Peruvian meteorite illness is slowly disapearing by Nina Gotzmannova

The Earth got a new visitor. Quickly it came, put himself into soft piles of ground in Peru and began to cause troubles. The meteorite which has crashed on 15 September near Lake Titicaca in Peru made almost two hundred Peruvians sick with unknown disease. Teams of experts confirmed that it really is a meteorite, but they are not sure if the "spherical rock" is the reason of the weird illness. The villager living nearby the place where meteorite crashed smelled a sulfurous odor an hour after the crash and said it started headaches and upset stomachs. Other peasants reported they felt dizzy, nauseate, they vomit and have diarrhea. They believe the meteorite had caused the strange illness. The scientists are currently examining the 8 meter (26 foot) deep, 20 meter (65 foot) wide crater of the meteorite. It is muddy and full of water, which was boiling after the crash and the steam possibly caused the illness. The rock itself is not poisoned or radioactive. It is made of chondrite, which is not dangerous and is the most common material meteorites are made from. Doctors in the village took blood, urine and hair samples for further examination, though they not believe the "visitor from heaven" had caused the illness. Some members of the Peruvian medical team suppose it may be psychosomatic, meteor experts assume the reason is the dust it raised. Similar cases appeared in Peru in 2002 and 2004, but the presence of the meteorite was never proved. Officials from the health department in disease-stricken state confirmed that 200 people suffered from strange ailment, but their symptoms are slowly disappearing. Anyway, the government officials asked local people not to touch the meteorite itself. The real reason of the illness is still unknown.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070919/ap_on_sc/peru_meteorite;_ylt=Ar3TXJQJKcEF_rFeoioXZ3ys0NUE

by Nina Gotzmannova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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