Days of Our Lives - Mon., June 5, 2017

Pigs were flying loops over the roof of Mayor Abe's City Hall today: 1) Kate seemed to be expressing genuine concern for someone other than herself and 2) Jenny actually made sense for once. Actually, Jenny might have cut to the chase and stressed to the former Ms. Perfect that perhaps marrying somebody who'd be shot on sight by a drug cartel might not be the best marriage choice. Of course, nothing about slimy Dario's story makes any sense. Frankly, it's hard to believe that he couldn't go to work as a gigolo in Cancun or Cabo San Lucas without attracting the attention of anyone other than lovelorn women tourists. Meanwhile, back on Demon Goat Island, things were looking more like the early scenes of Night of the Living Dead. Here, instead of zombies, the writers could drum up interest in this wretched mess of a plot by asking in a spoiler, "Who will be the next to catch jungle madness?!" Finally, when did Mr. Shin and the DiMera board get so cheeky? It seems that they'd never want to cross Andre lest he bury them alive.
 
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Kate's comment about Chad being "like a son" to her was laughable. Since When? and WHY? Oh, she was married to Stefano for one brief moment in time, in between her sex liaisons with all and any of the men in Salem, but nothing that would give her a chance to bond in the slightest with Chad. Just because she knew Chad's mother whilst they both were hookers was nothing. Doubt she even knew Stefano was Chad's father. So, in my opinion, the lady doth protests too much, how Chad is like a son. But admittedly, she interferes with his love life, just as she did with her other children. :)
 
Being that Kate was married to Stefano is that why she feels like Chad's step-mother. If that is the case wouldn't that make her Andre's step-mother also and now wants to marry him? LOL
 
So I got curious and wanted to see if there was such a thing as "Jungle Madness" in the real world. Turns out there is. It's a bit different from the Jungle Madness depicted here, but has some similarities as well. Below is the article in it's entirety, if you want to read it.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/dec/17/1

Rupert Widdicombe

Tuesday 16 December 2003 21.39 EST

Nicaragua village in grip of madness

Doctors and traditional healers reach remote jungle community where 60 people are suffering from mysterious collective mania


A team of doctors, psychiatrists, and anthropologists have reached a remote Miskito community in the jungles of northern Nicaragua where 60 people are suffering from a mysterious "collective madness".

The outbreak of the malady, known as grisi siknis in the local Miskut language, began in the Raiti community near the Honduran border a month ago. Seven cases were reported in neighbouring Namahka last week, where one 15-year-old girl is said to have died.

Other cases have appeared in three other nearby communities.

In all cases, the patients have the same symptoms: long periods of coma-like unconsciousness, interrupted by sudden bouts of frenzied behaviour.

During the attacks, sufferers attempt to flee their communities with their eyes closed, seizing any weapon they can find with which they appear to try to defend themselves against invisible attackers.

According to local press reports, they have extraordinary strength and often four people are required to restrain them.

Community leaders in Raiti claim the outbreak of grisi siknis is the result of a curse. In Namahka, the seven affected are all girls aged 14 to 18. Unconfirmed reports say the girl who died was Isabel Wislop. She fled across the Coco river into Honduras, reaching the village of Panzap where she died.

The Nicaraguan government sent a medical team to Raiti including anthropologists and traditional healers.

The Nicaraguan health minister, José Antonio Alvarado, said the Miskito healers sent to Raiti were getting better results than those trained in western medicine.

"If [the affected] are given anti-convulsive drugs or anti-depressants there is no improvement, but if they are given remedies by the healer they feel better," he said.

The medical team has taken samples of water from local wells and recommended that people only drink coconut juice until they have tested the supply.

Mr Alvarado said a medical report carried out in the late 1950s after a similar outbreak concluded that deliberate contamination of wells was one possible cause. "There are citizens that put hallucinogenic substances in the well water that when combined with the anthropological aspects [of the disease] can exacerbate people's behaviour."

The medical team is being led by Florence Levy, the region's health director.

She said there was no indication that a virus was responsible, but many different tests were being carried out.

Dr Levy confirmed that the Miskito healers were leading the fight to bring the outbreak under control.

"There's not much our doctors can do; we are giving support to the healers as they know the problem better than us," she said.

"The population doesn't make use of [the Nicaraguan health service], because the illness is more spiritual than physical, so they turn to the healer for the spiritual part."

The last major outbreak of grisi siknis began in 1910 and affected dozens of Miskito communities throughout the region for 20 years.

It is estimated that some 25,000 people live in the Miskito communities on the banks or the Coco river.

Three years ago about 80 people were affected in the community of Krin Krin. Many were successfully treated by a healer, Carlos Salomon Taylor, who is part of the team now working in Raiti.

Mr Taylor is said to have demanded - and received - more than $700 from the health ministry for his services. He claims that his treatment, which involves local plants and ancestral rituals, cures most sufferers in 15 to 30 days.

Mr Taylor is one of five healers sent to Raiti, where 25 of the 60 sufferers are said to be responding well to treatment.

Grisi siknis has been the subject of anthropological studies and is defined as a culture-specific malady found only in the Miskito culture, although with many similarities to pibloktoq, or "arctic hysteria", found in indigenous peoples of Greenland.

"Western health care people have often been sceptical of these attacks, labelling them 'mass hysteria', or simply 'those crazy-acting Miskito people'," said Professor Phil Dennis, an anthropologist at Texas Tech University who spent two years studying the phenomenon in the late 1970s. He says the attacks are very serious to those experiencing them and their families, and often to entire Miskito communities. He witnessed four attacks during his research and said the patients were "clearly in another state of reality".

According to Prof Dennis, grisi siknis is a "culture-bound syndrome" unique to the Miskito, comparable to anorexia nervosa which is known only in the affluent west. "The culture-bound syndromes force us to realize that health and disease are not simple biological matters, but a complex interweaving of various aspects of being human. Grisi siknis is a very serious health problem for Miskito people."
 
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