The Globe and Mail January 13th 2000
More cases of mass
Reuters News Agency, Boston Outbreaks of mass hysteria, including fears of poison gases in the air, may be on the rise, and traditional efforts to combat them may only make them worse, an article in today's New England Journal of Medicine says. Researchers said it is likely that as fear of bioterrorism or environmental toxins rise, outbreaks of short-term, widespread, psychogenic illness are likely to increase. The team found that many doctors called upon to investigate a mass outbreak of illness often suspect hysteria but feel obliged to conduct probes because of anxiety in the community. It also found the investigation itself, and accompanying coverage by news media, can make the situation worse. "Dramatic and prolonged media coverage frequently enhances such outbreaks," researchers said. The team recommended that officials make a return to normality in the affected community their main goal. In a study of a November, 1998, outbreak of illness at Warren County High, School in McMinnville, Tenn., Timothy Jones of the Tennessee Department of Health and his team found no evidence of any medical or environmental cause for the sickness, which affected about 186 people in two incidents. The first incident started when a teacher at the school reported a "gasoline-like" odour in her classroom. Shortly thereafter she became sick. Other students also got sick and were taken to the hospital. The school was then closed. Symptoms included headache, dizziness, nausea, drowsiness, vomiting and many others. They were reported by students all around the school. A second rash of cases occurred a week later, a day after the school reopened, again resulting in the closing of the facility. After the second incident, an extensive environmental and epidemiological investigation was launched.
While Dr. Jones and his team emphasized that the symptoms reported by victims were no doubt real, they still said they were probably a case of mass hysteria.
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