Editorial
The 'psychological' affliction
There must be a way to prevent it
While we take some comfort from the experts' assertion that the spate of illness afflicting female students in many parts of the country is to do more with the mind than anything else, and that no one should panic, the fact remains that the disease, mystery to many since the like of it we have not been exposed to before, it has spread from only one school in Narshingdi to not only other schools of the area but to other districts of the country as well. It is also a fact that it has affected students who are very far away from Narshingdi, like in Natore, where it all started.It may not be infectious, and, as physicians have asserted, it cannot be classified as a disease either since there are no pathological evidences, but the misery and sufferings, albeit short-lived as the doctors say, must have a way of being prevented. We feel that the health department should go deeper into it and study as to why this has come about. We may agree that this is a 'psychological' phenomenon and while not questioning the experts' opinion that psychosomasis may be largely to blame for it, we wonder how the physical symptoms of pain and convulsions accompanied by high temperature affected the students in Narshingdi in the first place. Some doctors have suggested that the occurrence being a psychological phenomenon, and those affected by it may have been influenced by the news and the visuals carried by the print and electronic media, we have an entirely new psychic problem to look into. We take the point but would like to suggest that the health ministry and the media put their heads together to chalk out a plan of putting out messages to counter the psychological impact and the 'preventive measures' if any, that might be adopted. This may not be a disease, but it may just take on an epidemic proportion should more and more female students in more and more schools continue to be afflicted by it in the future. We must, therefore, find an answer to this malady through our own study as well as by drawing upon the fund of world health expertise.
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