A mystery illness which left a dozen high school students with Tourette's-like symptoms has now been reported in another town 400km away.
Last Spring 12 female students from Le Roy High School in New York were struck down by the baffling condition which left them suffering from facial tics, convulsions and paralysis.
Now the number has risen to 15 and includes two girls from Saratoga County and a boy who also attends Le Roy High School.
The 12 girls from Le Roy were diagnosed with conversion disorder, or mass hysteria, which is a physiological condition often caused by a traumatic event.
Now environmental crusader Erin Brockovich has been called in to help investigate how the teenagers developed the mystery illness.
Brockovich, a lawyer and activist who gained fame when Julia Roberts played her in a biographical film, is not convinced of the diagnosis and believes groundwater contamination from a chemical spill more than 40 years ago may be causing the symptoms.
"They have not ruled everything out yet," Brockovich told USA Today.
"The community asked us to help and this is what we do."
The aunt of sick student Katie Miller contacted Brockovich for help because her family was not convinced of the mass hysteria diagnosis.
"We're just trying to eliminate everything, and she wants to eliminate that it's the environment," said Katie's father, Don Miller.
"It's a possibility and she wants to prove it is or it isn't something in the environment."
Lori Brownell, one of the teenagers affected by the bizarre symptoms, posted a video on YouTube last December hoping someone may see it and be able to help diagnose her condition.
"We’re still trying to find answers for all of this… So far, we got nothing," she tells the camera.
The New York Department of Health found "no evidence of environmental or infection as the cause of the girls' illness" but said others were free to test the water themselves.
Many of the students are unable to return to school.
Another of the teenage girls affected by the symptoms, 17-year-old Thera Sanchez, told the
Today Show she had started the school year off like any other, but things took a dramatic turn after October 7.
"When these started, I was fine. I was perfectly fine. I felt good about everything, I was on honour roll. There was nothing going wrong. And then I just woke up and that's when the stuttering started," Thera said.
"I used to cheer every day. I used to go to two art classes every day. Now I'm not in school."
Front page
RSS Feed