Islamabad:
A strange affliction has hit two Pakistani villages with many women reporting ill after
hiccuping non-stop.
As many as 20 women started hiccuping mysteriously and four of them had to be hospitalized at the Civil Hospital in the Hyderabad region of southern Sindh province.
The women, who hail from two villages in Matiari district, are believed to be relatives.
Safia, 22, Aasia, 16, Fehmida, 22 and Aalam Khatoon, 25, have been hospitalized, but doctors have been unable to diagnose the illness affecting them.
Doctors have so far linked the problem to some underlying fears and bottled up emotions which were being vented by hiccuping.
A seven-member medical team has been sent to the villages from Hyderabad city.
Razzaq, a doctor of the state-run Civil Hospital in Hyderabad, told a TV news channel that a report would be submitted after the team examines the women.
Muhammad Rahim, a relative of one of the affected women, said villagers had informed the local medical officer about the mysterious hiccuping but no attention was paid to them.
Health official Hassan Murad Shah told Dawn newspaper that blood and urine samples of the women had been sent to a laboratory for tests.
He said that it may be a sort of emotional problem and not a mysterious disease because the irritation of nerves at times causes hiccups among people.
"Previously such cases were not reported to us though villagers claimed the problem has been going on since the last three years," he said.
hiccuping non-stop.
As many as 20 women started hiccuping mysteriously and four of them had to be hospitalized at the Civil Hospital in the Hyderabad region of southern Sindh province.
The women, who hail from two villages in Matiari district, are believed to be relatives.
Safia, 22, Aasia, 16, Fehmida, 22 and Aalam Khatoon, 25, have been hospitalized, but doctors have been unable to diagnose the illness affecting them.
Doctors have so far linked the problem to some underlying fears and bottled up emotions which were being vented by hiccuping.
A seven-member medical team has been sent to the villages from Hyderabad city.
Razzaq, a doctor of the state-run Civil Hospital in Hyderabad, told a TV news channel that a report would be submitted after the team examines the women.
Muhammad Rahim, a relative of one of the affected women, said villagers had informed the local medical officer about the mysterious hiccuping but no attention was paid to them.
Health official Hassan Murad Shah told Dawn newspaper that blood and urine samples of the women had been sent to a laboratory for tests.
He said that it may be a sort of emotional problem and not a mysterious disease because the irritation of nerves at times causes hiccups among people.
"Previously such cases were not reported to us though villagers claimed the problem has been going on since the last three years," he said.
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