Students hit by odd malady

Students hit by odd malady

KENDARI, Southeast Sulawesi: Members of a Buton regency high
school were relocated last week to the nearest elementary school
after many female students complained of a mysterious ailment.

Despite the young women's claims of suffering seizures, Pulau
Makasar high school principal Bibu Kari said Thursday that Buton
health officers had failed to find anything medically wrong with
them. The teenagers claimed the seizures stopped when they left
their classrooms.

Antara news agency quoted Bibu as saying that "90 percent" of
the female students were affected.

Teachers and parents held Koran readings and sacrificed two
goats in an effort to end the ailment, but the complaints
continued.

Idris, an official of the Buton health team which visited the
school, said he suspected nonmedical causes of the seizures.

Buton residents say the symptoms are known as samauda, which
they said could be caused by troubled men whose marriage
proposals were rejected. Idris suggested the school and parents
should seek the help of traditional healers.