List of mystery diseases

A mystery disease is a disease for which the cause has not yet been identified. Reasons for lack of identification of etiology include lack of professional interest, difficult access, and lack of resources, in addition to being unknown to medicine. The following is a list of deadly diseases of which the exact cause is unknown, separated into long-standing and new:

Long standing

• Central America, from Southern Mexico to Panama, field workers commonly stricken. Causes kidney failure. 24,000 estimated deaths since 2000.^[1][2]
• India (Muzzafarpur, Bihar), 47 dead, similar to Japanese encephalitis but Japanese encephalitis negative, 2011.^[3][4] Again in 2012, some 233 children in Bihar have died, and it has been confirmed again as "not JE".^[5]
• Nodding syndrome, Uganda, since 1950s, etiology unestablished, though named.

New candidates

• Both "mystery diseases" reported in 2012 for Vietnam and Cambodia have been identified as Rickettsia and hand, foot and mouth disease, respectively.
• Febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome, a seizure disorder characterized by chronic refractory seizures following an acute refractory seizure phase. It affects children and is preceded by a viral illness such as gastroenteritis or flu.
• Acute flaccid myelitis in US children in 16 states (so far) that results in limb weakness and spinal cord lesion^[6]

References

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