Tags: Disease.
Keshan disease is a congestive cardiomyopathy caused by a combination of dietary deficiency of selenium and the presence of a mutated strain of Coxsackievirus named after Keshan County of Heilongjiang province Northeast China where symptoms were first noted. These symptoms were later found prevalent in a wide belt extending from northeast to southwest China all due to selenium-deficient soil. The disease peaked in 1960-1970 claiming thousands of lives.