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Morgellons

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The Morgellons (sometimes Morgellons disease) is a skin condition with no agreed-upon physical cause or etiology, frequently mis-diagnosed by many doctors as delusional parasitosis or collective hysteria. One study points to infestation by collembola organisms. However, current research at tha Morgellons Research Foundation that looked at the molecular level for DNA evidence of Collembola in samples of skin and other shed material from Morgellons patients did not find Collembola DNA, and hence, these Morgellons patients symptoms are not from Collembola.

The symptoms are frequently characterized as rashes or non-healing skin lesions associated with unusual structures that look like granules and filaments, and in particular a burning or itching sensation as if small parasites are crawling on or under the skin. When treated as a fungal infection with topical medications, the symptoms return within days and further use of the anti-fungal is ineffective. Some sufferers have tested positive for Lyme disease (borreliosis) and most have chronic fatigue syndrome. The states with the highest number of reports include California, Texas, and Florida; many sufferers are teachers and nurses. The reasons for these demographics are unknown. However, frequently, dermatologists and infectious disease doctors will label a patient as delusional without taking skin samples. Once a person has been labeled "DOP", the concern for a contagious disease is gone and precautions to prevent contracting disease are not used. This could explain in part, the high numbers of nurses with Morgellons symptoms. The symptoms are very similar to Gulf War Illness which is also controversial and not receiving appropriate attention.

Dr. William Harvey of Houston, Texas champions the disease as real but few medical professionals agree with him. Many medical professionals dismiss fibers found on patients as lint. Dr. George Schwartz of Santa Fe, New Mexico believes the cause is the bacterium stenotrophomonasmaltophilia, but no DNA evidence of this bacterium has been found by the research foundation invetigating this illness.

The Morgellons Research Foundation was created in 2002 by the mother of a child suffering from the condition, who named it Morgellons disease in honor of her son's illness. This mother has publicized the lack of unbiased research into the cause of this illness, as well as the denial of its existence by the medical establishment. There have been suicides related to the disease due to the denial of medical treatment many of these patients have received.

Randy S. Wymore, Ph.D, director of research for the Morgellons Research Foundation, is investgating the cause of Morgellons disease. Dr. Wymore gave an informational, research seminar on Morgellons disease at the Oklahoma State University, Center for Health Sciences on November 18, 2005. Dr. Wymore's goals include a proposal for collection of samples directly from Morgellons sufferers, in a controlled clinical setting, for formal analysis.

Dr. Marc Lewis, of the University of Texas at Austin is beginning research on Morgellons (Nov 2005). Dr. Lewis most recently has been testing theories on a rare, but deadly, disease called Cronkhite-Canada Syndrome.

The name Morgellons, with a hard g, comes from the monograph A Letter to a Friend by Sir Thomas Browne, wherein he describes several medical conditions in his experience, including that endemial distemper of children in Languedoc, called the morgellons, wherein they critically break out with harsh hairs on their backs. A 1935 paper by British doctor C.E. Kellett identifies the name morgellons with the Provençal term masclous, or "little flies".

Morgellons disease article

Skin Lesions and Crawling Sensations: Disease or Delusion?

by Ginger Savely, NP, and Mary M. Leitao

Advance for Nurse Practitioners Vol. 13 •Issue 5 • Page 16 May 2005

Patients with Morgellons disease typically experience sensations of insects crawling on, stinging and biting their skin. Their skin lesions can be minor or disfiguring. These lesions often contain fiber-like material that can be removed as single strands or what appear to be balls of fibrous material.

Patients frequently describe this material as "fibers," "fiber balls" or "fuzz balls." Granules removed from patients' skin and viewed under a microscope often appear to have one or more fibers attached at the ends. Patients often describe these granules as "seeds," "eggs" or "sand." Many report material they describe as "black specks" or "black oil." Some patients have intact skin with the crawling sensations. The fibrous, granular or black material is the only visible indicator of disease.

According to the Morgellons Research Foundation, most patients (95%) report symptoms of disabling fatigue and self-described "brain fog" or problems with attention. Patients report a high incidence (50%) of fibromyalgia, joint and muscle pain and sleep disorders. Other common symptoms are hair loss, rapid visual decline, neurological disorders and, occasionally, healthy teeth that appear to disintegrate. Most patients are unable to continue working, and those who do work report that they do not function optimally.

The majority of patients with Morgellons disease have been diagnosed with a psychosomatic illness. The average patient seeks help from between 10 and 40 providers and reports that symptoms are not taken seriously.

Patients report that most providers do not even perform a thorough exam. Instead, they make an instant diagnosis of delusions of parasitosis, a psychiatric disorder in which patients mistakenly believe that they're infested with a parasite.1,2 These providers attribute the obvious open sores on patients' skin to attempts at self-mutilation.

One patient described his experience with Morgellons in this way: "I have had this disease for 20 years. I spent the first 10 years going from doctor to doctor for help. I spent the last 10 years just living with it, knowing that no one would ever help me


Collembola study

A study from 2000 published in the Journal of the New York Entomological Society co-sponsored by the Oklahoma State Department of Health and the National Pediculosis Association found 18 of 20 patients self-reporting symptoms of the Morgellons to have infestations by a minute species of insect-like hexapod known as collembola, or springtails. Studied patients had, in their skin scrapings, collembola eggs often no larger than 100 micrometres or juvenile collembola no larger than 300 micrometres.

External links

Photo Images from a Morgellons Sufferer at MorgellonsUSA.com,

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