A mysterious sleeping epidemic that makes residents to doze off for days, which hit the residents of Kalachi, in northern Kazakhstan has remained a mystery for years. According to Doctors, the sickness known as "Sleepy Hollow" is caused by excessive fluid in the brain.
The strange sleeping disorder which is getting worse, with nearly 14% of the town's 600 residents having been affected, leaves people feeling dizzy, unable to stand, fatigued and with memory problems. However, the doctors have been unable to identify the cause of the condition that has affected residents of Kalachi for nearly four years.
Fear now grips the people in other remote villages like Kazakh capital Astana,
who now live in fear that they may never wake up from the strange sleeping
disorder.
The cause of the mystery illness remains a mystery, but various theories continue to circulate. Many locals believe the cause may be coming from nearby former Soviet-era uranium mines that are now abandoned. Others claim toxic waste has been buried in the area.
Baffled doctors have diagnosed the sufferers with encephalopathy, a disorder of the brain, of unclear origin. Scans have shown that many of the sufferers have excessive accumulation of fluid in their brains - known as oedema.
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, thinks this is unlikely.
Photo credit: Russia Today/The Siberian Times/Daily Mail
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