It behaves like a virus, sending teenager after teenager into a frenzied state followed by long periods of coma-like unconsciousness. Lola Emberto and family Lola Emberto's children had attacks
While Western doctors are at a loss as to how to treat this mysterious illness, Doña Porcela says she can cure people with her concoction.
"It can be drunk or bathed in," she said. "Within three or four days, they are normal again."
Using her herbs and candles, she performs a cleansing ceremony on sufferers and, often, on their houses too - akin to an exorcism.
