From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 12/23/2005 11:54 PM The Scotsman Sat 24 Dec 2005 Mystery disease in Chechnya is blamed on anti-freeze MARGARET NEIGHBOUR
RUSSIAN doctors yesterday blamed a chemical found in anti-freeze for a mystery disease that has hit dozens of Chechen children.
Some 85 people, mostly children, are in hospitals in Chechnya with symptoms including hysteria, panic, shortness of breath, vomiting and diarrhoea - prompting Chechen rebels to claim they had been poisoned by Russian forces.
But doctors in the neighbouring region of Dagestan blamed ethyl glycol, a chemical that prevents water freezing and is a major cause of poisoning in people and animals.
"One of the most likely ways that they ingested it is through the water," one said.
The doctor, who was part of a team that tested blood samples from five affected girls, said northern Chechnya relied on wells for its water and the poisoning might have sprung from polluted groundwater.
Experts have also suggested the disease could be caused by stress brought on by Chechnya's 11-year war.
But Chechnya's rebels, who accuse Russia of trying to wipe out their nation through the war in the region, demanded an international investigation into whether the children were poisoned.
"The Russian leadership is conducting a whole programme of medical and ecological elements aimed at reducing the population," said Umar Khambiyev, health minister in the Chechen rebel government.
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