Mass fainting hits Ethiopian students

Some 2,000 students are concerned by the fainting spell

By Damian Zane BBC, Addis Ababa

There have been strange goings-on at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia.

Last week there were two so-far unexplained deaths and this week more than 30 students fainted and were taken to hospital.

No-one could discover the reason for their collapsing.

Some are putting this all down to examination stress, but the university authorities are not at this stage giving any explanation.

Everything is back to normal on campus, doctors say

The 36 male Addis Ababa University students were taken to one of the city's hospitals for thorough tests after fainting.

The hospital says that all the students complained of being poisoned, but it could not find any evidence of this.

The students underwent blood, urine and stool tests, and they had x-rays.

Though some of them appeared weak, the hospital says that all their vital signs were normal.

Last week, two students died - one in his dormitory and one on the way to hospital, and the police are still investigating the causes behind the deaths.

Exams cancelled

The university was clearly concerned that the fainting incidents could have created some sort of mass hysteria, and it cancelled exams on Thursday to call a special meeting of students to try and explain what was going on.

According to Dr Gemachew Magarsa, the university's academic vice president, about 2,000 students turned up.

The doctors who had looked at the students who had fainted addressed the meeting and said that this was not a case of poisoning.

Dr Gemachew told me that this reassured most of the students there.

So, what is the explanation? That is not so clear.

Dr Gemachew said that he was no psychoanalyst or psychologist so he did not want to offer his own explanation.

All he was prepared to say was that this mass-fainting phenomenon will take some more time to explain.

In the meantime, he reassured me that everything has gone back to normal on campus.