It’s something mysteriously interesting and scary, probably a good script for a Hollywood movie. There are many hypotheses about the strange phenomenon known as “Kalachi disease” and even though scientists are trying hard to understand it, no medical or scientific certainty has so far responded to the questions what this disease is, what causes it and how to cure it.
It is a town northwest of Kazakhstan that has these strange symptoms, and its residents can not help falling asleep and then not being able to wake up for several days. The people of Kalachi, sufferi constant dizziness and difficulties in walking or performing everyday tasks.
Recent studies have detected the presence of a liquid in the brain of 60 people with these symptoms, scientists speculate that this mystery liquid could be responsible for this strange disease; the problem is, no one know where this liquid comes from. Scientists are now searching for the origin of this liquid in hopes to find out more about this mysterious disease. It has been ruled that it comes from viruses or bacteria or contamination of soil or water with chemicals. Some have strongly suggested that the real cause of the widespread Kalachi disease is linked to a radioactive mine installed in Soviet times. It would not be surprising, given that the radiation level in Kalachi, according to recent studies, has proven to be 16 times higher than normal. Over 7,000 tests have been performed by sciewntists nad there is nothing empirical pointing towards a cause for the Kalachi disease.
According to time.kz, Alexey Gom, 30, arrived to visit his mother-in-law in Kalachi, located around some 400 kilometers north west of the capital, Astana, and even though he does not reside in the town, Alexey was struck by this mysterious sleeping ‘I came with my wife to visit my mother-in-law,’ he explained. ‘In the morning, I wanted to finish my work. I switched on my laptop, opened the pages that I needed to finish reading – and that was it.It felt like somebody pressed a button to switch me off.’I woke up in the hospital, with my wife and mother-in-law by my bedside. The doctor found nothing wrong with me after a series of tests he performed. I slept for more than 30 hours. But it never happened to me before, never in my life, or to anyone from my family.’
This disease has also been present in children, but unlike adults, children have had more symptoms then their elders. There have been reports of children hallucinating; Misha Plyukhin told time.kz how he saw light bulbs and horses flying around him, and then saw his mother with eight eyes and a trunk. Then he recalled snakes and worms in his beds, eating his arms.
It appears that the Kalachi disease is something that will maintain scientists and researchers occupied for quite some time; interest regarding this strange disease will spread among scientists worldwide as researchers look forward in discovering more about these strange symptoms and their actual cause.
Leonid Rikhvanov, professor of geo-ecology and geo-chemistry of Tomsk Polytechnical University believes that the disease is caused by evaporation from the mine. More specifically, radon gas is what triggers this disease, but it is not because of radioactive radon. rather then the actual chemical effect of the gas. Of course other scientists need to verify these claims in order to provide help to the affected population.
Should scientists and epidemiologists worry about this diseases spreading towards other parts of Europe? Well, according to expert, it is an isolated event that should not cause any concern among other countries in the region. Yet this does not include the population living in the vicinity of the town who are desperately trying to obtain a cure and live life in a normal way.
Source: Times.kz
