Sleepy Hollow: A village battling strange illness causing them to sleep off

A village in northern Kazakhstan is known as Sleepy Hollow. It is not called “sleepy” exactly because of its low activity nature. There is a mysterious illness, a sleeping disorder that has plagued the village for four years now. Fourteen per cent of the 600 residents have been affected.

Residents have severally complained of fatigue, dizziness, inability to stand, memory loss and vivid hallucinations.

According to a MailOnline report, Igor Samusenko, a 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 was 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.'

Doctors have attributed it to excessive fluid in the brain, and have ruled out viruses and bacterial infections like meningitis.

Scientists have also not found any chemicals in the soil or water that might be causing the sleeping sickness.

A local resident, Alsu Shjeladeva, was quoted as saying that some men from the area had gone down the shaft in a nearby abandoned uranium mine of the former Soviet-era and detected a sweet smell while down there.

She told Russia Today: 'We are afraid of what lies in store. We're afraid that we may all fall asleep.'
 
A number of theories continue to circulate as to the cause of the illness. While many believe the cause may be coming from the abandoned uranium mines, others claim toxic waste must have been buried in the area.

Doctors have however diagnosed the sufferers with encephalopathy, a disorder of the brain. Scans have shown that many of the sufferers have excessive accumulation of fluid in their brains - known as oedema.

But on what is causing the symptoms that is affecting almost everyone in the village, no one is sure.

Source: MailOnline