El Carmen de Bolivar Colombia AFP - A mystery illness is plaguing girls in this town in northern Colombia, and locals say a vaccine against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV, is to blame. First their hands and feet feel cold. Then they go pale and cannot move. Some convulse and fall to the floor. In El Carmen de Bolivar, near the port of Cartagena, dozens of teenagers have experienced similar symptoms.
Some have even lost consciousness. My legs became heavy and I couldn't feel my hands anymore. When I woke up, I was in the hospital," recalled year-old Eva Mercado. For most of the families affected in this town of 67,, there is no doubt about what is causing the problem.
They place the blame squarely on a vaccination campaign against HPV, one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases, which can trigger cervical cancer. The city's modest Nuestra Senora del Carmen hospital has been overwhelmed by a surge of unconscious teenage girls being wheeled through its doors.
Panicked fathers bring their daughters to the facility aboard their motorcycles, using the town's dirt roads. According to hospital official Augusto Agamez, about minors have checked into the facility. There was also one boy among them. They also receive saline solution and oxygen. Once back on their feet, the girls go home -- until the next spell.
For the year-old, it all started with headaches and backaches. Then her legs and hands gave in as well, forcing her mother to help her take baths. The teenage girls affected by the mysterious malaise no longer go outside. Some don't even leave their homes. The epidemic has grabbed national headlines, and President Juan Manuel Santos has been forced to weigh in. Insisting the HPV vaccination campaign was safe, Santos suggested the epidemic was no more than a "phenomenon of collective suggestion.
