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Mass hysteria' is 'Mass Sociogenic' or 'Mass Psychogenic' Disease


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As reported in CNA : Mass hysteria' closes Bangladeshi schools

Posted: 10 July 2008 1415 hrs

 

DHAKA- A mystery illness health experts are describing as a type of "mass hysteria" has struck students at four schools in Bangladesh in the past week, forcing them to close temporarily.

 

The condition appears highly contagious -- as soon as one student becomes ill, others are immediately struck with similar symptoms, usually headaches, acute pain and even fainting, officials say.

 

Most of the victims are teenage girls, said Salahuddin Khan, chief medical officer of Jessore district, where the affected schools are.

 

"It's a peculiar disease. I've never seen anything like it," he told AFP.

 

"It started after a girl fainted at a school. Soon enough dozens of her friends complained of acute headaches, restlessness and body pains. They were all affected within minutes."

 

Speculation among local media about the origin of the baffling illness has been rife, with a top army doctor even telling state-owned broadcaster BTV that it was caused by poisonous gas "sabotage" against the impoverished country.

 

"So far, 81 students at three schools and a madrassa (religious school) have been struck by the ailment," said Khan.

 

"More than half of them fell unconscious and had to be hospitalised. We haveshut down the schools and the madrassa temporarily."

 

He said a team from the country's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) visited the students and took blood samples.

 

The chief medical officer of central Narsingdi district said his region had also been hit.

 

Birendranath Sinha said 11 girls became ill on Monday after hearing one of their fellow students had died suddenly.

 

"There is no proper explanation for the disease. It's something mass psychogenic," he said, adding that hundreds of students also fell ill in schools in the district last year.

 

Work was also temporarily suspended at a garment factory in the southeastern port city of Chittagong last month after 700 workers complained of similar symptoms.

 

"It started after a worker said she saw a ghost-like object and within minutes the whole factory was in the grip of mass hysteria --workers were falling unconscious, complaining of headaches, muscle twisting and breathlessness," said Mostaq Hossain, an expert who is spearheading IEDCR's research into the phenomenon.

 

The phenomenon is not new -- according to IEDCR statistics, about 2,000 pupils in Bangladesh have been affected by "mass hysteria" since it was first reported here in August 2005.

 

Last year, the government called an urgent summit involving all regional health officials to discuss the condition.Health officials are calling for calm, saying there is no reason to be alarmed.

 

"We have identified it as 'mass sociogenic' disease. It is nothing but mass hysteria," Hossain said.

 

"Mostly teenage girls who are physically and mentally vulnerable are being affected by the disease. We've told health officials across the country not to panic. Schools have been told to improve the conditions for girls."

 

Hossain said the phenomenon was not a recognised psychiatric condition and generally affected groups, triggered by an unusual illness or shocking event experienced by one group member.

 

He also said there had been a snowball effect, with many girls who read about cases "feeling that they could be the victims of the same ailment."

 

He ruled out any poisonous gas theory. "It was also common among English girls during the nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution in Britain," he said. - AFP/vm

 

 

[sweatdrop][sweatdrop][sweatdrop]

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As reported in CNA : Mass hysteria' closes Bangladeshi schools

Posted: 10 July 2008 1415 hrs

 

DHAKA- A mystery illness health experts are describing as a type of "mass hysteria" has struck students at four schools in Bangladesh in the past week, forcing them to close temporarily.

 

The condition appears highly contagious -- as soon as one student becomes ill, others are immediately struck with similar symptoms, usually headaches, acute pain and even fainting, officials say.

 

Most of the victims are teenage girls, said Salahuddin Khan, chief medical officer of Jessore district, where the affected schools are.

 

"It's a peculiar disease. I've never seen anything like it," he told AFP.

 

"It started after a girl fainted at a school. Soon enough dozens of her friends complained of acute headaches, restlessness and body pains. They were all affected within minutes."

 

Speculation among local media about the origin of the baffling illness has been rife, with a top army doctor even telling state-owned broadcaster BTV that it was caused by poisonous gas "sabotage" against the impoverished country.

 

"So far, 81 students at three schools and a madrassa (religious school) have been struck by the ailment," said Khan.

 

"More than half of them fell unconscious and had to be hospitalised. We haveshut down the schools and the madrassa temporarily."

 

He said a team from the country's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) visited the students and took blood samples.

 

The chief medical officer of central Narsingdi district said his region had also been hit.

 

Birendranath Sinha said 11 girls became ill on Monday after hearing one of their fellow students had died suddenly.

 

"There is no proper explanation for the disease. It's something {C}{C}mass psychogenic{C}{C}," he said, adding that hundreds of students also fell ill in schools in the district last year.

 

Work was also temporarily suspended at a garment factory in the southeastern port city of Chittagong last month after 700 workers complained of similar symptoms.

 

"It started after a worker said she saw a ghost-like object and within minutes the whole factory was in the grip of mass hysteria --workers were falling unconscious, complaining of headaches, muscle twisting and breathlessness," said Mostaq Hossain, an expert who is spearheading IEDCR's research into the phenomenon.

 

The phenomenon is not new -- according to IEDCR statistics, about 2,000 pupils in Bangladesh have been affected by "mass hysteria" since it was first reported here in August 2005.

 

Last year, the government called an urgent summit involving all regional health officials to discuss the condition.Health officials are calling for calm, saying there is no reason to be alarmed.

 

"We have identified it as {C}{C}'mass sociogenic'{C}{C} disease. It is nothing but mass hysteria," Hossain said.

 

"Mostly teenage girls who are physically and mentally vulnerable are being affected by the disease. We've told health officials across the country not to panic. Schools have been told to improve the conditions for girls."

 

Hossain said the phenomenon was not a recognised psychiatric condition and generally affected groups, triggered by an unusual illness or shocking event experienced by one group member.

 

He also said there had been a snowball effect, with many girls who read about cases "feeling that they could be the victims of the same ailment."

 

He ruled out any poisonous gas theory. "It was also common among English girls during the nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution in Britain," he said. - AFP/vm

 

 

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sounds like jav plot :grin:

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How does it feel to revisit an old 8yr old thread started by you? [:p]

 

 

Wow...... eight years one case ... :XD:

 

Still better then "Once In Fifty Years" ..... :secret-laugh:

 

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Malaysia one is pontianak.

 

KOTA BARU (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - An incidence of "mass hysteria" has allegedly broken out at a secondary school in Kota Baru, capital of Malaysia's state of Kelantan, with more than 50 female students and even a few teachers affected by it.

A check at the school on Wednesday (April 13) showed that most of its students were not in their classes and freely mingling with each other on its grounds.

Some said they have been unable to attend classes since their schoolmates were struck by hysteria last Monday.


"It is like this every day, even female teachers were affected by hysteria and we are unable to study," said a Form Three student.

Another Form Five student said he was contemplating not going to school the next day.

 

"I think it is better to close the school until they find a solution," he said.

Some students have claimed to have seen all sorts of beings in the school, from a pontianak to a pochong.

Teachers and other school staff have declined to comment on the matter.

State Education Department deputy director Jaafar Ismail, when contacted, said the situation was a school internal matter.

 

Singapore:

 

Singapore too has been hit by such mass hysteria in the past. Woodsville Secondary School in Aljunied Road (which was merged with MacPherson Secondary School in 2004) was affected by the unexplainable phenomenon in April 1979.

48 students from the school went hysterical for three days. One student after another went into a frenzied trance-like state.

 

The newspaper reported that:

“While some cried, screamed, shivered and started eating the grass and empty glasses, others stared into empty space with open eyes while performing a Tai Chi type of dance movement called the Kuda Kepang, an ancient Malay wedding dance.

Some were restrained from their violent fits by the teachers. No one could communicate with them during their violent fits and trances.

Twenty-eight students gave 28 different descriptions of legless apparitions which appeared before them.”

Another newspaper reported that on 16 Jan 1991, 5 Secondary 3 students at Bedok Town Secondary went into hysteria.

And on 29 Sep 1999, a secondary 2 student’s fall from a flight of stairs in his school ended up causing 7 students to go into mass hysteria.

Singapore’e Ministry of Labour’s Industrial Health Division previously kept records of cases of mass hysteria. According to their records, the first case of mass hysteria happened in Singapore in 1973 and by the year 1980, it has investigated 12 such cases.

It is unknown if the Ministry of Manpower or the Ministry of Education have records of such outbreaks in recent years.

Mass hysteria in schools are not unique to Singapore and Malaysia. Cases of such unexplained mysteries have long been recorded in many other parts of the world as well.

 

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 started eating the grass and empty glasses

 

:blink: They all suddenly can do circus stunts...

Edited by Vratenza
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out of curiosity......what JAV genre has mass hysteria as part of the plot?

:grin:

Some of the switch series have them

Ownself google jav switch lah

Hehe

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania

 

Quite interesting.

 

But i won't dismiss pontianak so quickly lol  [laugh]

8115609815_a88353089a.jpg

Pocong

 

pontianak.jpg

pontianak

 

 

haha... for those who are not familiar with malay folklore

Remember Koro? We had that too. :D

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koro_(medicine)

 

I think these days .... Anti-Koro is more prevalent and innocuous...

 

Everyone seem to feel that their dick is bigger than the rest of the population....

 

:grin:

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1st time i hear of a pocong.

But scary shit. I'd rather not know such stuff.

 

 

Pocong

 

pontianak

 

 

haha... for those who are not familiar with malay folklore

 

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