Tanganyika laughter epidemic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (April 2009) |
The Tanganyika laughter epidemic of 1962 was an outbreak of mass hysteria, or mass psychogenic illness (MPI), rumored to have occurred in or near the village of Kashasha on the western coast of Lake Victoria in the modern nation of Tanzania near the border of Kenya.
Contents |
[edit] The incident
The Tanganyika laughter epidemic is sometimes understood as implying that thousands of people were continuously laughing for months. However this may not have been the case. Other reports tell that the epidemic consisted of occasional attacks of laughter among groups of people, occurring throughout the vicinity of the village of Kashasha at irregular intervals. According to reports, the laughter was incapacitating when it struck.[citation needed]
The school from which the epidemic sprang was sued; the children and parents transmitted it to the surrounding area.[citation needed] Other schools, Kashasha itself, and another village, comprising thousands of people, were all affected to some degree.[citation needed] Six to eighteen months after it started, the phenomenon died off.[citation needed] The following symptoms were reported on an equally massive scale as the reports of the laughter itself: pain, fainting, respiratory problems, rashes, attacks of crying, random screaming. Doctors reported that there were more complaints about gas than ever before.
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- Hempelmann, Christian F. (March 2007). "The Laughter of the 1962 Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic" (abstract). HUMOR - International Journal of Humor Research 20 (1): 49–71. doi:. http://www.atypon-link.com/WDG/doi/abs/10.1515/HUMOR.2007.003. (Access to the full text may be restricted.)
- Rankin, A.M.; Philip, P.J. (May 1963). "An epidemic of laughing in the Bukoba district of Tanganyika". Central African Journal of Medicine 9: 167–170. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=13973013. (Only citation information available through Pubmed; the text of this article is available here.)
