Sgt_Gath
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- Jul 25, 2014
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Villagers in Kazakhstan Are Falling Asleep En Masse for No Apparent Reason
Well, this is creepy as Hell.
I've heard of similar mass outbreaks of explainable behavioral illnesses in the past.
Dancing Plague of 1518 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
However, this is the first time I've heard of something like this happening in the modern era.
Villagers in Kazakhstan Are Falling Asleep En Masse for No Apparent Reason
Residents of a small village in Kazakhstan are falling asleep at random, sometimes for days at a time, and no one knows why. Since the spring of 2013, the village of Kalachi in the Akmolinsk district (whose name derives from aqmola, a Kazakh term that ominously translates to the white tomb), 150 miles south of the Russian border, has suffered from at least four outbreaks of the disorder.
As of the latest wave, from late August to early September, over 60 people, or 10 percent of the town's population of 680 had been affected. Last week, RT released a documentary on the problem titled "Sleepy Hallow, Kazakhstan." Locals told the reporters that they fear one day they'll fall asleep and never wake up again.
Classified as an encephalopathy of unclear origin—the highfalutin term for a weird brain disorder we can't figure out—villagers who do not simply keel over while moving or working report feeling weakness, dizziness, and memory and motor control loss. At least two children have reported hallucinations as well: Misha Plyukhin saw flying horses and light bulbs, his mother with eight eyes and a trunk, and snakes and worms in his bed, trying to eat his arms; Rudolf Boyarinos cannot remember his visions, but four people had to calm and subdue him as he screamed "monsters!" The sleep is so deep that some locals fear an old man they assumed was dead could have been buried alive.
As the Kazakhstani government and outside consultants fail on repeated pledges to figure out the cause of the epidemic, many locals are turning to conspiracy theories—like alien viruses and government experimentation. More disturbing than a cover-up, though, is the prospect that we could be dealing with a new disease or contaminant that we don't know how to test for.
The first outbreak of the illness occurred from March to May 2013, when around ten villagers ranging from 14 to 70 years old went to the hospital with similar symptoms. Subsequent outbreaks followed from January to March 2014, in May (when the international press picked up on a story originally published in the Siberian Times on the issue), and from August to September. Usually patients wake up after a few days, sometimes falling back to sleep soon after. It is not yet clear whether those afflicted can fully recover or will continue to fall asleep at inopportune moments in the future.
Well, this is creepy as Hell.
I've heard of similar mass outbreaks of explainable behavioral illnesses in the past.
Dancing Plague of 1518 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
However, this is the first time I've heard of something like this happening in the modern era.
