Boy.....this has all kinds of possibilities. With the timing, it might be a fall food source. (harvest markets)- ground contamination of a food source....pumkins, pumkin seeds......the list could go on. Leaf burning? Smoke from it? Whatever happened could have been a random short lived event. Not necessarily a contamination - just a random event that all these people happened to be in the vicinity when it occurred. I hope they are retracing all the events of where the girls/adults were just prior to their illness onset.

no comment...

Blood test don't find everything. There are several metals, chemicals and pathogens that show no signs in blood, only in tissues. Biopsies are quiet invasive though. Might be a good way to see if it's psychological or acted?

I <3 the doctor that is discrediting everybody elses theories! If you are a good doctor then you would approach the disease with empiricism and not get pissy when people don't think it's something psychological... oh and maybe if you were a good doctor you would keep other possible causes plausible instead of automatically dismissing it... I am sure it isn't mass hysteria, who knows maybe those kids all did some drugs laced with something that messed up their brains or even were traumatized severely (there have been cases where Tourette's were brought on by extreme abuse)... The idiot that thinks the kids should only be receiving psychological treatment, think about this, 95% of the time a person has a psychological disorder they also have to receive physical and sometimes neurological treatment to help regain full functionality.

Why are neurologists seeing these girls? They've been diagnosed with Conversion disorder. This is a Psychiatric issue, not a neurologic as many people confuse it as....including 13wham. These girls should be seeing a psychiatrist not a neurologist.

Which is why there is a 36 year old woman who started having the symptoms in October too, right?

The doctor's explanation seems to overlook at least two factors: 1) the infections he describes would certainly manifest other symptoms, or at least be revealed on a blood test (which I imagine has been performed on all the afflicted girls); and 2) the sudden onset of such similar symptoms in a largish number of girls only would seem to indicate something other than an infection (which would take time to pass from one person to another). Intuitively, I suspect that the cause is neither environmental nor medical; rather, I wonder about an outside psychological conditioning. For example, teen girls, who typically are struggling to define their identities and bolster their self-esteem would be highly susceptible to the influence and suggestion of an authority figure: The adult could even be controlling them under the guise of religion/spirituality or education. Further, the girls may have been conditioned to have no recall of their exposure to said authority. Sounds far out, I realize, but at this point, I would hope that investigators are exploring all possibilities.

The doctor's explanation does not seem highly plausible: Even with walking pneumonia, there would be other symptoms, and some sign of it in the lungs. My intuition tells me that the cause is neither medical, nor environmental, although those are solid, obvious places to focus the first investigations. Rather, I wonder if anyone has considered the possibility that these young women were exposed to some form of psychological inundation: Teen girls with natural vulnerability and self-doubt would be susceptible to an authority figure in a religious, spiritual or even educational guise. The similarity of their movements and the sudden onset of the syndrome would seem to indicate some form of "programming" from outside. Sounds far out, I know, but why not explore all possibilities? They may even have been conditioned to have no recall of their time with a specific authority figure.