What's Causing This Mysterious Sleeping Sickness In A Village In Kazakhstan?

It voice like a scene from a revulsion film . Earlier last twelvemonth , a tiny village   in Kazakhstan was hit with a mysterious “ sleeping malady . ”   Residents were falling benumbed at random ; they were passing out while walk , in shoal and even on their motorcycles . Some fall numb for up to six days at a time and when they waken up they could n’t remember what happened . Others suffered from hallucinations , fatigue and headaches . But what was making residents in the town sporadically fall asleep ?

The sleeping malady first hit the townsfolk in March 2013 . Researchers – including sleep   disorder expert – who went to investigate were left stumped at what was make the mysterious illness . Now , governing officials announce that the nearby U mines are to find fault . The mine , which were come together in brief after the free fall of the Soviet Union , are think to be the causal agent of heightened levels of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons in the breeze .

“ The U mines were close at some point in time , and at time a concentration of carbon copy monoxide occurs there , ” said Kazakhstan ’s deputy PM   Berdibek Saparbaev ,   according toThe Guardian . “ The oxygen in the melodic line is reduced accordingly , which is the real ground for the sleeping illness in these villages . ”

Mystery solved ? Not precisely . While it ’s possible that carbon paper monoxide is the   culprit of this weird phenomenon , some researchers are n’t all positive .

Claude Piantadosi , a pulmonologist at Duke University Medical Center , toldWiredthat while “ the symptoms tally , ” they “ are not specific and that ’s the trouble . ” He explains that while carbon monoxide is able to make someone unconscious , it ’s a byproduct of burning . So , why would the atomic number 92 mine – that is dormant – be free carbon monoxide ? Not to mention , authorities antecedently tested for idealistic carbon paper monoxide and laterruled it out .

Piantadosi suggests other petrol , like carbon dioxide , may have contributed to the sleeping nausea . While many continue to theorize on the exact cause , the authorities have decided to evacuate occupant in the two settlement , which is causing its own head ache as some resident are loth toleave their homes .