The Laughing Epidemic of 1962

On January 31, 1962, three schoolgirls started laughing in Kashasha, a village in modern-day Tanzania. Their laughing would go on to affect 95 of the 159 students in their school. What has been contributed to extreme stress, the laughing epidemic was, pun intended, no laughing matter. The laughter would lead to fainting, flatulence, respiratory problems, rashes, crying, and screaming. It also caused 14 schools to close when the situation became too much for the staff to handle and ended up affecting over 1000 people. Around July 1963, the laughter seemed to fade away, and everything went back to normal. No one can seem to figure out why it ended