Koro — a Cultural Disease

Abstract

It has been know for quite a long time that a strange disease occurred amongst the Chinese, especially in those who originated from Southern China. Those afflicted presented with a picture of having experienced a sudden feeling of retraction of the penis, and were beset with a great fear that should the retraction be permitted to proceed, the penis would eventually be drawn into the abdomen with a fatal outcome. In their anxiety to prevent such a mishap, they held on to the penis either manually or with instrumental aid. In some instances, relatives took turn to hold on to the penis to curb its supposed “wanderings”, in others, a clamp, a cloth peg, a loop of string, or even a safety pin was employed to restrain the recalcitrant member.