 2024-04-09 16:40:38 UTC

The start of the outbreak started in a rural boarding school off the shore of Lake Victoria. Locating in Tanganyika, East Africa. It spread across the region within two months of the first appearance and it affected around 1000 people.

Groups Affected

mayathompson5 — 2024-04-09 16:42:06 UTC

The epidemic started with a group of about a dozen adolescent girls. After a month and a half the school shut down, sending the infected girls home. As the girls went to their homes across the region their behaviors came along too. Soon infecting more and more people.

Symptoms

mayathompson5 — 2024-04-09 16:42:29 UTC

Those who were infected by the outbreak would experience attacks of laughter or crying that could last for a few hours or up to 16 days. Along with that they would be restless, aimlessly run around, and occasionally would be violent. Researchers found no organic causes. The cause is mental. It comes from extreme stress. Researcher Christian Hempelmann of Texas A&M University describes it as a mass psychogenic or sociogenic illness , that strikes in a variety of high-stress areas.

Summary

mayathompson5 — 2024-04-09 16:42:48 UTC

The tanganyika laughter epidemic started with a dozen girls in a rural boarding school. When the outbreak started spreading across the region around 1000 people got infected. The infected would experience attacks of crying or laughter that could last from a few hours or up to 16 days. The high stress factors among the school girls likely is what caused such an outbreak. Tanganyika had just gained its independence from British-run schools barely a month before. After about a year a digonsisses of mass psychogenic/ sociegentic After about 2 years the epidemic petered out. Nobody died from this and everyone eventually recovered.