Epidural photo from 12/18
spine2

That’s my L4/5 spinal region. The black lines are needles, and the dark streaks are colored dyed so the doc can make sure medicine is going to the right places. I should have images from today’s procedure by next week.

BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — Horrifying stories about vampires attacking villagers in the dead of night and sucking their blood have forced Malawi’s government to wage a campaign to fight the rumors and calm the public.

The rumors, which began three weeks ago in the south of the poor African nation, have intensified in recent days.

Last week, scared villagers beat to death a man suspected of being a vampire, attacked and nearly lynched three visiting priests, and destroyed an aid group’s encampment they feared was the vampires’ headquarters.

President Bakili Muluzi called the rumors unfounded and malicious. He accused unnamed opposition groups of trying to undermine him by accusing his government of giving aid agencies human blood in exchange for food aid.

“No government can go about sucking (the) blood of its own people,” Muluzi said Sunday. “That’s thuggery.”

The rumors were hurting efforts to pull the nation out of its severe hunger crisis, Muluzi said, since many families were too scared to leave their villages to tend their fields.

A series of separate statements from the police, Information Ministry, Home Affairs Ministry and Internal Security Ministry have condemned the rumors and top government officials have journeyed to the districts of Thyolo, Mulanje, Chiradzul and Blantyre to try to quash the stories.

“There is no truth in this. There is no such thing as blood suckers anywhere in Malawi,” said Joseph Aironi, the police inspector general.

But the fears have continued.

Some villagers have begun fleeing to the city of Blantyre for safety.

Others sleep clutching drums so they can wake up the village if they suspect they are about to be attacked.

A mob in the southern tea-growing district of Thyolo last week beat to death a man accused of being a vampire, police said.

Three visiting Roman Catholic priests also were beaten in Thyolo by a mob of angry villagers who did not recognize them and suspected them of being vampires, police said. The priests were held overnight until a local Catholic family identified them. They were treated for severe bruises.

In the same district, villagers destroyed tents pitched by an aid group that was in the area to drill wells for drinking water. The villagers believed the vampires were using the tent camp as their headquarters. No one was injured in the attack.

The frenzy has been fed by several people’s stories of being attacked by vampires.

Edna Kachisa said the vampires drilled a hole in her mud-and-thatch house and sprayed a suffocation gas inside. The attackers fled after she banged on a drum and awoke the village, she said.

“Because of the smoke I inhaled I could not speak for three days and I am still suffering from a recurrent stomach ache,” she said.

Another woman outside Blantyre showed journalists a mark on her forearm she said was where vampires inserted a needle to try to draw her blood.

Currently Reading The Autobiography of P.T. Barnum… fascinating stuff, and best taken with a grain or better yet, a shaker of salt, considering who it is doing the writing…but it’s a good read none the less. I figure I’ll finish it sometime tonight or tomorrow.

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