Dec 26 2005
Precursor WMD Attacks in Russia
Ed Morrissey first posted on a strange illness hitting school children in Chechnya. The Russians had been dismissing a chemical or biological attack so I had held off posting on it. But now there is a new gas attack in a shopping mall there:
Scores of people were hospitalized Monday morning after a pungent substance used to odorize natural gas was deliberately released in a St. Petersburg home repair store, police said.
Canisters attached to wires and timers were later found at three other branches of the same chain of Maxidom stores in the city, officials said.
Police linked the attack to business rivalries.“The main reason for the poisoning in Maxidom stores in St. Petersburg is dishonest competition,” a spokesman for the St. Petersburg police told the Russian news agency Interfax. “Management of Maxidom contacted the Interior Ministry not long ago complaining that they had started to receive letters with threats to spoil their pre-New Year trade.”
Officials said 78 shoppers and store employees needed medical attention, but no one was seriously injured. Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry, said 66 of the 78 people who sought medical care were admitted to hospitals. Three people remained hospitalized Monday evening, officials said.
The rationale this is some rivalry is ridiculous. Was the Chechnya school problems simply rival schools going at each other as well?
AT LEAST 45 people, most of them children, have been hospitalised in the Russian region of Chechnya with an illness that doctors say might be nerve-gas poisoning.
Pupils, teachers and workers began reporting breathing trouble and headaches on Friday at a school in the town of Starogladovskaya, emergency workers said.
Later reports had this to say
Ninety people have shown similar symptoms in the district over the past several days. Seven people have been discharged from the district hospital after their health status improved.
Some patients are staying at children’s hospital No. 9 in Grozny and a number of others are at different hospitals.
Certain doctors are of the opinion that the disease is psychogenic in nature, and have criticized journalists for facilitating its spread.
I find this hard to believe. What makes more sense is for these to be practice runs by the terrorists, or even worse. These could be demonstrations to the government of the terrorist abilities, with demands being passed along on how to avoid future real attacks. I would not be so dismissive. But the government may not have much of a choice right now.
This is what we can look forward to if the left continues to worry more about terrorists’ right to privacy here in the US than what brought them to the US in the first place.
Ed Morrissey has more on this story today.
The Chechnya stuff is really murky.
The main Chechen terrorist, Basaev, who did Beslan, may have had links to the Russian state security. He may have been an agent provocateur for Russian state security. He was once spotted with an official government delegation on a trip abroad.
The man the Chechens elected, Maskhadov, seems to have been a moderate Muslim who was undermined by Basaev–thus giving the Russians an excuse to crush “terrorists.”
Maskhadov is dead now, I think. I think the pictures of him with Basaev are faked.
After he was overthrown, Maskhadov did create an insurgency against the Russians, but he did not seem to target civilians. He attacked military targets.
I think that this more moderate Maskhadov was more of a threat to Moscow’s desire to control Chechnya.
Basayev may have been used to undermine him.
Some of this stuff in Chechnya has its roots in what the Russians do to the people there, not Al Qaeda infiltration. Now Al Qaeda no doubt takes advantage of it.
A lot of experts on Russia agree with what I am writing.
Plus, the Russian military in Chechnya is very corrupt and may be on the take from criminals/terrorists.
This whole situation is really not too clear to me, but I think that the Russians may have felt that having “terrorists” to battle was far preferable to having an independence movement.
This gas attack on the Maxidom stores looks more like a mafia extortion. But who knows.
http://www.rferl.org/features/features_Article.aspx?m=12&y=2005&id=2C14BD4F-EA94-4203-92A9-A637B00309AE
Here is an article on the Chechen poisoning. Almost all of the affected are teenaged girls so there was speculation that it was psychosomatic, but others are saying that the children have been exposed to mercury. The medical tests are due today.
More than 70 people — most of them schoolchildren, and all but a handful of them girls — have now been affected by a mysterious ailment in an eastern district of Russia’s war-torn republic of Chechnya. During the past week, residents have been struck by sudden bouts of tremors, nausea, and shortness of breath. Some doctors have reported incidents of psychotic episodes, with patients experiencing panic attacks or mania. Some regional authorities have said the illness is suggestive of nerve-gas poisoning. But toxicologists have reportedly found no evidence to substantiate the claim. RFE/RL reports on what may be behind Chechnya’s apparent mystery poisoning.
http://www.rambler.ru/db/news/msg.html?mid=7083739
OK. This article says that police investigators are going through the stores and the FSB (state security/old KGB0 is guarding the doors.
My Russian is not perfect.
But they have a mobile ? bomb lab on the scene.
The preliminary diagnosis of the sick people is an unknown gas but the procurator said it is possible it will turn out to be merkaptan which is used to give natural gas an odor.
About 12 of the 66 people are in “medium heavy/grave” condition–some medical category. Possibly like “serious.”
Most of the stricken people were employees even though there were a lot of shoppers in the store.
I think the symptoms are lightheadedness, nausea, racing heart and a cough. (cough for sure, other words I am guessing).
The power structures aren’t commenting on what is going on yet.
I think it says that witnesses saw armed security at some supermarket so maybe they had some warning. They found a box with a timer and ampules in the bathroom there.
The same thing was happening on the other side of town–they found a box.
This is not a perfect translation. I am too tired to look up words today!
LINK
“Some scientists and doctors, however, point to the possibility of infected monkey flesh or chemical weapons as the cause of the “nodding disease.”
I have no direct evidence that my theory is solid evidence of chemical weapons activities in Sudan. However it’s very suspicious, a trail children are suffering from some form of illness, possibly this strange illness has nothing to do with chemical tests or chem attacks on the sudanese christians, it does show something isn’t right in the south sudan eco-system, along the Yei River.Mabe someone dumped chems in a body of water, a river, to test their killing capacity by contaminating the water supply. At the very least to see how this contamination would effect childrens future health. Very little has been written on this subject so it becomes a tough find. Knowing that a 1998 federak indictment against Bin Laden included allegations of weapons colloborating between Saddam and Al Qeada. Given the fact Saddam had deep ties to sudanese Turabi, one can conclude a triangle of deceit began, its web was being spun.
Book-(‘Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America by Yossef Bodansky)
Spring 1993 Saddam Hussein viewed the operations against the Americans in Somalia important enough to nominate his son Qusay to personally supervise them. The other elements of anti-American operations apparently didn’t support this idea. Those other elements included Bin Laden and his Afghan Arabs, the Iranian-backed Al Quds forces, the Iranian Pasadran, and the Sudanese. Iraqi intelligence reported that Saddam wanted a “Mother-of-all Battles victory in Somalia.” After these reports and after Qusay’s nomination, the Iraqi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan was expanded by the addition of several different Iraqi special intelligence services branches and special security branches. Those new additions were under the control of Sudan’s leader Hasan al-Turabi.
Mohammed Farah Aidid and his advisors left Mogadishu for an Islamic Conference in Khartoum, Sudan. Publicly he and others denounced the US. In private, he met with Bin Laden, Ayman Al Zawahiri, Iranian intelligence, Iraqi intelligence, and other surrogate terrorist groups’ representatives. The followup attacks to the World Trade Center bombing were initiated at this meeting, planned for July 4th, and, later, narrowly averted by the FBI. This June conference in Khartoum also created the first joint or parallel Iraqi-Sudan-Iranian operational plans to turn Somalia (specifically) into another Vietnam for the United States.
On February 3, 1998, Ayman al Zawahiri, bin Laden’s Egyptian deputy, came to Baghdad for meetings with Iraqi leaders. The visit came as Islamic radicals gathered once again in the Iraqi capital for another installation of Hussein’s Popular Islamic Conferences. Iraqi vice president Taha Yasin Ramadan welcomed them on February 9 with the language of jihad: “The Islamic nation’s ulema, advocates and preachers, are called upon to carry out a jihad that God wants them to carry out through honest words in order to expose the U.S. and Zionist regimes to the world peoples, to explain facts, and to say what is right and to call for it. This is their religious duty. The Muslim ulema are called upon before Almighty God to act among the Muslim ranks to confront the infidel U.S. moves and to raise their voices against the U.S.-Zionist evil.”
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/12/2c6c61c6-0d58-424b-a5e0-ebff2c67d14b.html
Concerns Over Radioactive Pollution In Chechnya
The radiation levels were described as “catastrophic”
(RFE/RL)
16 December 2005 — The chief prosecutor in Russia’s Northern Caucasus republic of Chechnya today said authorities are concerned the radioactive source discovered recently at a Grozny chemical plant may pose a threat to local populations.
In comments broadcast on Russia’s ORT public television, Valerii Kuznetsov blamed the plant’s management for not taking appropriate measures to either eliminate or isolate the source of the pollution.
The Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office issued a statement yesterday saying up to 29 “uncontrolled radioactive elements” had been discovered in a workshop at the Chechenneftekhimprom production facility. The statement described radioactivity there as “catastrophic,” saying it was 58,000 times higher than admissible levels.
The source of the pollution has been identified as an isotope known as Cobalt-60.
The prosecutor’s office in Chechnya has opened a criminal investigation.
(ORT/genproc.gov.ru)
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/12/2368c62f-3e18-432d-bd01-c5e8f891d313.html
Number Of Chechens Hit By Mystery Illness Rises
A boy plays in Grozny, the Chechen capital (file photo)
(RFE/RL)
22 December 2005 — The number of people affected by a mysterious illness in Russia’s southern republic of Chechnya has risen to 73.
All the victims are residents of several villages in the eastern Shelkovskaya district. Two-thirds of them are children, mostly girls. Local authorities have closed down all kindergartens and schools in the area until at least 26 December.
Officials say experts have not yet established the cause of the ailment, whose symptoms reportedly include sudden bouts of tremors, nausea, and shortness of breath.
Chechnya’s top prosecutor, Valeri Kuznetzov, said on 22 December that experts have ruled out toxic or chemical poisoning as possible causes of the disease. He said radioactivity levels in the Shelkovskaya district were below permitted levels.
He said psychological disorders linked to long-time emotional stress were believed a likely cause of the illness.
The first case of the mysterious ailment was registered in Chechnya on 16 December.
(Interfax/Ekho Moskvy/ITAR-TASS)
This illness sounds a little like a toxin that comes from eating bread that has some kind of mildew on it that causes LSD type symptoms. . I forget what the grain and toxin is called, but Russia used to have all these outbreaks of “witchcraft” and some PhD thinks it happened when a particular grain got rained on right before being harvested and mildewed, producing a toxin. The grain is not wheat. It is some grain used in Russian bread. The symptoms of “witchcraft” were suffocating and tingling of extremities. The PhD correllated outbreaks of “witchcraf” with rainly, damp weather in the fall, prior to harvesting this grain. Her study covered Europe, especially in Russia. She found that the witchcraft outbreaks were much worse after damp falls. The grain might be rye, buckwheat—something Russians have eaten for hundreds of years.
I read that these Chechen children do better when they eat different food. Maybe there is a toxin in their food.
Here is an article that describes the symptoms.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/12/070b2aaa-f5c1-4d8b-bc30-06843d1453e6.html
Forty Hospitalized In Chechnya With Mystery Ailment
The children have been hospitalized in Grozny
(RFE/RL)
20 December 2005 — Chechnya’s pro-Russian administration has said several people have been hospitalized with symptoms that indicate poisoning.
The majority of the patients are from the village of Starogladovskaya in the eastern part of the Northern Caucasus republic.
The first outbreak appeared several days ago, when several young girls and two schoolteachers started shivering, suffocating, and complaining of numb hands and feet. They were brought to the nearby town of Shelkovskaya for hospitalization, with the most seriously ill patients being transferred to Grozny, the republic’s capital.
Sultan Alimkhadzhiyev, Chechnya’s deputy health minister and the head doctor at Grozny’s Republican Pediatric Hospital, told RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service that the first outbreak appeared in Starogladovskaya on 15 December.
“The following day, we learned that all people who were suffering from apparent poisoning were girls, aged between 12 and 16,” Alimkhadzhiyev said. “That same day, after lunch, three children were brought [to our hospital]. One of them was in a critical condition, the other two in less serious state. They remained 24 hours in an intensive-care unit, after that we transferred them to a normal unit.”
Suffocating
On 17 December, regional authorities said they had opened an investigation into the mysterious disease and for two days it looked as if the ailment had abated.
But Alimkhadzhiyev said new cases were reported on 19 December.
“On [19 December], another 12 children were brought to our hospital from Starogladovskaya. Most of them were suffocating, jumping on their beds, and shouting as if in a state of panic,” Alimkhadzhiyev said. “It looked as if they were all suffering from psychosis. Our initial diagnosis was poisoning. That same evening, we admitted another two girls who were in an even more serious condition. Another two children were brought to us this morning. All in all, we now have 19 children [in the hospital].”
Alimkhadzhiyev said that the children suffer from bouts of sickness that last from 2 to 15 minutes and that the rest of the time they show no symptoms of illness.
Apparently, all the children affected by the mysterious disease are girls.
Health authorities have ruled out food poisoning.
Ailment Spreading
Huseyn Nutayev, the head of the Shelkovskaya administrative district, has suggested that nerve gas could be responsible for the poisoning.
Nutayev on 17 December told Russia’s Interfax news agency this was the third such bout of mysterious illnesses in recent years and that, in the previous two cases, doctors had not determined the cause of the ailment.
Alimkhadzhiyev, in turn, told RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service that heavy metals such as mercury could be responsible.
Meanwhile, reports from eastern Chechnya suggest the ailment has continued to spread.
Alimkhadzhiyev said two similar cases have been reported in the eastern village of Kharkovskaya. Russia’s ITAR-TASS news agency on 19 December said four children from the village of Kobi, northeast of Grozny, were also being treated for similar symptoms.
The agency reported that the total number of patients was 39.
Alimkhadzhiyev said experts from Moscow were expected in Grozny soon to help their Chechen colleagues diagnose the illness.
OK–here is some information about Ergot Epidemics and rye.
Just speculating.
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/abbey/an/an23/an23-4/an23-402.html
Mold in Human History
The Ergot Epidemic
In her book, Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics, and History, Mary Kilbourne Matossian (a history professor) presents overwhelming evidence that the population of Europe was held down for 500 years by endemic mold-induced food poisoning called ergot or ergotism. Although most sources attribute this long epidemic to fungi in the genus Claviceps, she also gives credit to the genus Fusarium. Both genera infected rye kernels before and after harvest, producing toxic, long-acting alkaloids (e.g., ergotamine).
In northern Europe the poor, who lived on rye bread and little else, were the most affected. Women miscarried and children died frequently. Those who survived childhood had chronic illnesses, gangrene, and mental disturbances. Their hallucinations and seizures were interpreted as witchcraft, possession, or divine inspiration. No one knew that their diet was responsible for their misfortune. Not until wheat and potatoes began to replace rye did the epidemic abate.
Wealthy households were never affected as much as poor households, because their servants prepared the grain as gruel, boiling it over a fire for about a half hour, which broke down the toxin. They also enjoyed a more diverse diet, including meat and white bread.
Ergot was responsible for the low birth rate and high death rate in Europe from perhaps as early as 1250 to 1750. It even provided occasion for the Salem witch trials, because the early settlers of Massachusetts planted rye, ate rye bread, and experienced hallucinations and seizures just as the Europeans did. Even as late as 1945, ergotism was still retarding the population growth of Russia.
As a strong influence on population and quality of life in Europe for half a millenium, mold had a massive effect on the course of history. (Matossian’s book is fascinating! You can buy it for $23.90 from Books Now by calling 1-800-266-5766, ext. 1494.)
The brief psychotic episodes these children in Chechnya are having where they jump around is like the ERGOT poisoning.
It was interpreted in old times as being “bewitched.”
The children in Salem Massachusetts—all girls–also described tingling extremities and feelings of suffocation and dizziness.
They “acted crazy.” This may be the rye they were eating.
Years ago I read the Salem trial testimony–forget Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible.” That was changed to be a criticism of McCarthyism.
Thse witchcraft crazes were probably often due to ERGOT–not just politics/religion–tho’ these played a big role, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergot
Big Snip
Ergot contains alkaloids of the ergoline group, which have a wide range of activities including effects on circulation and neurotransmission. Ergotism is the name for the collection of symptoms a human or animal has when it has ingested (too much of) this fungus. Ergotism went also under the name “St. Anthony’s fire” hinting at burning sensations in the limbs[3]. Another effect of ergot alkaloids is vasoconstriction, therefore ergotism may lead to gangrene and loss of the limbs due to limited blood circulation. This may also cause insanity, convulsions, or death, due to limited circulation to the brain. Other symptoms include strong uterine contractions, nausea, seizures, and unconsciousness. Monks of the order of St. Anthony the Great specialized in treating ergotism victims with balms containing tranquilizing and blood circulation-stimulating plants; they were also skilled in amputations. Entire villages have been known to suffer ergotism after the village bakery used infected grain.
In addition to ergot alkaloids, Claviceps paspali also produces tremorgens (paspalitrem) causing “paspalum staggers” in cattle.
Historically, controlled doses of ergot were used to induce abortions and to stop maternal bleeding after childbirth, but simple ergot extract is no longer used as a pharmaceutical.
Among those who studied ergot and its derivatives was Albert Hofmann, whose experiments led to the discovery of LSD, a powerfully hallucinogenic ergot derivative that affects the serotonin system. Contrary to some rumors, ergot contains no LSD, but there are links between the two substances:
LSD was first synthesised during research on the active ingredients of ergot.
Lysergic acid, a raw material used in the synthesis of LSD, was and is still prepared from ergot.
[edit]
History
The disease cycle of the ergot fungus was first described in the 1800s, but the connection with ergot and epidemics among people and animals was known several hundred years before that.
Human poisoning due to the consumption of rye bread made from ergot-infected grain was common in Europe in the Middle Ages. The phenomenon known as Dancing mania has been blamed on accidental consumption of the fungus.
It has also been posited — though speculatively — that the Salem Witch Trials were initiated by young women who had consumed ergot-tainted rye.
Kykeon, the beverage consumed by participants in the ancient Greek mystery of Eleusinian Mysteries, might have been based on hallucinogens from ergot.
Nowadays, rye grain is infected repeatedly to produce ergot.
The former Soviet Union has a lot of environmental problems, so I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that the illness in the Chechen children is Islamic terrorism.They will follow this issue at http://www.refrl.org
I also do not trust the Russian military in Chechnya, which is penetrated by criminal structures.
This illness looks to me like ERGOT or something similar. One article mentioned that some children were taken ill right after eating.
Another article mentioned they got better when they changed their diets and ate unfamiliar foods.
http://www.rambler.ru/db/news/msg.html?s=10&mid=7086994
OK–I think this article is saying the sick children are suffering from a psychogenic disorder–a conversion disorder.
My Russian is not perfect. I am not looking up what I don’t know.
Caveat Emptor!
I think they quote the Serbsky Institute to the effect that this is a psychiatric problem. The head persona is Zuraba Kikalidze.
Kikalidze says that first one person falls ill, then a secord and third, and so on. He says that the region needs a radical approach to the psychological and social rehabilitation for all the inhabitants to solve the problem.
The Serbsky is Russia’s most famous psychiatric institute, but they were associated with fake diagnoses of dissenters during the communist years. Their psychiatrists even gave some healthy peple drugs to make them crazy. This got the USSR kicked out international psychiatric organizations. I don’t know their reputation now.
More adults seems to be sick than previously noticed. 75 are sick and 57 are children.
Russia’s head doctor (like our Surgeon General) Gennadi Oneshchenko says there may be more of these illnesses and that the area needs to establish special psychological services.
He says the search for an exact diagnoses will continue. The medical studies are being done in Moscow.
Environmental Poisoning/Mercury/Minamata disease theory:
http://www.rferl.org/features/features_Article.aspx?m=12&y=2005&id=2C14BD4F-EA94-4203-92A9-A637B00309AE
SNIP:
[O]ne Western doctor dismissed the theory that the illness could be a result of psychological trauma. Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at New York University’s School of Medicine in New York City, says the symptoms point to environmental poisoning:
“These symptoms are classic for severe mercury intoxication. There’s a disease called Minamata disease, which is very consistent with this exact constellation of symptoms, the neurological findings,” Siegel said. “The blackouts, the tingling, the nausea — all of this is consistent with severe mercury poisoning. And it can be due to environmental exposure, such as a soda plant, some kind of chemical plant nearby. I would find it conceivable to believe that this could occur in Chechnya without it being a terrorist event.”
Siegel, the author of “False Alarm, The Truth About The Epidemic Of Fear” and the soon to be published “Bird Flu,” said most cases of Minamata disease have been linked to regional environmental exposure — and could explain why different school buildings in neighboring villages are each experiencing similar outbreaks.
He also said toxicology experts examining the schools should pay particular attention to what activities the female teenage students may have had in common.
This is RIA NOVOSTI PRESS –pretty much the official perspective.
They are saying this illness is psychogenic.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051227/42730547.html
Another “psycho-emotional stress” case in Chechnya
11:36 | 27/ 12/ 2005
ROSTOV-ON-DON (Southern Russia), December 27 (RIA Novosti, Sergei Rudkovsky) – Another person has been hospitalized with convulsions in Chechnya, the Emergency Situations Ministry’s southern regional center said Tuesday.
A total of 75 people, including 57 children, have been taken to the hospital in the Russian republic in the Caucasus since an unknown illness hit the republic.
A Moscow medical commission issued a final diagnosis December 23, attributing the illness, which has mainly affected children and teenagers, to psycho-emotional stress.
Zurab Kikalidze, deputy head of the well-known Serbsky Institute of Forensic Psychiatry, told reporters that the people of the war-torn republic had been living under constant stress in recent years.
“Mostly children and teenagers, primarily girls, have been affected by the disease,” he said.
Kikalidze called for long-term measures to fight the illness.
“A plan for the psychological and social rehabilitation of the whole population needs to be drawn up,” he said.
I would not rule out that these kids have some environmental illness, and the noxious gas in the MAXIDOM stores was some kind of retaliation. The affected children are not just ethnic Russians; they are Chechens. Look at the picture. These are ethnic Chechens, too.
Ethyl glycol, a chemical in antifreeze, seen as culprit by local doctors.
Link
Doctors Blame Chemicals for Mysterious Chechnya Illness
Created: 23.12.2005 17:21 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 18:29 MSK
MosNews
Russian doctors have blamed a chemical found in antifreeze for a mystery disease that has hit dozens of Chechen children, but it remained unclear how they had become affected, Reuters reported.
Children have been ill all week in Chechnya with symptoms including hysteria, panic, shortness of breath, vomiting and diarrhea — prompting speculation that they could have been targeted by chemical weapons.
But Muminat Khadzhayeva, a doctor in the neighboring region of Dagestan, blamed ethyl glycol — a chemical that prevents water freezing and is a major cause of poisoning in people and animals.
“One of the most likely ways that they ingested it is through the water,†said another doctor in the Dagestani capital Makhachkala who wished to remain anonymous.
The doctor, who was part of a team that tested blood samples from five affected girls, said northern Chechnya relied on wells for its water, and the poisoning might have sprung from polluted ground water.
Meanwhile, a commission of doctors from the Moscow Serbsky Institute of Forensic Medicine said the cause of disease’s spreading was an effect of psychological infection. Their theory, thus, proves the Thursday report that the disease was a reaction to media reports.
Experts had also suggested the disease could be caused by stress brought on by Chechnya’s 11-year war, and President Vladimir Putin ordered extra help for the children. Some 85 people, mostly children, were in hospital in Chechnya on Friday.
But Chechnya’s rebels, who accuse Russia of trying to wipe out their nation through the war in the mountainous region, demanded an international investigation into the incident to probe if the children were poisoned.
“The Russian leadership is conducting a whole program of medical and ecological elements aimed at reducing the population,†said Umar Khambiyev, health minister in the Chechen rebel government, in comments on a rebel Web site kavkazcenter.com.
Chechens have suffered a health crisis during the war, which has destroyed the infrastructure and economy of the once-wealthy region. Child mortality is around double the Russian average, and poverty-related diseases are widespread.
Chechnya’s newly elected parliament debated the issue on Friday.
Said Yakhikhadzhiyev, head of its health committee, said an independent probe was necessary to make sure people did not see the investigation as a whitewash. But other deputies were already prepared to blame the army.
“In the last 15 years Chechnya has been a testing ground for all kinds of weapons, and what is happening now is a result of the military’s constant work,†said deputy Lechi Umchayev.
Chechnya’s top doctor blames the media for this illness.
LINK
Chechen Doctor Says Mystery Illness Neurotic Reaction to Media Reports
Created: 22.12.2005 16:07 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:07 MSK
MosNews
Chechnya’s head doctor said a mysterious illness that has affected at least 70 people, most of them schoolchildren, was pseudo-asthmatic syndrome was a reaction to media reports, RIA Novosti reported.
“When the media stop supercharging the problem, I believe, the situation will change for the better,†Musa Dalsayev said.
Like the top Chechen prosecutor Valery Kuznetsov, the doctor dismissed the possibility that the illness was caused by chemical and toxic poisoning.
Dozens of school-age children from four towns in Chechnya’s northeastern Shelkovsky region have been hospitalized, most within the past few days. The afflicted, who have also included teachers and school workers, have reported breathing trouble and headaches. Schools in the area were closed until further notice.
I don’t know if there has ever been a case of mass “pseudo-asthmatic syndrome” in other war-torn countries.
During communism, the head doctors at the Serbsky Institute invented a mental illness called “sluggish schizophrenia” which they diagnosed in dissidents. This was really the KGB doing this. There is no such illness. Only Soviet dissidents got it.
It is possible that the diagnosis of “mass pseudo-asthmatic syndrome” is also a medical cover-up.
I don’t know if the Serbsky Institute still collaborates with the state security in disinformation operations or not, but they used to. Bigtime. If they were to give their honest opinion to the state security, that would be different than being part of a cover-up.
The Serbsky has commented on this illness and have said the illness is psychogenic.
Since the medical tests are due back December 26, their diagnosis seems a little premature.
I am sure that Chechens need better mental health services, but I wonder if the children are really sick from some toxin and the psychiatric diagnosis is just a whitewash.
Now the media is being “quarantined” to stop the spread of this “news-induced” illness. Possibly people will continue to get sick, but there will be a blackout about this. Also, if the news was causing symptoms, why are so many children and teenagers getting sick. Do children and teenage girls between 12-15 read the news?
LINK
Chechen Authorities Impose Restrictions on Covering Mysterious Disease by Media
Created: 24.12.2005 17:28 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:28 MSK
MosNews
Chechen authorities are going to impose restrictions on media coverage of a mysterious disease affecting dozens of people after doctors said it was a reaction to media reports, RIA Novosti reported.
“A replication of this theme in mass media has been gives rise to a number of the sick, and so we decided to restrict its media coverage,†Akhmed Dzheirkhanov, deputy head of the local branch of the Emergencies Ministry, said.
Several versions of the disease origin have been already adduced by different doctors. Muminat Khadzhayeva, a doctor in the neighboring region of Dagestan, blamed ethyl glycol — a chemical that prevents water freezing and is a major cause of poisoning in people and animals. A commission of doctors from the Moscow Serbsky Institute of Forensic Medicine said the cause of disease’s spreading was an effect of psychological infection. Experts had also suggested the disease could be caused by stress brought on by Chechnya’s 11-year war.
Children have been ill all week in Chechnya with symptoms including hysteria, panic, shortness of breath, vomiting and diarrhea.
A schoolgirl was taken to a local hospital early on Saturday, as well as a female school worker. 90 people have shown similar symptoms in the district over the past several days. But 12 people have been discharged from hospitals after their health status improved, Akhmed Dzheirkhanov said.
Snapple,
I just wanted to let you know I am not ignoring you. But you are doing such a bang up job of collecting and posting information I decided to stay out of your way! One hint though: you should not post a complete article.
Cheers, AJStrata
I think that the local doctors who think it is ethyl glycol (a component in antifreeze) that is causing this are probably right. It is sweet, and people sometimes drink it. It could be from water, or kids may be drinking it. The majority of the cases are young teenagers–girls. “Most ethylene glycol poisonings result from suicide attempts, accidental ingestion, or improper substitution for alcohol owing to its inebriating effects.” http://www.postgradmed.com/issues/1999/10_01_99/chazal.htm
The Chechen kids may be drinking it. In the US, Native Americans have the highest rate of ethanol poisoning.
See also:
http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic177.htm
SNIP
Ethylene glycol tastes sweet, which is why some animals are attracted to it. Many veterinarians are familiar with ethylene glycol toxicity because of the frequent cases that involve dogs or cats who drink radiator fluid.
Ethylene glycol is a relatively common cause of overdose in American emergency departments. In 2003, 5,081 cases were reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, including 468 moderate or major outcomes and 16 deaths. Rapid intervention often makes an important difference in the outcome of ethylene glycol toxicity.