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mass hysteria refers to collective delusions of threats to society that spread rapidly
through rumors and fear, now that you know the definition of it
the video will be easier to understand, welcome to 5 bizarre cases of mass hysteria.
Tanganyika laughter epidemic This outbreak happened in 1962 in a small
village near the border of uganda in africa, it began on january 30th, three school girls
began to laugh uncontrollably, this began to start rapidly spreading throughout
the school, it ended up effect 95 out of the 159 pupils they were aged 12-18.
most symptoms lasted from a few hours but in some students it lasted for up to 16 days,
could you just imagine laughing non stop for 16 days?
The teachers were not affected by the epidemic, as they was unsure to what was causing it
they was forced to close the school in march of 1962.
once the school closed the laughter spread throughout the village and ended up making
its way to another village close by, within april and may 217 people
had laughing attacks in the village, most of them where school children and young adults.
The school reopened on may 21st but closed again in june as people
where still suffering from the laughter, during june the laughter spread once again this time
it was to another school, it affected 48 girls. the epidemic lasted 6 to 18 months then it
died off, the symptoms of the laughter epidemic were laughing fits, pain, fainting, respiratory
problems, rashes attacks of crying and random screaming. In
total 14 schools were shut down and 1000 people were affected.
An investigation was set out but no possible cause was found for the laughter relating
to conditions in the area such as air pollution and gas.
It was ruled out as a case of mass hysteria.
1983 West Bank fainting epidemic This occurred in late march and early april
of 1983 in a palestinian town called arraba. It first started in a school, a female student
ran to a window, she was coughing and complained of breathing difficulties, within hours six
other students complained of the same symptoms, panic soon spread throughout the school and
many other students began to complain of the symptoms
some students also vomited and complained they had blurred vision and many students
fainted. students where take to hospitals close to
the school, the female Israeli soldiers who escorted the girls also complained of the
symptoms. within the school 32 girls were effected,
over the next two weeks the epidemic spread to other schools in close by towns, in total
943 people where hospitalized. the Israeli military closed
schools that were affected for 20 days. later on during late march and early april
a second wave of the epidemic started, 367 people fell ill.
due to the Palestine and Israel conflict it was believed that the symptoms where caused
by a chemical warfare attack and many people where arrested
but after many tests no traces of chemicals where found.
On March 28, 1983 a newspaper claimed that Israeli military investigators had found traces
of nerve gas within the area, the newspaper also said they
suspected Palestinian militants were poisoning their own people in order to blame Israel
to provoke an attack, although this was never really backed
with any hard evidence. in the end, the epidemic was said to be a
case of mass hysteria caused by stress.
Louisiana Twitching Epidemic Of 1939 This happened during the spring in a school in
louisiana, the female students there began to randomly twicth uncontrollably and were
unable to stop. it all started when one female students leg
began to start twitching uncontrollably while at a school dance, after the next few weeks her
leg would continue to twitch at random times during the day, the twitch
once forced her to stop playing basketball as she was unable to stand, news soon spread
about her twitching and other students began to twitch, one students
chest and neck would twitch throughout the day. students began to have twitching attacks
and the parents started to get worried, they believed it may
have been some type of disease that was causing the twitching.
a few weeks later the twitching stopped, investigators studied the case and concluded that the girls
where attention seeking and ruled it as a case of
mass hysteria.
Mumbai Sweet Water Incident This incident occurred in 2006, it was a strange
phenomenon in which residents of mumbai, india claimed that the seawater of mahim creek had
suddenly turned sweet, within hours residents of a near by
beach also claimed the water had turned sweet. this caused mass hysteria among people and
they started coming in large numbers to drink the sea water.
The water is heavily polluted with sewage, this caused a fear within local authorities
as they thought there may be a severe outbreak of a water-borne disease.
So yeah, they was drinking sewage water and believed it tasted sweet.
the pollution control board warned people not to drink the water but despite this many
people went to collected it in bottles. the phenomenon only lasted 18 hours, after
this people said it tasted salty again, its unsure whether it actually tasted sweet or
people where just deluded. there have been theories to what caused it
to taste sweet they have ranged from rainfall to currents of the sea but in the end it
was ruled as a case of mass hysteria.
Dancing Plague of 1518 This was a case of dancing mania that took
place in strasbourg france in july 1518, around 400 people danced for days without rest the
epidemic lasted for about a month and some people died of
heart attacks, strokes and exhaustion from the non stop dancing.
the outbreak began in july 1518, a woman by the name of mrs troffea began to start dancing
in a street in strasbourg this lasted somewhere between
four to six days, within a week 34 others had joined her and within a month there were
around 400 dancers, most of them eventually died from exhaustion,
historical documents found in strasbourg mention the dancing but its still unsure to why they
danced, there have be possible theories to what caused
it one possible explanation is a spider bite, when bitten by a wolf spider the symptoms
of dancing mania occur, although it is very unlikely that it
was a spider bite as it effected a large amount of people, it was ruled as mass hysteria.
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