一種不知名的疾病在土庫曼首都阿什哈巴特拉起警報，當地居民害怕棉花田使用的化學物質會使他們致病。醫生表示，從9月底之後，阿什哈巴特及其周圍地區抱怨罹患類似流行性感冒症狀的病人戲劇性的增加，症狀包括鼻塞、頭痛、乾咳、淚眼。
阿什哈巴特居民伊瓦諾瓦表示她們全家人在兩天內全生病了，從年輕的先開始。很快的在同一棟公寓大樓的所有小孩都生病，而且症狀相同。她說：「我打電話給醫生，而且仔細地問他，他承認這樣的情形發生到處都有。」
官方的診斷分析這是一種急性呼吸道疾病，不過某些醫療人士私底下怪罪在飛機噴灑的脫葉劑上，這種藥劑用來加速棉花的成熟。一名匿名的醫療人員表示：「在棉花成熟和收成期，感染上呼吸道疾病的人數增加了許多倍。」該名醫療人員說：「脫葉劑是具高度毒性的化學物…容易在空氣中傳播。」
目前證實傳統治療風寒和感冒的治療難以對抗這種疾病，這樣的情形也引起醫療人士的懷疑。
一名在阿什哈巴特診所的家庭醫師表示：「對季節性急性呼吸道疾病來說時間太早了。用來治療這些呼吸道疾病的醫藥只能暫時改善病人的症狀。可以推測致病原因就是吸入的空氣。」
首都的一名耳鼻喉科醫生表示多數來求診的病患都接受過效用不大的呼吸道醫療，「在檢查過程中，我發現幾乎對所有的病人來說，這一季的疾病都是身體對外在刺激物的過敏反應。」
A mystery illness is causing alarm in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat, where residents are afraid that chemicals used on the cotton fields are making them sick. Doctors say that since the end of September there has been dramatic increase in the number of patients from Ashgabat and the surrounding region complaining of flu-like symptoms including blocked noses, headaches, dry coughs and weepy eyes.
Ashgabat resident Natalya Ivanova said her entire family fell ill within two days, the youngest first. Soon all the children in her apartment block were sick with the same symptoms. "I called the doctor and questioned him carefully, and the doctor admitted it was occurring on a massive scale," said Ivanova.
The official diagnosis is acute respiratory disease, but some in the medical community are privately blaming the defoliants sprayed from planes to speed up the ripening of cotton plants. "The number of people suffering from illnesses of the upper respiratory tract during the cotton ripening and harvesting period increases by dozens of times," said one health worker on condition of anonymity. "Defoliants are highly toxic chemicals... easily carried in the air," the health worker said.
That the illness has proved resistant to traditional cold and flu treatments is also causing suspicion in the medical community.
"It's too early for a seasonal epidemic of acute respiratory disease," said a family doctor at one Ashgabat clinic. "Treatment with medicine designed for treating the symptoms of these diseases only improves the conditions of patients for a short period. It can be assumed that the reason is the air that is inhaled."
An ear, nose and throat doctor in the capital said most patients who come for help have been treated for respiratory complaints with no success, "On examination, it is discovered that for almost all the patients, the reason for the disease was an allergic physical reaction to an external irritant."
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In my healing journey and learning to attain the breath awareness, I become aware of the reality that all the creatures of the world are breathing the same breath. Take action, here and now. From my physical being to the every corner of this out of balance's planet.
