Ugandan officials say some 3,000 children in this East African country suffers from a disease which has been dubbed, ‘nodding syndrome’, due to symptoms of a chronic nodding of the head, along with frequent epileptic-like fits. The disease stunts children’s growth and destroys their cognition, rendering the children to be unable to perform small tasks. Cognition often results in the children not even recognizing familiar faces, such as family and friends. More than 300 young Ugandans have died as a result of this mysterious illness that is afflicting more and more children across northern Uganda and in pockets of South Sudan.The World Health Organization officials in Uganda will be hosting a four-day international conference in Uganda on ‘nodding syndrome’, while scientists are working to find out why this disease attacks mostly children between the ages of 5 and 15, why it’s concentrated in certain communities, and whether it is contagious or not.