Mass hysteria breaks out in central America

Mass hysteria breaks out in central America

www.newscientist.com

A total of 43 indigenous people in northern Nicaragua have fallen ill with grisi siknis (Crazy Sickness)

(visit the link for the full news article)

Any theories out there in ATS to explain something like this? The first thing I can come up with is something all three villages have in common, the river Coco. Bacterial breakout in the river could possibly have this affect on people couldn't it? Viral? Not my area of expertise, how about you?

www.newscientist.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Well the article states that demonic possession and pollution have been excluded from the possibilities.

It goes on to point out that stresses could in fact be the main culprit, however interestingly it also calls for no media coverage and for communities affected reduce the fear factor which could possibly complicate the problem. That from past reports this usually goes away in a couple of weeks... very wierd report.

A local outbreak that, which is not airborne, is likely a food or water contamination. As a result, I'm going to say bacteria. They should be alright with proper medical care, and hopefully some help with water purification.

The report struck me as strange as well. Demonic possesion being ruled out? Guess I didn't know it was a legitimate diagnosis for large numbers of craziness syndrome. The second group sounds like the makings of a good zombie movie as well. This dissociative psychosis kind of raised my hair a little.
I wonder if somebody experimenting with a new drug of some sort?

There are (at a guess) between 100-300 MILLION people in Central America. Considering those numbers, how is 43 a "mass" ANYTHING?

I took it as three isolated villages in proximity to eachother. How many people live in these villages is the question in relation to the 43 infected. I hear you though, not exactly "Mass" numbers. Still strange.

I imagine they were all sitting around talking about the end of the world and they flipped out. If they only had ATS to condition themselves they would have been fine talking about these events.

www.aafp.org...

Mass Psychogenic Illness is a legitimate concern for groups of people facing dire circumstances. I can see this illness being right around the corner for many cities in the U.S. right now.

If Tuk Tuk the Witchdoctor is stressed about his portfolio, I guess I should be too.

Originally posted by The Undertaker

Mass hysteria breaks out in central America

43 indigenous people in northern Nicaragua have fallen ill with grisi siknis

They finally read the fine print about 2012 and found it means them to

Seriously it's some sort of viral outbreak me thinks.

Originally posted by antar
Well the article states that demonic possession.....has been ruled out.

Really? I wonder how you rule out a demonic possession? I must have slept through that class in nursing school.

[edit on 12-3-2009 by whitewave]

reply to post by whitewave


I was hoping someone would catch that one...

Does anyone here watch Living with the Machigenga (sp)? Two guys live and learn from primitive tribes. Anyhow, last week they had an episode where one of the guys didn't kill a snake, and it caused a huge problem because the Machigenga kill all snakes because they could be poisonous. Anyhow, since they didn't kill it, they say it will bring a demon or bad spirit to the village. Once this happened, a man from another village came and after it was told to him, he mentioned hearing a demon the night before. Now, I would guess that one person travels back and forth to each village witht news, so what if this happened in this case? Some tradition that was broken where they think will bring a demon, and that gets spread to a few villages. I could see a hysteria spreading like that.

A very strange condition, however I can see how hysteria could spread quickly amognst these people, the above post is a good explaination why, with rituals and religion of these people it is highly possible.

I imagine the line about demons being ruled out reflects the belief of the people involved about the origin of the illness (funny how that article doesn't bother to make any mention of what they think).

I'm pretty sure there is no accepted laboratory test for demonic possession

If we need a Western medicine-accepted explanation, I wonder if there might be some sort of fungus that affects corn or beans in the way that ergot grows on rye?

edit: another thing that seems far-fetched but possible would be methanol poisoning from homemade liquor:

The initial symptoms of methanol intoxication are those of central nervous system depression: headache, dizziness, nausea, lack of coordination, confusion, drowsiness, and with sufficiently large doses, unconsciousness and death. The initial symptoms of methanol exposure are usually less severe than the symptoms resulting from the ingestion of a similar quantity of ethanol.

Wikipedia

Although it seems odd that this wouldn't be ruled out before the incident was reported in the international press; it's not exactly an unknown syndrome.

[edit on 3/13/2009 by americandingbat]

reply to post by americandingbat

erm we cant talk about that anymore!!
if I was a doctor I would diagnose everything as being demon-possessed, would make things more interesting

You'll notice from the original source that those villagers are physically man handling a victim of a previous outbreak in 2003. This doesn't seem to be a passive incoherent type symptom. This is a physical possibly violent reaction to this outbreak. Rabies?

An outbreak of bovine anthrax was noted on 28 Feb 2009 in a cattle ranch in the Partido municipality of Benito Juarez in the province of Buenos Aires. The herd consists of 150 Aberdeen Angus cattle, none of which had been vaccinated. 3 head died suddenly and Bacillus anthracis was isolated from a metatarsal bone marrow. No estancia farm hands were involved in handling the carcass. The rainfall in the central region of the province has been the lowest in the past 47 years. The lack of rain and high temperatures appear to have reduced the number of anthrax outbreaks in the summer of 2008-2009. The months of January-February 2009 were climatically identical (hot & dry) and the cattle are thin and generally in very poor condition.)

Maybe tribal elections are coming up soon ?

or maybe its a dry run test of project blue beam. Just a thought. It is very wierd when multiple people simultaniously experiance any sort of dimensia, or hallucinations.