Villagers in southern Peru were struck by a mysterious illness

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by Granden

LIMA (AFP) - Villagers in southern Peru were struck by a mysterious illness after a meteorite made a fiery crash to Earth in their area, regional authorities said Monday.

Around midday Saturday, villagers were startled by an explosion and a fireball that many were convinced was an airplane crashing near their remote village, located in the high Andes department of Puno in the Desaguadero region, near the border with Bolivia.

Residents complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a "strange odor," local health department official Jorge Lopez told Peruvian radio RPP.

Seven policemen who went to check on the reports also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized, Lopez said.

Rescue teams and experts were dispatched to the scene, where the meteorite left a 100-foot-wide (30-meter-wide) and 20-foot-deep (six-meter-deep) crater, said local official Marco Limache.

"Boiling water started coming out of the crater and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby. Residents are very concerned," he said.



Strange indeed, if it is a new disease from a far away region of space our immune systems would not handel it, and it sounds contagious. Perhaps we'll all be wiped out. Horray!

I just hope its not a airborn dissease or something, it can spread very fast and who knows what willl happen, wonder what the people down in peru are doin about it.

Regards.

[Boger]

Originally Posted by Granden

"Boiling water

Originally Posted by jpicon

wonder what the people down in peru are doin about it.

TEA! or Nudles

[ArcticWolf]

Originally Posted by Boger

TEA! or Nudles

"I wouldn't drink that if I were you"

[Granden]

It would be airborne, as many of the villagers did not actually check out the crash site, yet seemed to get very very ill. So unless they all had a big orgie after one idiot drank the boiling water in the crater.... Its airborne...

Because other wise the rest of the village wouldn't catch the illness.

[Ale_1987]

Originally Posted by Boger

TEA! or Nudles

maybe ramen

[ArcticWolf]

Originally Posted by Granden

It would be airborne, as many of the villagers did not actually check out the crash site, yet seemed to get very very ill. So unless they all had a big orgie after one idiot drank the boiling water in the crater.... Its airborne...

Because other wise the rest of the village wouldn't catch the illness.

Maybe, but take a look at how a virus or any other disease is carried between humans and the infection process. First, it has to be dna-based, so it requires the same structure as the cells it's going to infect. If any outer-space disease is dna-based it would be the greatest discovery of mankind: life would have been originated outside earth, in the same place as this disease was.

Second: human dna is complex... Indeed, it's so complex that just a little percentage of the viruses can infect us (considering the enormous amount of viruses on nature). Yet our immunological system can't fight any virus really quick, so that's the reason why flu and other diseases are hard to fight. The only thing you can do is to ease the pain and lower the body temperature until the antibodies finish their work. If any outer-space disease could cheat this... We're doomed. Period.

So... If it really is an outer-space disease the only reasonable thing we can do is to put the area in quarantine, send some tissue and blood for a deeper analysis to a type 3 facility (that's a special lab) and wait for the results. Meanwhile people will die (I hope quickly so it's not so painful) as it happened with that avian flu in 2006.

Anyway, it looks like some kind of intoxication by any substance heavier than the air (that's why the odor remains, as it is heavier than the air the gases remain on the zone), and probably radioactive (I guess, it's the only thing that would make water boil on a meteor crash).

It looks more like a chemical bomb than a meteor :P

[Froste]

And with all the tons of junk orbiting earth, maybe some secret weapon left over from the cold war finally lost orbit.

[Ale_1987]

Originally Posted by Xephandor

It looks more like a chemical bomb than a meteor :P

i'm sure it's some kind of secret weapon, or maybe it's all a big lie

[Boger]

Like teh World Trade Center ;]

[Granden]

Originally Posted by Xephandor

It looks more like a chemical bomb than a meteor :P

Its very possible... villagers thoughts it was a downed aircraft so it is very likely that it was a machine or something, perhaps something more. I doubt the authorities are releasing the whole story.