Kazakh Village Struck by Utterly Bizarre Epidemic

For the past four years the people living in Kalachi, Kazakhstan, which has since been the dubbed “The Village of the Damned,” have endured a strange epidemic. It strikes indiscriminately, and causes the afflicted to fall into a coma for several days. When they wake up, they are faced with extreme fatigue and memory loss. While there have been numerous theories for this disease (for lack of a better word) it has so far defied all explanation.

As time goes on, more and more people are leaving the village, and even stranger stories of the illness are starting to emerge. Men who are exposed to it often wake up with uninhibited sexual urges (despite their exhaustion), and loss of bladder control. Others verbally lash out at the people around them, or physically assault their doctors and nurses. The most haunting stories are from children, who seem to be particularly susceptible to the illness. They’re often faced with frightening hallucinations of monsters and random objects floating around them.

While scientists suspects this may be caused by pollution from a nearby uranium mine, they’ve yet to find any proof. Meanwhile, the villagers have their own theories. Many suspect that they’re being used as guinea pigs for some kind of biological or chemical weapon. Others believe it may related to rumors of gold in the area, and that a mining company is poisoning them in the hopes that they’ll leave. Either way, there is no relief in sight for villagers of Kalachi.