Epidemic of laughter in Tanzania in 1962: what it was

Back in 1962 in Tanzania there was an epidemic of a strange disease, which manifested itself in a long and unreasonable laugh. Despite the fact that this happened more than 50 years ago, doctors are still not able to give a full scientific explanation of what happened in this African country.

It all started with a school for girls in the village of Kashasha, when three students began to laugh without stopping, and then their laughter gave way to tears and screams, and this went on for quite a long time. Following them, other girls began to demonstrate the same strange behavior, and in total more than 90 students were injured in this school. At the same time, eyewitnesses noted an unusual feature: this disease did not spread to adults.

Further events developed as in the case of the usual epidemic. The disease spread to more and more educational institutions, and children became its victims everywhere. Almost all schools in the area of the village of Kashasha were closed, and more than 1000 people suffered from strange laughter.

The epidemic lasted about 1.5 years, but there is evidence that unreasonable laughter manifested itself for 6 months. Some doctors have suggested that the cause of laughter lies in the poor mental state of children, and the epidemic itself is sociogenic in nature. That is, mass hysteria occurred among schoolchildren due to the poor mental state of children. Other researchers, on the contrary, believe that social conditions have nothing to do with it, and the reason lies in a virus unknown to science. But, most likely, the world will never know the cause of the mysterious epidemic.