- Hello, Jeff - It would seem that, even after the last
news report from Chechnya claiming that the illness was caused by 'nerve
gas,' the mystery has not been solved.
-
- Chechnyan authorities now want news reports regarding
the unknown illness to cease due to the fact that they claim to believe
it is all psychogenic in nature. Such a claim, of course, is a good way
to gag the press and cover up an outbreak. When all else fails, blame
the press and keep the truth hidden.
-
- There have been several reports about this 'disease.'
However, so far, there is no information on what lab tests were completed
or results of those tests.
-
- Patricia Doyle
-
- From ProMed Mail
-
- [1] Source: Interfax 1
2-24-5
-
- Symptoms of an undiagnosed disease that has affected
dozens of people, mainly children, in Chechnya's Shelkovskaya district
have been recorded in 2 more communities in the same district.
-
- A schoolgirl was taken to Shelkovskaya district hospital
from Privolnoye early on Saturday, and a female worker from school No.
1 in the village of Chervlyonnaya was also reported to be sick, the Shelkovskaya
district hospital told Interfax on Saturday.
-
- 90 people have shown similar symptoms in the district
over the past several days. 7 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.
-
- "Journalists are to blame for everything as they
are showing patients on TV," Musa Dalsayev, an associate professor
from the medical department of the Chechen State University said at a government
commission session on Friday evening.
-
- "On seeing the sick children on TV, viewers develop
similar symptoms," Dalsayev said. "Don't mess around here, let
us professionals work and the problem will be resolved within a week,"
he said addressing journalists.
-
- The spread of the disease has been a source of increasing
concern for the Chechen population, despite active efforts taken by the
government commission to explain the possible reasons behind the disease
to locals.
-
- http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11440803
-
- [2]
-
- From Itar-tass
12-23-5
-
- An outbreak of disease among Chechen children in the
republic's Shelkovskoi district is of psychogenic nature, first deputy
director of the Zashchita /Protection/ all-Russia disaster medicine center
Ivan Sakhno told Itar-Tass.
-
- "There's no evidence to confirm that the affliction
was caused by poison gas; it's a purely psychological reaction, foremost
explained by hardships over the past few years, and is typical for women.
It's a psychological breakdown confirmed clinically; as fits stop after
sedative therapy," Sakhno said.
-
- He noted that convalescing and preventive measures against
the recurrence of such cases require a complex therapy, foremost rest.
-
- At present, authorities are discussing the arrangements
to send children to health centers during the winter holidays.
-
- The most important thing now is to calm the people, and
explain the situation at Chechen schools, Sakhno said.
-
- Meanwhile, the tests carried out by Dagestani medics
found ethylene glycol in the blood of 5 patients, which they said might
have caused the disease. But a conference of Moscow doctors and army medics
in Chechnya said these conclusions were erroneous.
-
- "The results of analyses carried out in Dagestan
found ethylene glycol, but it could not possibly cause the affliction from
which the children are suffering," chief doctor of Chechnya's children
hospital Sultan Alimkhadzhiyev told Itar-Tass on Friday.
-
- "It can be found in juices or other beverages as
a dye component, but in this case it does not cause such side effects,"
he added.
-
- Latest reports said the strange illness had sickened
83 people in Chechnya. 22 of them were rushed to the children's hospital.
-
- Experts announced a preliminary diagnosis: pseudoasthmatic
syndrome of psychogenic nature.
-
- The first cases of the disease with strange symptoms
were reported on October 24, when 8 pupils from the village of Staroshchedrinskaya
were taken to a district hospital.
-
- http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=2749429&PageNum=0
-
- A diagnosis of psychogenic illness requires that other
causes be
- excluded. ProMED awaits further information. - Mod.LM
-
- From Patricia Doyle, PhD
- 12-26-5
-
- Jeff - It surely would be convenient for various countries
with undiagnosed outbreaks to simply say that the outbreak is due to 'psychological'
factors and, for the sake of stopping the outbreak, all news coverage must
cease. That would be one way to coverup bioterroist events and lab accidents,
etc.
-
- Patricia Doyle
-
- http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/12/2C14BD
4F-EA94-4203-92A9-A637B00309AE.html
-
- http://www.einnews.com/russia/newsfeed-Chechnya
-
- http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/53069.html
-
-
- Chechnya's 'Nerve-Gas' Illness May Be Psychological
-
- Cameron Simpson
- 12-23-5
-
- An unidentified illness that has struck down more than
50 schoolchildren in Russia's conflict-torn republic of Chechnya appears
psychological in origin.
-
- At least 70 people, 53 of them children, became ill this
week with breathing trouble, headaches, irrational fear and panic attacks
in the north-eastern Shelkovskaya district and a town outside the capital
of Grozny. The outbreak is the third this winter. Earlier this week, some
officials said the symptoms could indicate a form of nerve-gas poisoning.
-
- Rebels who have been fighting federal forces in Chechnya
for most of the past decade have committed terrorist attacks in Chechnya
and other parts of Russia, including the seizure of hostages in a school
in Beslan in 2004. The terrorists killed 331 people in the attack, more
than half of them children.
-
- However, Musa Delsayev, head of Chechnya's narcology
service, said preliminary analysis pointed to a psychological cause. He
added: "The picture we are observing does not point to any form of
illness whatsoever. When the media stops supercharging the problem, I believe,
the situation will change for the better."
-
- Valery Kuznetsov, the Chechen prosecutor, said the mystery
mass illness could be a response to years of trauma.
-
- "There is no toxic poisoning. The air and water
are clean. Causes linked to psychogenic factors are coming to the fore."
-
- Most of the people affected were females. Kuznetsov added:
"It is women and girls who are more vulnerable to emotional effects."
-
- Blood samples have been sent to a laboratory to help
determine the exact causes of the illness. A group of doctors from Moscow
is expected to arrive in Chechnya today to help establish the cause of
the illness and provide treatment.
-
- Sergei Kozhemyaka, an official in the emergency situations
ministry, said the schools affected would remain closed until further notice.
-
- Huseyn Nutayev, head of the Shelkovskaya administrative
district, told Russia's Interfax news agency it was the third such bout
of illnesses in recent years and that, in the previous two cases, doctors
had not determined the cause of the ailment.
-
- Chechnya's healthcare system has been left threadbare
amid the destruction of the economy and infrastructure in two wars over
the past 11 years between Chechen independence fighters and Russia's armed
forces.
-
- President Vladimir Putin said in Moscow that any requests
for additional help would be met. "We will do everything from our
side. We will send extra personnel, we will send (the patients) to other
Russian cities," he said on state-owned television. "We must
understand the reasons for what happened more quickly."
-
- As many as 100,000 civilians and between 10,000 and 20,000
Russian soldiers are estimated to have died in Chechnya's two wars. The
pre-war population was approximately one million.
-
- As investigations continued, it was revealed the Russian
interior ministry was planning to form two special battalions of anti-terrorism
experts in Chechnya. Colonel General Nikolai Rogozhkin, commander of the
Interior Troops, said: "We are planning to enlist Chechen natives,
experts from the anti-terrorism centre. These battalions, called North
and South, will be deployed in the Grozny and Vedensky districts of Chechnya."
-
- At the same time, the general said the overall Interior
Troops contingent in Chechnya could be reduced in 2006. "Depending
on the tasks set for the spring-summer period of next year, the contingent
could be reduced. The task volume will be determined by the regional headquarters."
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, DVM, PhD- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural
Economics
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
-
- http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
- Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
-
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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