Global Health NOW: Bitter Harvest: Cassava and Konzo, the Crippling Disease
“Little known in the West, the paralytic disease konzo has inflicted polio-like 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. … Science journalist Amy Maxmen and photographer Neil Brandvold traveled to the DRC this summer to document konzo’s toll [in this three-part series] and what might be done to stem the disease…” (10/3).