Posted on 03/27/2015 2:58:07 PM PDT by Gamecock
Over 120 residents in Kazakhstan's Kalachi village have been diagnosed with a strange sleeping sickness where people suddenly fall into a coma-like sleep without warning.
The residents then don't wake up for days and when they do, experience severe medical symptoms, the likes of which include memory loss, dizziness, blinding headaches and nausea.
The sleep inducing malady has so far affected over one fourth of the village population with many residents experiencing repeated attacks.
The government of Kazakhstan combined with the help of scientists have been scrambling to find the reason behind the illness. While they are pursuing some strong leads, doubts still persist over the cause of the illness.
Scientists suspect it could be either carbon monoxide or radon poisoning both of which are known to cause these symptoms. Tests have further revealed high presence of both chemicals in the village but officials have now ruled them out as the cause.
Russian scientists have another theory. They believe the illness is being caused due to the village's close proximity to an old soviet uranium mine.
Professor Leonid Rikhvanov from the Tomsk Polytechnic University in Russia told Newsweek. "In my opinion, a gas factor is at work here. Radon could be operating as a narcotic substance or an anaesthetic. Currently, the underground space of the mine is flooded and gases are being squeezed to the surface."
The theory yet remains to be proven and the officials are taking the steps to relocate the residents away from the danger zone. While over 100 residents have willingly accepted to relocate, there are many residents who have refused to move.
According to one resident, "They say it affects the brain; they say it gives people headaches, but our headache now is where we're being resettled."
Get it to the White House ,fast
Soviet Uranium mine or a still??
An old Soviet uranium mine. Kazakhstan. People sleeping all day.
Yep, it’s vampires for sure.
Sounds like bad wheat.
Ping...even if it may not be infectious, it is interesting.
This reminds me of the part in “Burt Wonderstone” about the jungle villagers that were hooked on chewing kratom leaf, which would cause them to just fall over and pass out for an hour.
Ergot? Doesn’t that tend to induce manic hysteria and hallucinations though?
Hell, I’ve had that happen to me, too.
The cure....stop drinking a little sooner!
Yep. It sounds like a prion disease. Wonder if everyone is eating cattle infected with mad cow disease.
An old soviet uranium mine...no telling what the hell was dumped in it.
Trypanosomiasis...a protazoan parasite.
Gets into the brain.
Someone must be experimenting to use it for biowarfare.
People would not recover from a prion disease. These people are regaining consciousness, even though they are impaired.
Too much inbreeding?
Have they compiled a Best of Obola speeches CD and sent it over there? That would induce similar symptoms.
Prion disease don’t always kill quickly. Some forms take more than 40 years before death occurs. Prior to that, the disease can cause lack of sleep or extended sleeping through damage to the sleep center of the brain. An excellent book that describes the disease is this one: The Family That Couldn’t Sleep: A Medical Mystery by D. T. Max.
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