Sleep epidemic claiming more victims in Kalachi

According to the district sanitary and epidemiological service, January 9 two residents of the village Kalachi, born in 1968 and 1965, were hospitalized in Yesil district hospital with a diagnosis of the brain disorder 'encephalopathy of unknown origin'. NOTE: Numerous commissions from Kazakhstan Health Ministry, scientists from the research institute of radiation medicine and environment and Karaganda research center of labor hygiene and occupational diseases, other experts, in spite of all-out research fail to establish the cause of the illness. Experts ruled out infectious and bacteriological backgrounds and reassured that radiation levels in the village are normal. According to them, maximum allowable concentrations of salts and heavy metals do not exceed the limits either. The village of Kalachi with the population of 680 people is 600 meters away from the settlement of Krasnogorsk, where 6,500 people, predominantly miners, used to live. These days there are only 130 residents there. The settlement was part of the Soviet-era mining sector and uranium ores were produced nearby in the period of 1960-1990. Uranium production was stopped in 1991-1992 following the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the mines were shut down.