There's another mysterious disease that emerged out of Africa: a nodding syndrome, which causes young children and adolescents to nod violently when they eat food.
Large areas of northern Uganda are experiencing an outbreak of nodding syndrome, a mysterious disease that causes young children and adolescents to nod violently when they eat food. The disease, which may be an unusual form of epilepsy, could be linked to the parasitic worm responsible for river blindness, a condition that affects some 18 million people, most of them in Africa.
According to Wikipedia, it's not as funny as it sounds: the disease also causes mental retardation, stunted growth, and a near 100% fatality rate.