Morgellons Disease Pictures and Story

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today that it is launching a study to learn about an unexplained condition that causes people to feel as if they have foreign substances growing from their bodies.

People with the condition, referred to as Morgellons disease, say they have fibers and other inorganic material growing out of their skin.

“We earnestly want to learn more about this unexplained illness, which affects the lives of those who suffer from it,” said Dr. Michele Pearson, principal investigator leading the study for the CDC, in a press release. “Those who suffer have questions, and we want to help them.”

“We have a team of epidemiologists, laboratorians and pathologists to carry out the study,” Pearson said.

The study will be conducted in conjunction with Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California Division of Research. For more information, CLICK HERE to visit the CDC’s Unexplained Dermopathy Web site.

In 2006, a number of Morgellons sufferers told ABC News in interviews that when they consulted doctors, they received diagnoses they called wrong or dismissive. Brandi Koch, the wife of former Major League Baseball player Billy Koch, said that she felt as if she were living in a horror movie, claiming she had colored fibers coming out of her skin.

Koch, of Clearwater Beach, Fla., said that her life was good until one day in the shower when she noticed something strange — tiny fibers running through her skin.

“The fibers look like hair, and they’re different colors,” Koch said.

Koch said she knows that what she experienced “sounds crazy,” but it’s true. “If I had a family member call me up and say, ‘I have this stuff,’ I’d say, ‘I’m sending a straitjacket over. You need some help,'” she said.

Anne Dill described a similar condition. Looking at Dill’s life in Florida, she seemed to be living the American dream — her three daughters excelled in sports and were straight-A students.

But life in the Dill household was far from idyllic. Anne’s 40-year-old husband, Tom, died in January 2006, and she believes his death was due to a contagious illness that has infected her entire family.

Dill described her family’s skin: “There’s this fibrous material. It’s in layers.” Dill said the skin on their hands was particularly bad, very swollen and itchy, and said it felt as if bugs were crawling underneath the skin.

Consulting Doctors


Dr. Greg Smith of Gainesville, Ga., has been a pediatrician for the past 30 years. He claimed that a fiber was coming out of his big toe, and he had video footage to prove it.

“It felt like somebody stuck a pin in my toe and wiggled it, and it just continued to hurt,” Smith told ABC News in 2006.

He said he never thought he had bugs. “I’ve certainly had those crawling sensations, and the fibers which come out of the skin are really bizarre, and really odd.”

Smith was handed over to a hospital psychiatrist when he went to the emergency room complaining of a fiber in his eye. He admits that he, too, would be skeptical if a patient came to him with the same story.

“I would wonder if they’d taken their medicine that day. It makes no sense. It’s totally bizarre. It’s something that — just telling the story is so outlandish on the face of it — that no one would believe it,” Smith said. Dill’s doctor told her to stop scratching, even though many of her sores were in places she could not reach.

Koch went to the Mayo Clinic, where doctors didn’t believe that the fibers she’d brought them had grown from her body.

“I saw the infectious disease doctor, and I showed him some samples that I had and he snickered,” she said. “I can’t go through another doctor blowing me off or looking at me like I’m crazy. I know I’m not.”

Dr. Vincent DeLeo, chief of dermatology at New York’s St. Lukes-Roosevelt Medical Center, weighed in on what he’d say to someone who came to him with this condition. “I don’t think this is any different than many patients I’ve seen who have excoriations and believe that there is something in their skin causing this,” he told ABC News in 2006.

DeLeo said the open lesions were most likely a result of scratching the skin.

Relying on Your Own Research

But biologist Mary Leitao refused to accept the medical skepticism surrounding Morgellons.

Leitao’s son, Drew, was just 2 years old when Leitao noticed an odd sore on his lip that would not heal.

“He very simply said ‘bugs,’ and he pointed to his lips,” said Leitao.

Leitao never expected to find herself at the center of a medical storm. But when her son complained about the strange sore, the biologist, who once ran the electron microscope at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, did what any scientist would do. She took a closer look.

“What I saw were bundles of fibers, *** of fibers,” Leitao says. “There was red and blue.” Even stranger, they glowed under ultraviolet light.

Armed with research, Leitao took her son to a doctor at one of the country’s leading hospitals. He dismissed her tale of fibers and wrote to her pediatrician, saying that her son needed Vaseline for his lips and that his mother needed a thorough psychiatric evaluation.

Undaunted, Leitao began poring through medical literature looking for clues. What she discovered was a 17th-century reference to a strange disease with “harsh hairs” called “Morgellons.”

She named the strange fibers Morgellons disease and put the information on a Web site, Morgellons.org. At the time of her interview in 2006, more than 4,500 people had contacted Leitao, claiming they had Morgellons-type symptoms. The name stuck, and the disease was featured on the television show “ER.”

But do these fibers grow from inside the body, as Morgellons patients believe, or do they come from the external environment — a kind of lint — as the medical skeptics say?

Searching for an Answer

Forensic scientist Ron Pogue at the Tulsa Police Crime Lab in Oklahoma checked a Morgellons sample against known fibers in the FBI’s national database. “No, no match at all. So this is some strange stuff,” Pogue said in 2006. He thought the skeptics were wrong. “This isn’t lint. This is not a commercial fiber. It’s not.”

The lab’s director, Mark Boese, said the fibers are “consistent with something that the body may be producing.” He added that, “These fibers cannot be manmade and do not come from a plant. This could be a byproduct of a biological organism.”

Dill said she looks at pictures of her family and finds them unrecognizable. “My kids have to see not only their dad but their mom disintegrating, and that’s gotta be really scary.”

While they wait for evidence that they hope will convince the medical community to take them seriously, some Morgellon’s sufferers wear pink bracelets that say, simply, “Fortitude.”

Pictures of Morgellons Disea

Pictures can be viewed at the following location: Morgellon’s Disease Pictures

 

Hope you enjoyed the story and pictures of Morgellons Disease

Morgellons Disease Pictures and Story was last modified: July 12th, 2023 by Admin

359 Responses to Morgellons Disease Pictures and Story

  1. Seasons Greetings!

    I want to keep this posting short, as I have…

    Dammit.

    It took me 8 minutes (which is a long time to stare at a screen) to try to finish that sentence.

    NOT because I have limited mental capabilities, or because I am so busy inspecting my body for proof of my symptoms. Nor is my hesitation the result of sheer exhaustion (and pollution) of body and mind. (A common side effect to the act of staying up all hours with a bucket of bleach and a scrub brush.)

    It is BECAUSE of the fact that all of those reasons would have been applicable a few years ago.

    And HOW does one say – in a few short words – I UNDERSTAND. I BELIEVE YOU. THIS IS REAL.
    How can I share my experience with you all, and at the same time try not to re-live it by going over all the specifics necessary to validate my posting here at all?

    The experience of this kind of illness varies so greatly from person to person. I searched for months before finding anything at all. And not all of my symptoms have been described by any one person, and vice versa, but I have had extensive communication with many others and all that matters is this:

    WHATEVER IT IS, IT MANIFESTS ITSELF DIFFERENTLY IN DIFFERENT HOSTS, AND IS UNDETECTABLE BY CURRENT MEANS OF SCREENING BY DOCTORS.

    Whether anyone chooses to believe their own eyes? Their own family/friends/spouse? That is a completely separate travesty; the pain of which is almost unendurable to even the strongest of us.

    Were it not for my SOUNDNESS of mind, my STRENGTH of will, and my INTELLIGENCE, I would never have gotten through this ordeal. And I was the first (but far from the last) to question these things.

    I AM ALMOST ENTIRELY SYMPTOM FREE NOW.

    Here’s what worked for me:

    I moved. And when I say I moved, I, MYSELF, WITH NO POSSESSIONS, moved across the country.

    I left the few things that i couldn’t possibly throw away (photos, a few family heirlooms) in the care of a dear friend, who sent them to me 2 years later. The contents of these two boxes are in my new home and have not affected me.

    I stopped scrubbing and slathering and ingesting. I stopped looking. I made myself stop. To save myself from total insanity I simply hid my psyche from harm. It was nowhere near easy, but none of what I have said so far was. It is SIMPLE. DRASTIC. But most people will choose not to do what I did. I know, because I fought this illness 24-7 for too long before I did what I did.

    Here is the 3rd thing which may sound crazy or drastic, but is EASY and PAINLESS.

    I made it my full time job to boil water and drink it, either with green tea or with lemon.
    And I urinated in a glass jug.
    Then, I dumped the urine in my bathwater and soaked in it for an hour.

    If I sound crazy, well, Google URINE THERAPY and learn about it.
    I’m not proposing any conspiracy theory on the part of the medical profession, but simple economics would easily explain why the FREE, NATURAL, NON-PATENTED alternative might not be suggested by physicians.
    That, and the fact that Western Medicine is almost as young as Psychology. And our depenency on these practices, as a whole, for diagnosis, treatment, or (even moral support) has gotten those of us suffering nowhere. And that’s if you’re lucky enough not to grab the title of DOP along the way.

    I’m not trying to criticize any profession or any group. God knows I can empathize with ANYONE choosing to remain ignorant of this NIGHTMARE, either consciously OR unconsciously. But the fact remains, we are suffering, and WE MUST HELP OURSELVES, AND EACH OTHER.

    Ah, well. So much for my plan of keeping this short..
    I hope this reaches someone, and helps them help themselves. That’s all.

    Remember: If you feel alone in this nightmare, you are not. You possess a strength that others could never imagine. To even comprehend this affliction requires an evolved mind and spirit. To survive it-
    that is heroic.

  2. I wholeheartedly agree with Jaclyn above regarding credibility/intelligibility of postings. If we even hope to be taken seriously, we must endeavor to show researchers our soundness of mind. That said, I am a 36-year-old female suffering since 2006 with what I’m convinced is Morgellons. (Self-diagnosed, of course.) My symptoms began with a strange sensation in my fingertips and on my upper abdomen. I looked closely at these areas of my body in a well-lit area of my home. What I found was my worst nightmare manifested. As my daughter, who was sitting next to me at the time, and I looked, we saw small black worm-like “things”, for lack of more intelligent words, weaving in and out of our fingertips. My daughter did not experience this anywhere except her fingertips, but I had these worm-like “things” going in and out of my upper abdomen and the pads of my toes as well. Of course we panicked, as I suspect anyone would have done, and immediately showed my husband. He saw them also. I say with absolute certitude that we are NOT delusional. My daughter (who was 11 at the time) and I showered with the hottest water we could tolerate. The nightmare continued and escalated. As we stood in the near-scalding water, LONG dark, soft hair-like “things” began exiting through our skin. The bottoms of our feet, our fingertips, and my abdomen excreted these strange horrifying “things” (I hate to keep using this non-descriptive word over and over, but I can think of no other!) They were no longer moving, they appeared “dead”. Then the REALLY strange symptoms began. Shortly after this, we started noticing what at first appeared to be long, thick pieces of lint on our clothing, coming off unbroken skin, and oddly enough, out of our noses when we breathed. It appears to be airborne- with our case anyway. I used a lint roller to collect samples of these fibers to show my doctor(s). I also noticed that I was producing and shedding black- and some light brown- specks. Both the specks and the fibers seem to appear spontaneously! As I said, I have completely unbroken skin. (I am so very sorry for all of you afflicted with lesions!) I first went to an infectious disease specialist who, even though he plainly saw the fibers and specks, admitted that he could offer me no clear diagnosis. At least he showed me sympathy and acknowledgment of my symptoms, and made a real effort to help me. He prescribed me antibiotics, antihistamines, anti-fungals, antipsychotics,(every “anti” he could think of), oral steroids, topical steroid creams, so on and so forth. None of these helped. He referred me on to a dermatologist, who practically laughed me out of her office, and who referred me to a psychiatrist. I’d taken my samples of specks and fibers to the dermatologist who (supposedly) sent them to a lab. She said the results came back as “normal skin”. It was clearly anything but normal skin. Something I’ve noticed in my case that I haven’t heard so far in other postings/publications: in addition to these strange lint-like fibers, I am producing what looks like straight, thick, short hairs. These seem to just spontaneously appear, and they look almost like a short piece of hair that could have been cut from a person’s head. ALMOST. These “hairs” are NOT human hairs. They are not pliable as human hair is. And they grow on their own. I am terrified. It’s as if some alien bacteria has invaded my home and infected my family. I’ve noticed that when I clean my floors and other hard surfaces in my home with ammonia-based products, such as Fantastik, or bleach, that these short “hairs” AND the lint-like fibers seem to multiply rapidly. AND the short “hairs” grow longer. I’ve also found that nearly any type of alcohol (stearyl, cetearyl, isopropyl, etc.) causes these fibers to appear and multiply rapidly. I’ve found that by avoiding – and this is difficult to do – products (such as hair and body products) containing these types of alcohol, it’s helping to keep down the amount of fibers my body is producing. This is so strange, I know, but everything about this phenomenon is strange, isn’t it? I feel like I’m an actress in a bad B-movie. A few other things I’d like to add regarding my symptoms: my teeth are disintegrating. I’ve had 8 pulled in the past year & 1/2. On top of what I believe to be Morgellons, I have Systemic Lupus. This causes many of the same symptoms that I’ve heard described by others, such as the fatigue and connective tissue pain (fibromyalgia also). But I’ve suffered these symptoms to a MUCH greater degree since contracting Morgellons. Admittedly, it’s sometimes difficult for me to differentiate symptoms caused by my lupus from morgellons symptoms (fatigue and body pain). However, I maintain my opinion that morgellons is the cause of these mysterious fibers and “hairs”, and the sometimes “crawly” feeling on my skin. And that I certainly do NOT suffer delusional parasitosis. I’m continuing to research any information available, as well as experimenting on my own with products and environmental factors. My e-mail is [email protected] if anyone would like to contact me and share any pertinent information regarding your own case. I’d certainly welcome ANY helpful advice/information, and will be glad to share my findings. There’s much more to my case than what I’ve included here. There’s just too much to go over in this posting.

    I pray for healing, strength and courage for all of us fighting this much-debated and too-long-ignored illness, and I pray that research will find us some answers and treatment soon. God bless all!

  3. I tried b3 (niacin) 100mg per day and a good multivitimn and an antifungal terbinafine 250mg per day. My skin is 75% better healing over. Can’t hurt to try

  4. The phenomenon of “Morgellons” (I’ll refer to it as “M” from this point on)is obviously bizarre and terrifying. The M crisis is a weight on my heart and mind, truly.
    The main struggle (for me) at this juncture is the utter lack of knowledge regarding the origin, biology, and a definitive compilation of symtoms. This set of problems carries with it the question of WHY there has been such a lag in research development by the Center of Disease Control (CDC). The widespread accounts provided by M suffers concerning their Doctor’s disbelief and/or diagnosis of some psychosis is suspicious. I do not wish to address any kind of Conspiracy Theory yet.I want to offer some advice/guidelilnes to those whose post or will post comments to this or any Morgellons related site:
    1. Pay attention to the integrity (by this I mean, spelling, grammar,etc.) of your posts! I know this may seem petty and unimportant, but please realize that your credibility is important!
    Example: If I write, “Believe me, I’m a docotor and I know what I am talking about, I’m not stoopid!” How would you perceive me? More importantly, how would your perception have changed if I had spelt those words correctly? I hope my point is clear here.
    2. If you make a claim, you have GOT to back it somehow if you expect anyone to take you remotely seriously.
    Example:J. Coronado states above that,”it is passing to every one in contact with an infected person just by been around, it goes thru the air and gets to peolpe and animals.” That is a strong statement, regardless of the gram. errors. Welcome new (even valid) information? Of course, but why should I believe you? If Coronado had sited his source, his comment would have held some validity. Without it, it has none.
    3.As the M issue becomes more and more publicized, it will probably become increasingly difficult to sift through all of the M accounts on the internet and decipher whether or not they’re genuine or fabrications. Example: So, Minister Mary, how many times WERE you bitten by brown recluses over the course of six months as you claim to have been? You must have a lot of scarring from the flesh-eating quality the brown recluse’s venom has on the body! {I do apologize if i am just misunderstanding this post but i must admit that if I am, I do not see how!}
    feel free to contact me
    email: [email protected]
    Jaclyn Cross

  5. The pictures on this page show “exactly” what I was infected with.
    Especially “Fibers removed from same lip lesions shown at 60x.” I know that little guy well.
    It turned out the “hot showers” and other “treatments” I tried were damaging my skin just enough to give the infection “opportunity”. I took cold showers only for a couple of weeks (NO OTHER TREATMENTS) and my condition improved and after about a month to point that the pain began to subside and I could stop obsessing about IT. Then I saw the movie “a beautiful mind”, and since most of my “evidence” proved that IT couldn’t possibly be “real”, I stoped giving it my “energy” and I have been FREE 5 years now…PRAISE GOD

  6. I struggled with this disease for nearly three years from 2000 to 2003, I have a college eductaion and was baffled at how I was treated by doctors, and the health care industry as a whole. I remember when a dermatologist asked if he could cut a sample of one of my legions on my right hand for a biopsy, I said “you can take the arm at the elbow if you think that will stop it.” and I meant it. I was stressed out and depressed. My disease wasn’t “itchy”, but it was VERY painful.
    I contemplated suicide, then legions began froming on my 1year old son, and I had to do something “other than kill myslef”. I looked up my old college biology professor and borrowed a good microscope and had to do my own discovery. The time I spent, nearly cost me my marriage, it did cost me my job and many friends. I can’t go into specifics about what I found (most wouldn’t believe me anyway :-). It really is that weird.

    The first thing that “worked” was I quit taking hot showers. IT likes to be covered and IT likes heat. I started to live a lifestyle that boosts the immune system; eating right, exercise, sleeping 8 hours a night etc…
    The second thing I had to do was quit “believing” in it. The sores, fibers, pain were all very real, but once I stopped “believing” in them, they began to clear up.
    My prayers go out to anyone suffering from this.
    Watch “A beautiful mind” and “the matrix” and stop believing in IT.
    That is what worked for me. ItsTrue

  7. my husband and I have suffered this disease/syndrome/infestation??? for just over 3 years. I researched and researched; we bought a quality microscope; went through the same bs that all morgellons sufferers endure at the hands of the medical profession. we recently had an article in our local free newspaper and in the first week we have been contacted by three people who suffer this and were overwhelmed to find that they are not alone. we live in a rural area. I hope to set up an Australian Morgellons forum. please comment here if you would be interested in such a place where Australian sufferers can pool information, treatments, etc.

    We need to find doctors and researchers in Australia who are interested in finding the answers. We have written to the Dept of Health with no interest but will write again as recognition has happened since we first wrote to them.

    zinc with magnesium, zinc & castor oil creme, coal tar shampoo, condies crystals bath, and a multitude of other things. I am as many chemically intolerant and tried to find a natural cure/control – Wormwood Complex I felt worked well but it cannot be taken continuously for months on end. Currently we take mebenzadole (OTC worming tablets) – we take these for three days each month as well as twice daily doses of itraconazole. The last of these medications was recommended by an associate in the USA who has had direct involvement with treatment/research of this disease. He will help by passing on recent progress and any advice he can. we tried albenzadole and weirdly this didn’t seem to be as effective as the OTC mebenzadole… but this is a weird disease!
    you can contact me by email [email protected]

  8. It is real, real and I pray CDC and the Gov. find what it is and the cure, I called it “the nothing red” it is like millions of little red dots moving under your skin, it is passing to every one in contact with an infected person just by been around, it goes thru the air and gets to peolpe and animals. comments @ [email protected]
    God bless us all, regards: Jorge Coronado infected since January 2004
    FORTITUDE!!!

  9. THIS DISEASE IS VERY REAL….IT STARTED WITH ME ON A FAMILY VACATION TO THE BEACH IN 2006. FOR MY WHOLE LIFE I HAVE BEEN WHAT I CONSIDER HEALTHY. I NOTICED ONE MORNING THAT I HAD (2) PIMPLE LIKE BUMPS AT MY JAW-LINE TOWARDS MY CHIN ON THE LEFT SIDE. I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO A DERMATOLOGIST MY WHOLE LIFE AND I WAS 34 AT THE TIME. MY HUSBAND SAID IT LOOKED TO HIM LIKE UNDER THE SKIN BUMPS THAT WOULD GO AWAY IN A FEW DAYS CONSIDERING WE WERE AT THE BEACH AND SALT WATER FROM THE OCEAN SEEMS TO HELP WITH HEAL CUTS, RASHES, EXC…. WELL HERE I AM ALMOST THREE YEARS LATER AND THE SAME BUMPS COME AND GO AND ARE NOW ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF MY JAW-LINE AS WELL. I HAVE SEEN 7 DIFFERENT DERMATOLOGIST AND AFTER NO RESOLUTION….A PSYCHIATRIST WHO TOLD ME THAT I WAS NOT IMAGINING THIS AND THAT IT WAS INDEED REAL. HE COULD TELL FROM THE LESIONS THAT THE INFLAMMATION WAS FROM UNDER THE SKIN AND THAT THE LESIONS ON MY FACE WERE NOT SELF INFLICTED AS THE DERMATOLOGIST STATED. SO AFTER ALMOST 3 YEARS AND ABOUT $5,000.00 SPENT ON MEDICATIONS, DR. BILL’S, AND EVEN SOME HOME REMEDIES THERE IS NO RELEIF. I JUST PRAY THAT THE CDC CAN FIND A CURE:)

  10. This is all too much…A few years ago, I woke uo with a sore big toe on my right foot. It hurt quite badly and when I got tweezers to examine it(thinking it was a splinter), I pulled a thick black hair from it…the extraction was also painful as the hair was quite deep with just the tip outside my skin. I sat there afterwards, completely confused wondering how a hair got stuck in my toe- never imagining that the hair had come from inside…It hasn’t happened since, but I keep thinking that it will. I have no noticeable sores or lesions, but I get very itchy on my feet, and sometimes scratch until I break the skin. I first heard about this disorder three nights ago when I rented the movie “The Invasion” with Nichole Kidman. In the bonus features, there is a segment on this disorder.
    I feel so horrible for everyone who is suffering on a daily basis. It only happened to me once and I have been dwelling upon it since.

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