Konzo is an epidemic paralytic disease occurring among hunger-stricken rural populations in Africa where a diet dominated by insufficiently processed cassava results in simultaneous malnutrition and high dietary cyanide intake. 

• World Health Organization (1996). “Konzo, a distinct type of upper motor neuron disease” (PDF). Weekly Epidemiological Record (in English and French). Geneva. 71: 225–232.
• Tylleskär T, et al. (1997). “Konzo – the walk of the camelion”. YouTube (8 minutes film). Archived from the original on 2021-12-15.
• Harford, Tim (September 4, 2019). “How do people learn to cook a poisonous plant safely?”. BBC News. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
• Cliff, J.; Martensson, J.; Lundquist, P.; Rosling, H.; Sorbo, B. (1985). “Association of high cyanide and low sulphur intake in cassava induced spastic paraparesis”. Lancet. 326 (8466): 1211–1213. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(85)90742-1. PMID 2866292. S2CID 206001945.
• Howlett, W. P.; Brubaker, G. R.; Mlingi, N.; Rosling, H. (1990). “Konzo, an Epidemic Upper Motor Neuron Disease Studied in Tanzania”. Brain. 113: 223–235. doi:10.1093/brain/113.1.223. PMID 2302534.

Konzo was first described by Giovanni Trolli in 1938 who compiled the observations from eight doctors working in the Kwango area of the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo).

• Trolli, Giovanni (1938). “Résumé des observations réunies, au Kwango, au sujet de deux affections d’origine indeterminee: Paraplégie spastique épidémique, ‘Konzo’des indigènes du Kwango” (in French). Fonds Reine Elisabeth, Brussels.

“Konzo” means “tied legs” in the Yaka language in Southwestern DR Congo and was the designation by the first affected population in DR Congo as reported by Dr G. Trolli in 1938. The name, taken up by Hans Rosling and colleagues, aptly describes the typical spastic gait of those affected.

•  “Hans Rosling Profile on TED.com”.