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What is Tropical ataxic neuropathy and explain in detail?
Tropical ataxic neuropathy (TAN, also known as Strachan-Scott Syndrome and prisoners of war neuropathy) is a disease or category of diseases that commonly causes disability and increases mortality. The causes of TAN are not understood; there is no generally accepted treatment, and the reported outcomes are inconsistent. The disease affects poor tropical populations; there are no good statistics on how many people are affected worldwide, but in some populations, more than a quarter of people are affected.  Malnutrition may play a role.

Classification and signs and symptoms
TAN is one of many tropical myeloneuropathies. It was first described in Jamaica in 1897, by postmortems of 510 cases; in 1959, it was dubbed "tropical ataxic neuropathy". The diagnostic criteria were defined in 1968. TAN is defined by "bilateral optic atrophy, bilateral sensory neural deafness, predominant posterior column involvement, and pyramidal tract myelopathy, with ataxic polyneuropathy". The classification of TAN is still not settled, and researchers disagree about it.There are thought to be two neurological syndromes lumped together as TAN. One affects adolescents, appears with retrobulbar optic neuropathy and evidence of malnutrition, and improves with better nutrition. Half of these adolescents are seen to have spinal ataxia.The other affects middle-aged and elderly people. They suffer sensory polyneuropathy, including weakness and paresthesic sensations. Paresthesias include sensations of numbness, heat, cold, tightness, crawling motion, tingling, pins and needles, and a feeling of walking on cotton or pebbles. Weaknesses show as gait ataxia (lack of co-ordination). Affected people also suffer optic atrophy and sensory neural deafness, on both sides of the body. There is neurological damage to the pyramidal tract of the spinal cord. For these older patients, evidence of malnutrition is rarer, and improving nutrition does not improve symptoms.Most of those with the older-onset form have symptoms in their legs, but a third to a half also have arm symptoms