A mysterious sleeping epidemic that makes residents of a village known as Sleepy Hollow doze off for days at a time is caused by excessive fluid in the brain, according to doctors.
Doctors, however, have been unable to identify the cause of the condition that has affected residents in the remote village of Kalachi, in northern Kazakhstan, for nearly four years.
Locals say the strange sleeping disorder is getting worse, with nearly 14 per cent of the towns 600 residents having been affected.
Igor Samusenko, local resident whose son suffers from the condition, said: 'He runs around and then he gets inert, starts staggering. When he turns his head his eyes stay fixed as what he ws looking at. If you try to wake him it seems the wants to open his eyes but can't.'
'Sleepy valley, sleepy hollow, that's what people call us.'
Lyubov Belkova claims to be the first resident to have fallen asleep in April 2010 and has since suffered repeated episodes seven times. She was initially diagnosed with ischemic strokes but then her neighbour began suffering the same symptoms.
Experts fear that prolonged diffuse brain oedema could have long term consequences on the neurological development of the children's brains.
But they are still no closer to finding out what might be causing the symptoms.
Some have dismissed the condition as narcolepsy or even chronic fatigue syndrome, but Professor Jim Horne, a sleep expert at Loughborough University's Sleep Research Centre, says 'It is not likely to be narcolepsy as the symptoms affect people for very short periods of time, not days on end. It doesn't seem like a sleep disorder to me - more likely a mild form of encephalitis.
'Most seem to recover quite quickly - so maybe its a virus - but then several seem to go down all at once, which suggests environmental contamination as there doesn't seem to be any fever.'
Prayerfully they find the cause and cure
No comments:
Post a Comment