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The Village that fell asleep: mystery illness that perplexes Kazakh scientists

49 points by breitling 12y ago

dominotw 12y ago
RT documentary on the village https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dQiCuZO76o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dQiCuZO76o
smanuel 12y ago
A crazy (or maybe not so much) theory: Bacteria. Some bacteria could cause sleep disorders (e.g. Tropheryma whipplei [1]) and this place could be favorable to this bacteria (or another) thanks to the uranium mine. Just speculating here, but... why not. [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20658941 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20658941
- gh02t 12y ago
  My first guess would be some sort of chemical poisoning from the mine. Natural uranium is effectively inert in terms of radiation, but it is still a heavy metal and is pretty chemically toxic (in metallic form, I don't know how toxic the ore is). Or some leftover chemical from the mining. Or some gas leaking from underground. Or other radiation sources that are found near uranium (e.g. radon). But the article says they tested all that. Weird weird weird.
swamp40 12y ago
>> "I’ve lived in this house for 20 years. I’ve lived on this street for 60 years,” she said , between hauling water from a standpipe through the icy streets on a sledge. “Now where will they send me? What’s awaiting me there?” Indoor plumbing?
zellyn 12y ago
Another crazy (or maybe not so much) theory: An ancient evil watches unsleeping, waiting in pooled darkness, beneath the picturesque dwellings of this unsuspecting town. Man was never supposed to venture into these forbidden depths, but the temptation of wealth and unlimited energy proved too strong. Now, the timeless horrors have been released…
chrischen 12y ago
They sort of buried the part about there being 10 times the normal amount of carbon monoxide in the homes of the affected...
- bdevine 12y ago
  It's not clear from the article that that's a smoking gun. Just prior to that point, we see: "Elevated levels of radon and carbon monoxide were detected but later ruled out as a cause.", with a link to a Russian page that, Google Translated, seems to actually indicate that CO is still a leading suspect. However, the article immediately goes on to apparently quote from the same Russian page that "...some of houses (sic) of the affected residents had carbon monoxide levels that were ten times higher than recommended. This... could have caused similar symptoms to the “sleeping sickness”." So the article itself seems a little sloppy. Beyond that, I wonder what the sickness relationship is between high-CO houses and all inhabitants of them, given that at least one inhabitant per house has experienced the sickness. Is there a correlation? Also, is the social structure of the village such that there are frequent visitations to most or every home? If so, then one might expect to experience the sickness even if one's own house doesn't have high CO.
WhitneyLand 12y ago
What about this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_psychogenic_illness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_psychogenic_illness

49 points by breitling 12y ago

RT documentary on the village https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dQiCuZO76o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dQiCuZO76o

A crazy (or maybe not so much) theory: Bacteria. Some bacteria could cause sleep disorders (e.g. Tropheryma whipplei [1]) and this place could be favorable to this bacteria (or another) thanks to the uranium mine. Just speculating here, but... why not. [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20658941 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20658941

gh02t 12y ago
My first guess would be some sort of chemical poisoning from the mine. Natural uranium is effectively inert in terms of radiation, but it is still a heavy metal and is pretty chemically toxic (in metallic form, I don't know how toxic the ore is). Or some leftover chemical from the mining. Or some gas leaking from underground. Or other radiation sources that are found near uranium (e.g. radon). But the article says they tested all that. Weird weird weird.

swamp40 12y ago

>> "I’ve lived in this house for 20 years. I’ve lived on this street for 60 years,” she said , between hauling water from a standpipe through the icy streets on a sledge. “Now where will they send me? What’s awaiting me there?” Indoor plumbing?

zellyn 12y ago

Another crazy (or maybe not so much) theory: An ancient evil watches unsleeping, waiting in pooled darkness, beneath the picturesque dwellings of this unsuspecting town. Man was never supposed to venture into these forbidden depths, but the temptation of wealth and unlimited energy proved too strong. Now, the timeless horrors have been released…

chrischen 12y ago

They sort of buried the part about there being 10 times the normal amount of carbon monoxide in the homes of the affected...

bdevine 12y ago
It's not clear from the article that that's a smoking gun. Just prior to that point, we see: "Elevated levels of radon and carbon monoxide were detected but later ruled out as a cause.", with a link to a Russian page that, Google Translated, seems to actually indicate that CO is still a leading suspect. However, the article immediately goes on to apparently quote from the same Russian page that "...some of houses (sic) of the affected residents had carbon monoxide levels that were ten times higher than recommended. This... could have caused similar symptoms to the “sleeping sickness”." So the article itself seems a little sloppy. Beyond that, I wonder what the sickness relationship is between high-CO houses and all inhabitants of them, given that at least one inhabitant per house has experienced the sickness. Is there a correlation? Also, is the social structure of the village such that there are frequent visitations to most or every home? If so, then one might expect to experience the sickness even if one's own house doesn't have high CO.

WhitneyLand 12y ago

What about this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_psychogenic_illness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_psychogenic_illness