Open AccessAn epidemic of mass hysteria in a village in West Bengal
Author(s) -
Chowdhury An,
Arabinda Brahma
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
indian journal of psychiatry/indian journal of psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.485
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1998-3794
pISSN - 0019-5545
DOI - 10.4103/0019-5545.55956
Subject(s) - west bengal , bengal , outbreak , hysteria , medicine , disease , demography , geography , psychiatry , socioeconomics , virology , pathology , sociology , archaeology , bay
This is a report of an outbreak of mass hysteria, attributed to an unknown infectious disease, in a small village near Baruipur, South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. The epidemic was triggered following the death of 2 persons of the same family on the same day. Thereafter, several other family members and villagers became ill and complained of similar symptoms. They were hospitalized for observation and all were discharged after a couple of days. We report the detailed sequence of events and the management of this mini epidemic.