{"id":11798,"date":"2016-10-06T19:48:02","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T19:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=11798"},"modified":"2016-10-06T19:52:57","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T19:52:57","slug":"how-insufficiently-processed-cassava-containing-cyanide-is-paralyzing-legs-in-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=11798","title":{"rendered":"How insufficiently processed cassava containing cyanide is paralyzing legs in Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p>Little known in the West, the paralytic disease konzo has inflicted polio-life symptoms on thousands of the most impoverished people in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other African countries.<\/p>\n<p>Eating insufficiently processed cassava, which naturally contains cyanide, can lead to irreversible paralysis of the legs. Konzo leaves its victims dependent on others for their livelihood and forces them to use makeshift crutches or crawl in the dirt.<\/p>\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=11005&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n<p>Science journalist Amy Maxmen and photographer Neil Brandvold traveled to the DRC this summer to document konzo\u2019s toll and what might be done to stem the disease. Maxmen interviewed dozens of people affected by the disease and as well as researchers like Desire Tshala-Katumbay, a Congolese researcher with the Oregon Health &amp; Science University who has studied konzo extensively.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2022 Part I: <\/strong>\u201cDesire\u2019s Antidote to Poison,\u201d describes konzo\u2019s origins and impact, and Desir\u00e9\u2019s efforts to raise awareness about the disease<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Part II, to be published on October 6, to be published on October 6, will discuss what life is like with konzo through a love story.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Part III, to be published on October 11, will explore what it will take to end konzo\u2014and how it is inextricably intertwined with the fight against poverty<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The <strong>Bitter Harvest photo gallery <\/strong>features images that Neil captured from DRC, revealing the terrible impact that konzo has had on many lives, and cassava&#8217;s important role in the region<\/p>\n<p>Please see also last year\u2019s GHN coverage of mycetoma, The Most Neglected Disease. <a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Cassava.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-11799\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Cassava-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"cassava\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Cassava-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Cassava-272x182.jpg 272w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Cassava.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Alayo-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-11749\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Alayo-2-300x250.jpg\" alt=\"alayo-2\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Alayo-2-300x250.jpg 300w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Alayo-2.jpg 559w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>, which was selected as the 2015 Untold Global Health Story. Source: pulitzercenter.org<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=11005&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Little known in the West, the paralytic disease konzo has inflicted polio-life symptoms on thousands of the most impoverished people in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other African countries. Eating insufficiently processed cassava, which naturally contains cyanide, can lead to irreversible paralysis of the legs. Konzo leaves its victims dependent on others for their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[3082,3080,3081],"class_list":["post-11798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-living","tag-cassava","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo-drc","tag-konzo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Cassava.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-34i","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11798"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11801,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11798\/revisions\/11801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}