BRITISH Airways Travel Clinics on Sunday reported an outbreak of a rare and highly disabling disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Konzo, a disease which damages the nervous system causing an incurable and sometimes fatal paralysis, has struck the province of Bas-Congo. It is women and children who seem to be most at risk of suffering from this disease. The exact numbers affected by the disease are unknown, but are sufficient for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation to call for food aid to the region. Konzo is an unusual form of cyanide poisoning, caused by the inadequate preparation of cassava, the staple food of the region. The civil war in the DRC has disrupted food supplies and led to such high levels ofpersonal insecurity in the region that the Congolese no longer have time for the lengthy preparation that detoxification of cassava demands.