Sleep Death Terrorising Asian Men
MANILA: It creeps into bedrooms in the dead of night and steals the souls of healthy young men in Asia.
Lai tay, or sleep death, killed more than 5,000 Thais between 1981 and 1997, researchers say.
In the Philippines it is called bangungot, literally nightmare.
Experts are divided on the cause, though they agree there is no foolproof way to prevent it.
Some doctors have drawn comparisons with crib deaths among infants in the West.
The Philippines does not keep records of cases, but the stealthy and mysterious killer otherwise known as “Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome” claimed a famous victim during the Easter holidays.
Rico Yan, a popular 27-year-old movie and television actor, died in his sleep at a western Philippines resort, breaking the hearts of millions of fans.
Tens of thousands lined his funeral route on Thursday.
“People who develop this syndrome are known to growl (in their sleep), and eventually they just die,” Philippine Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said.
It afflicts “healthy males, usually Filipinos of course, and Asians. But “nobody knows why it happens and how it happens,” he said.
The Thai Public Health Ministry is conducting research to pinpoint the real cause, while Dayrit said the Philippines Health Department plans to set up a registry to receive case reports and “maybe to get a piece of epidemiologic information.”
Somporn Triamchaisri, a researcher at the Faculty of Public Health of Thailand's Mahidol University said: “At the moment we suspect it comes from a genetic predisposition.”
The Aimne gene, which controls sleeping patterns, is believed to be at the root of the disease, she said.
Somporn said the disease occurs widely among Thais, Filipinos, and Laotians, but particularly among hill tribe minorities who have resettled overseas.
Asked about the cause of the syndrome, World Health Organisation regional director Shigeru Omi said here: “We don't know.”
After World War II, city officials here formed a committee to study the syndrome and autopsied all suspected victims, Dayrit said: “They found that 50% of people with this syndrome had acute pancreatitis.”
Anthropologist Michael Tan, who writes a medical column in the Philippine Inquirer newspaper, said that US Navy doctors had studied the phenomenon as early as the 1950s among sailors of Filipino origin.
They “suggested the deaths were due to pancreatitis resulting from the Filipino salty diets,” he said. — AFP
•Story originally published by:
The Star, Petaling Jaya / Malaysia - Apr 8.02
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