{"id":3961,"date":"2015-01-09T20:24:37","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T20:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=3961"},"modified":"2015-01-09T20:26:47","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T20:26:47","slug":"strange-sleeping-illness-descends-on-village-in-kazakhstan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=3961","title":{"rendered":"Strange ‘Sleeping Illness’ Descends on Village in Kazakhstan"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0Russian woman has fallen the\u00a0latest victim of\u00a0a mysterious “sleeping illness” that has gripped a\u00a0small village in\u00a0Kazakhstan, causing its sufferers to\u00a0fall asleep for\u00a0no apparent reason and\u00a0stay so for\u00a0days at\u00a0a time.<\/p>\n

The\u00a058-year-old Russian national and\u00a0three Kazakh citizens were airlifted from\u00a0the village of\u00a0Kalachi\u00a0\u2014 to\u00a0which the\u00a0outbreak of\u00a0the illness seems to\u00a0be confined\u00a0\u2014 to\u00a0the Kazakh capital Astana for\u00a0treatment, Interfax reported earlier this week, citing the\u00a0deputy chief of\u00a0the Esil district, Saule Agymbayeva.<\/p>\n

More than 100 people have contracted the\u00a0disease since the\u00a0first case was recorded in\u00a0the spring of\u00a02013, Agymbayeva was quoted as saying. Doctors and\u00a0researchers have struggled to\u00a0come up with any coherent explanation for\u00a0the mysterious disorder, nicknamed the\u00a0“sleeping illness” in\u00a0Russian media.<\/p>\n

Those suffering from\u00a0the illness simply fall asleep at\u00a0random\u00a0\u2014 on\u00a0the streets, at\u00a0work or at\u00a0school\u00a0\u2014 with nothing able to\u00a0wake them up. Many then awaken days later, often suffering from\u00a0memory loss and\u00a0hallucinations, according to\u00a0Russian and\u00a0Kazakh media reports.<\/p>\n

Speculations about the\u00a0roots of\u00a0the disease abound, with theories including mass psychosis, poisoning, insect bites, alien invasion and\u00a0the radioactive effects of\u00a0an abandoned Soviet-era uranium mine in\u00a0the area.<\/p>\n

But researchers have found no trace of\u00a0any anomalies, poisons or elevated radiation levels around the\u00a0village, nor any abnormal test results in\u00a0the sufferers\u00a0\u2014 except for\u00a0the fact that they just stay asleep, according to\u00a0media reports.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0official name for\u00a0the illness is “encephalopathy of\u00a0unknown etiology”\u00a0\u2014 or, in\u00a0layman’s terms, a\u00a0brain disorder that nobody can explain.<\/p>\n

“We have ruled out infections, we checked blood and\u00a0spinal fluid, nothing is there,” doctor Kabdrashit Almagambetov from\u00a0Esil, the\u00a0capital of\u00a0the district, told The\u00a0Siberian Times.<\/p>\n

Doctors had initially “categorized it as toxic encephalopathy, but ‘toxic’ is just a\u00a0guess here, and\u00a0encephalopathy is just the\u00a0title of\u00a0the set of\u00a0brain diseases,” he was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0numbers of\u00a0new cases previously peaked in\u00a0late spring and\u00a0declined in\u00a0the fall, spurring hopes that colder weather was somehow reining in\u00a0the spread of\u00a0the illness. But this year, a\u00a0new peak began around Dec. 20 and\u00a0put more than 30 people to\u00a0sleep, Kazakhstan’s Tengri News reported last week.<\/p>\n

That is a\u00a0staggering number, especially given the\u00a0fact that Kalachi has a\u00a0population of\u00a0only 680, according to\u00a0Interfax.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0village lies not far from\u00a0Krasnogorsk, a\u00a0nearly abandoned town of\u00a0130 which once housed a\u00a0population of\u00a0nearly 6,500, most of\u00a0whom worked in\u00a0the local uranium mines.<\/p>\n

No cases of\u00a0the “sleeping illness” have been reported in\u00a0Krasnogorsk, and\u00a0workers who toiled at\u00a0the uranium mines told local media that whatever side effects they might have suffered, inexplicable cases of\u00a0sleepiness were not among those.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Russian retiree who is among the\u00a0latest victims had arrived in\u00a0Kalachi to\u00a0visit her uncle\u00a0\u2014 and\u00a0then promptly fell asleep, Tengri News reported.<\/p>\n

Regional authorities have pledged to\u00a0relocate Kalachi residents to\u00a0other towns starting early this year, the\u00a0report added.\"sleeping\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0Russian woman has fallen the\u00a0latest victim of\u00a0a mysterious “sleeping illness” that has gripped a\u00a0small village in\u00a0Kazakhstan, causing its sufferers to\u00a0fall asleep for\u00a0no apparent reason and\u00a0stay so for\u00a0days at\u00a0a time. The\u00a058-year-old Russian national and\u00a0three Kazakh citizens were airlifted from\u00a0the village of\u00a0Kalachi\u00a0\u2014 to\u00a0which the\u00a0outbreak of\u00a0the illness seems to\u00a0be confined\u00a0\u2014 to\u00a0the Kazakh capital Astana for\u00a0treatment, Interfax reported earlier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[162,163],"class_list":["post-3961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strange-world","tag-kazakhstan","tag-sleeping-illness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/sleeping.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-11T","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3963,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961\/revisions\/3963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}