The mysterious phenomenon initially caused distress to students of the Santa Rosa Secondary School three years ago, but came up again over the past two months and to date has affected about 67 girls between the ages of 13 and 18.
AN INITIAL report says the mystery ailment affecting mainly teenaged girls at the Santa Rosa Mission community in Moruka is not psychiatric but Health Ministry and other officials are maintaining a close watch on those affected.

-Chief Medical Officer Dr Shamdeo Persaud yesterday said exhaustive assessments, including one by a visiting Canadian medical team, have found no obvious medical cause of the episode and an initial psychiatric report said there are no obvious psychiatric abnormalities among the girls.

The only common pattern among those affected, he noted, is that they are girls between 13 and 18 years old who periodically have complained about sudden uncomfortable feelings, heat in the body and reported loss of consciousness.

Persaud said the Medex in the area has not confirmed any loss of consciousness and all the girls who said they were afflicted remain in good physical health.

xThere has been a lot on anxiety behaviour among the girls and we have treated that by calming them and providing counsellingx, he told the Guyana Chronicle.

He said tests have shown that apart from the victims being mainly girls, there are no genetic or other links and there have been no long-term physical health consequences.

According to Persaud, since the onset of the baffling episodes at Santa Rosa about three years ago, the Health Ministry has worked closely with the health department of the Regional Democratic Council on assessing the children and trying to diagnose the cause of the condition.

xThe medical assessments have not found any medical cause and we have not detected any infection causes from checks on the water supply, sanitation conditions and the air.x

Persaud said the Health Ministry and the Environment Protection Agency have not found any toxic fumes or agents in the air in the mission and the mercury levels in fish in the rivers there are not above normal.

xThe Health Department continues to be in the forefront of trying to resolve this problem and the children are consistently being checkedx, he reported.

The mysterious phenomenon initially caused distress to students of the Santa Rosa Secondary School three years ago, but came up again over the past two months and to date has affected about 67 girls between the ages of 13 and 18.

Headmaster of the school, Mr. Glynn De La Cruz, said that last week, after the usual assembly and prayers at the start of the school day in the auditorium, the girls became ill xone after the other.x

xOne girl started screaming and then they all took down just like that,x he said.

He added that classes had to be suspended for the rest of the day as the teachers were busy assisting the affected girls and other students were uneasy after the occurrences, which for the first time was seen on such a large scale.

xWhen they were attacked they were screaming and fighting and saying strange things..,x the headteacher said.

One of the affected girls, 15-year-old Ms. Mollyann La Rose, said she saw xsomething dark in front of me that went to the other girls.x