Mystery Disease: Morgellon's Disease: Mysterious Ecto-Parasites

[Guest guest]

" Kit " <kitcurtin

Sat, 13 May 2006 10:03:36 -0700

[Mr_Tracys_Corner] Morgellon's Disease: Mysterious Ecto-Parasites

 

Here's more.... Kit

 

 

 

 

The majority of individuals reporting symptoms of Morgellons Disease

reside in California, Texas, and Florida.

 

Texas cluster areas

© 2006 M

 

Distinct geographic " cluster " areas of this disease have been noted

near Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose and San Diego in California

- as well as near Houston, Dallas, Austin, and Round Rock in Texas.

 

" Collembola feed on algae, bacteria and decaying matter. They thrive

in wet or damp surroundings, and can be found under leaky kitchen or

bathroom sinks, swimming pools, and the soil of potted plants. "

 

One research foundation estimates that there are more than 13-hundred

people across the country with Morgellons symptoms.

 

The true number may be a lot higher.

 

Mary Leitao is a biologist and the executive director of the

Morgellons Foundation. The foundation is studying this mysterious

skin disease.

 

They call it Morgellons -- because it looks and sounds exactly like an

infection doctors wrote about in the 1600's.

 

However, 400 years later, these stories don't add up to a diagnosis.

 

However, researchers may be getting the help they need to find a major

breakthrough.

 

Deborah Altschuler is the president of the National Pediculosis

Association in Boston, Massachusetts. The foundation was created to

increase awareness about head lice and protect children from pesticides.

 

Altschuler has been studying a disease that sounds exactly like

Morgellons disease.

 

" People were calling us with very similar symptoms from all over the

country, " says Altschuler.

 

The NPA teamed up with the Oklahoma State Department of Health to

study the creepy crawlers.

 

They took skin samples from 20 patients who claim they have the bugs,

but were diagnosed by their doctors as delusional.

 

Researchers found collembolan, a microscopic critter, in 18 of the 20

patients.

 

Collembola feed on algae, bacteria and decaying matter. They thrive in

wet or damp surroundings, and can be found under leaky kitchen or

bathroom sinks, swimming pools, and the soil of potted plants.

 

The report was published in the journal of the New York Entomological

Association. However, it wasn't enough evidence to get the centers for

disease control to take action.

 

The CDC told Altschuler that the collembola was not a danger to

humans, even though she says the CDC has shown her no specific study

to prove it.

 

The Morgellons Foundation says it was also shot down by the CDC.

 

If the research on the collembola is right, researchers still have to

figure out how serious these critters are to your health, and they

have to find out how to kill them.

 

http://www.safesolutionsinc.com/morgellons.htm

 

 

 

Mystery Disease

 

Join the fight to help doctors find a cure for the mystery disease!

 

A mysterious skin disease is currently spreading across Florida, and

doctors are searching for answers on how to stop the epidemic.

 

The disease, called Morgellon's Disease, is a parasite-like infection

that literally makes the infected person's skin crawl. The disease has

already been found in thousands of patients in Florida, Texas and

California.

 

" I would lay in the bed and it felt like an army of ants just crawling

over the bed, all over my body, " says one Morgellon's Disease sufferer.

 

" It never goes away, " says another. " It doesn't die, it doesn't leave. "

 

What sounds like a science fiction movie is actually real life for the

unlucky people who have contracted the disease which leaves painful

sores all over the body. The sores ooze blue fibers, white threads and

little black specks of sand-like material.

 

The worst part, patients say, is the creepy and constant sensation of

bugs crawling under their skin.

 

Also discouraging, is the patient's treatment by doctors, who have

little knowledge about the disease, and in specific cases have lacked

compassion for the sufferers.

 

" I was so humiliated from the three doctors that I went to, that I

just refused to go back, " said on patient.

 

Becky Bailey moved out of her Austin, Texas home and into a trailer

hoping to escape the bugs that torment her.

 

" We ripped out our carpet and burned our carpet and furniture and move

out into our R-V and they were still one me. "

 

Without medical help, suffering families researched their symptoms on

their own by way of the internet. Finally, they were able to put a

name to their pain – Morgellon's.

 

The sickly skin disease has actually been around for centuries. In

1935, an English physician wrote a paper about Morgellon's including

excerpts from medical journals from the 1600's, describing the disease.

 

Unfortunately, not much was known then about Morgellon's -- and not

much has been learned in the more than 400 years since.

 

What is known, is that many of people who may have it, suffer from

these symptoms;

 

constant itching/crawling sensation, chronic fatigue, brain fog or

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder,

depression, joint swelling or hair loss

 

What you should do if you have these symptoms, is as puzzling as the

disease itself.

 

One woman in Pittsburgh, PA made it her mission to find out what

causes and what will cure this bizarre disease.

 

Mary Leitao is a biologist and the creator the Morgellon's Research

Foundation in Pittsburgh.

 

Her goal is to get state health agencies and the center for disease

control to study this disease.

 

" It's inhumane that these people have been allowed to go home and have

been forced to research this day in and day out for years on their

own, " says Leitao.

 

Leitao's motivations come from her 6 year old boy Drew. Four years

ago, he began to feel the itch.

 

" He started describing bugs. He said, mommy, bugs, and he would scratch. "

 

Then came the sores that shed the fibers. Mary took drew to the doctor

and the doctor said it was nothing to worry about.

 

" I was going to find an answer, or I was going to have to take my

life, that's all there was too it. "

 

Doctors don't know what causes the disease, who is at risk and exactly

how many people may be suffering. The Morgellon Foundation says they

have about 12 hundred people registered on their site. Those are only

people who have a computer and happened to find them online.

 

 

 

In Jacksonville, more than a dozen cases have been found.

 

To learn more about this mystery disease visit www.morgellons.org.

 

There are three other parts to this story series:

 

- Part 2

- Part 3

- Part 4

 

 

http://www.cbs47.com/news/reports/story.aspx?content_id=054BB3F6-AD04-44C8-BDA4-\

15B8ECA03DDD

© 2006 Clear Channel Broadcasting, Inc.

 

 

 

 

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