Sleep hollow

Sleep hollow is medical disease apparently only in humans causing them to sleep for days or weeks at a time. This disease has only been reported in a remote village of Kalachi in Kazakhstan. It was first reported in March, 2013 and so far has claimed 152 victims. The disease is probably non-communicable. The disease disappeared for some time but has re-emerged in mid 2015. The disease affects all age groups.^[1]

Symptoms

Other than excessive sleep, the disease causes vomiting, hallucination, nausea and disorientation. Victims of the disease often feel hallucinations. like "snail walking over their face". In a statement, a professor from Tomsk Polytechnic University, Leonid Rikhvanov, of the department of Geo-ecology and Geo-chemistry said that radon gas from the mine could be the cause of the symptoms.^[2]

The affected persons fall asleep during day-to-day activities and always feel sleepy. One of the doctors said, "You wake them up, they can speak to you, reply to you, but as soon as you stop talking and ask what bothers them, they just want to sleep, sleep, sleep.".^[3]

Cause

Kazakh officials have given their report about the disease stating that carbon monoxide, along with other hydrocarbons resulting of a flood at the abandoned Soviet-era uranium mine nearby is causing Sleep Hollow, by spreading through the village's air.^[4]

References

1. "BBC World Service - Health Check, The Mysterious Sleeping Sickness of a Kazakh Village". BBC. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
2. "Mysterious Disease Known As ‘Sleepy Hollow’ Has Effected 150 Kalachi Residents Since 2013 And Disease ‘Could Spread’". The Inquisitr News. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
3. "Revisiting Kazakhstan's Village of Kalachi, Where Residents Are Plagued by a Mysterious Sleeping Sickness". The Huffington Post. July 1, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
4. "Mystery of Kazakhstan's 'Sleepy Hollow' disease tracked to uranium mine". RT English. Retrieved 13 August 2015.