More on Yushchenko’s disfigurement – dioxin poisoning? – The opposition Ukranian presidential candidate came down with a mysterious illness in September that left him looking completely different. Poisoning sounds more plausible then the other explanation, bad sushi. No, that’s really what they’re saying.
Aside
I prefer the BBC’s coverage, which has a nice side-by-side before-and-after pic…
So BBC says its more likely to be stress-induced. I find that a bit difficult to swallow. The reason I was quick to believe the dioxin claim is from reading Neal Stephenson’s Zodiac. In it Boston lobstermen develop chloracne scarring after a few days of eating lobsters with fairly high levels of dioxin build up. However, the symptoms go away in fairly quickly after laying off the lobsters and having fun with some activated charcoal. Stephenson’s science is usually pretty darn accurate.
Secondly, I just find it really hard to buy that stress, even at the level of someone running for president in Ukraine, would turn your skin ghastly white and cause you develop all kinds of bumps and whatnot.
I guess we might be able to clear it up a bit by asking him if he has become impotent, but that might be in bad taste.
Well, the Beeb doesn’t say it’s stress – they just note that a new theory is that it was stress.
The reason I was quick to believe the dioxin claim is from reading Neal Stephenson’s Zodiac.
I KNEW I’d heard of dioxin somewhere before!
While I’m not sure I buy the stress argument, you have to admit that stress and other emotional factors that Western medicine oftentimes fails to take into account can have profound effects.
I do, however, wonder if it’s possible that Yushchenko just really liked sushi, and ate enough dioxin-contaiminated sushi to keep him scarred permanently…
Wow Yushchenko is a mess!
Yushchenko ‘s doctors in Kiev, said they had determined that “chemicals not of a food origin” had triggered the illness. A doctor who is treating him has requested police protection after receiving an anonymous threat and later asked for outside help from a specialist in military operations and biological weapons!
I would think that Dioxin would still be evident in his blood. I also read that you would need an extremely high dose to get chloracne.
New virus?
Yushchenko’s chloracne became evident after he was treated to a meal at the home of the head of the Ukrainian Intelligence Service. If anyone has access to this kind of stuff, it would definitely be the chief of spies in a former Soviet state. Thankfully, it should clear up in about two or three years; about two years before he runs for his second term as the President of Ukraine.
Mr. Yushchenko’s face portrays the level ruthless, hearthless and spineless people will stoop to in order to destroy people who are trying to bring a country out from under Putin’s and Kuchma’s control. If this is not KGB’s work then who else could have done something like this. Medical experts have proven this to be something unique that only KGB personnel can administer
Doctors have now confirmed it was dioxin poisoning. I hate to tell you, but scars from acne don’t clear up on their on. The puffiness etc. will, but he’ll have to have derma-abrasion or chemical peels to remove the pockmarking.