Americans' fear of a terrorism could create a mass outbreak of a psychosomatic illness – even in the absence of any real attack – – creating a fake epidemic that could overwhelm hospitals attempting to treat real victims.

Adding to the confusion, the symptoms of a mass pyschogenic illness look much like symptoms of an anthrax attack, avian flu outbreak or chemical attack.

At least that's what the feds warned hospitals in a nonpublic 2006 communique recently published by the government sunshine site Wikileaks.

Call it a contagious psychosomatic illness – though the feds preferred to label the phenomenon "psychogenic illness," defining that as:

A phenomenon in which social trauma or anxiety combines with a suspicious event to produce psychosomatic symptoms, such as nausea, difficulty breathing, and paralysis. If many individuals come to believe that the psychosomatic outbreak is connected to the cause of the trauma or anxiety, these symptoms can spread rapidly throughout a population.

In fact, the feds suggest (.pdf) that there's already been a totally terrorism-fear-created illness in California where no one was actually sick from an attack.

In that case, a man walked into a California bank in October 2003, sprayed an aerosol can into the air and then left. Employees and customers became ill, though investigators found there were no biological or chemical agents in the air. (Note proof of this incident is attributed to a November 2003 FBI report that is also considered too sensitive for the public's eyes.)

A similar fear-based illness began in Chechnya – when 13 kids fell ill with headaches, fevers and numbness, according to the report. Many believed that the kids had been poisoned by a Russian chemical attack and the symptoms quickly spread. Some 87 people, mostly kids, were hospitalized, though there was no evidence of any chemical attack. Officials attributed the illness to anxiety over Russian military activities in the area.

And perhaps most seriously, after the deadly sarin gas attacks in Tokyo in 1995, some 5,000 people went the hospital – claiming to have symptoms, despite the attack's rather small radius. Twelve people were killed by the gas and 54 others sustained serious injuries.

The analysis recommended that the government and health system educate people about chemical and biological attacks so they can recognize real symptoms, as well as quickly isolating both real and psychosomatic victims in the case of an attack or perceived attack.

The July 5, 2006, analysis entitled Fear of Terrorist Attack Could Trigger Mass Psychogenic Illness (.pdf) from the the Homeland Infrastructure Threat and Risk Analysis Center is not classified. Instead it is labeled For Official Use Only (FOUO) – a designation that allows the data to be shared with people without clearances, but away from the public eye. Such material is usually not available through government sunshine requests.

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