China: Mysterious Bone Disease in Sichuan Province

This group of elderly people are the last remaining victims of a mysterious bone disease that struck parts of China’s Sichuan province in the 1930s.

Standing less than a meter tall, the cause of the illness that they all contracted as children is still unknown.

Chen Guangming, who lives with other victims in a remote nursing home in the mountains, said there once was over 50 affected people in the village, but now only around ten are left.

[Chen Guangming, 79-years-old]:
„We don’t know what caused it, we don’t know if there is something wrong with the water, or the shape of the mountains, or the depth of the valley, or the humidity. We just don’t know what went wrong, and nobody else does.“

Deng Jiayun, a director at the Sichuan Disease Control and Prevention Center, has been studying the condition for over 30 years.

What surprised him most was that the disease can only be found in nine counties in Sichuan Province, and struck the region only once in the 1930s with over 500 recorded cases.

[Deng Jiayun, Sichuan Disease Control & Prevention Center]:
„The disease only existed for over 10 years, 20 years at the most, and it never happened again. We haven’t found a new case in the nine counties in our province since then.“

The endemic bone disease causes thickening and deformation of the limbs but does not affect the organs and is not passed on to offspring.

Deng said once these people pass away, there will be no living cases left and the cause may remain a mystery.

(NTDTV)