New York: Mysterious Tourette’s-Like Syndrome Affecting Teens at Local High School Now Infects First Adult

“A 36-year-old nurse practitioner has been diagnosed as the first adult to have the mysterious Tourette-like illness that has spread across a rural New York town.

Marge Fitzsimmons, who works with developmentally disabled patients and has no immediate ties to the town’s high school at the centre of the outbreak, has had to stop going to work because her body tics and twitches have gotten so severe that she can no longer work with her patients.

Details of her condition emerged today as researchers offered a new explanation for the strange symptoms that have been diagnosed in 14 teenage girls and one teenage boy.

Doctors have singled out the possibilty of paediatric acute-onset neuropsychaitric syndrome, or PANS, as a solution.

However, the new addition of an adult to the list of victims is likely to cast doubt on the theory that the outbreak is caused by a condition prevalent in children.

‘It started out with sudden head jerks in the middle of October. The motor tics wouldn’t stop, and the vocal tics started, and I went to one of the bosses and said I have to go,’ Ms Fitzsimmons told NBC News.

‘When it first started I thought maybe I’m going crazy.

‘As an adult, I can’t imagine these teenagers going through this and for anyone to think that they’re faking it at all. Try living a day in their shoes.’

Researchers are now looking into a new explanation – that infections caused by bacteria or viruses can cause also infect the brain, leading to onsets of Tourette’s and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

News of the adult case comes after fifteen teenagers were of the affected who attend Le Roy High School in Genesee County, New York State. Only one boy has been affected, the other 14 sufferers are girls.” Read more.