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Young World
Strange sleeping sickness
VISALAKSHI RAMANI
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An illness that transforms the patient into a `non-existent person'!
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JUST A NAP? Or is it an illness?
The survivors of one of the
strangest epidemics of the
modern world were reduced
to mere frozen figures,
human statues made of stone,
looking bizarre and weird. These
men were the victims of a
strange sleeping sickness called
"Encephalitis Lethargia"
This disease appeared in Europe
suddenly in 1915 and had
spread throughout the world by
1918.
This strange disease took so
many different forms that the
doctors were completely baf?ed
and bewildered. They thought
that dozens of new diseases were
unleashed at the same time.It
had affected five million people.
Epidemic
One out of three affected persons
died a miserable death
soon. Some others fell into a coma,
from which they never came
out. Those who had survivied
had their personalities cruelly
altered. The mild mannered and
obedient children became impulsive,
provocative and
destructive.
Yet others were transformed
to "non-existing persons' like
ghosts and were as passive as
zombies.
This viral epidemic is associated
with some forms of in?uenza.
The main symptoms were
double-vision and extreme muscular
weakness. The other predominant
traits were apathy in
which a person lacked emotions
and feelings. He showed a total
lack of interest in what normal
persons found exciting, interesting
and moving. He showed no
response to any stimulation.
This viral epidemic spread
throught the bites of the tsetse
fly - belonging to the blood
sucking African flies of the genus Glossina. The bite of the ?y
transmitted pathogenic trypanosomes
to human beings and
livestock.
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