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
I suffered from something very similar to this for fifteen years! Many visits to dermatologists, biopsies, scrapings, etc. with no clear diagnosis. One doctor told me the lesions were from scratching. He paid no attention when I said that if I didn’t itch so terribly, I wouldn’t scratch- if he could find out what made me itch so bad, I wouldn’t scratch! Then in 2009 at age 58 I had a heart attack and five bypasses. I was thin, healthy, active, strong. Other than having to wear long-sleeved shirts even in July, I wasn’t depressed about a thing. In October 2010 I suddenly had no more itching, no more sores, and after 15 years – it all stopped!! Only two things had been changed at that time: 1) My cholesterol was 238 and I was started on Crestor. 2) On my own, I started taking 2,000mg a day of vitamin C, and 5,000 IU a day of vitamin D.
FIFTEEN YEARS of constant itching, sores, and thousands of dollars in “cures.” Was it a coincidence that it suddenly stopped with Crestor and vitamins C and D? I’ll never know. I was telling the truth all along: I don’t scratch unless I itch intensely! Now I’m covered from neck to toes with white scars as a daily reminder of that hell, but still feel so very blessed that it’s GONE.
P/S Two other things that changed: I haven’t had a cigarette since the day of the heart attack; and I no longer tub bathe, only take showers.
and as far as it not being contagious why else would my children have this as well????
ours seems a completly different disease then. i get sores. fibers just come out on their own. i can bathe in pine sol and just watch the fibers and black specks and algae looking gel come out of my skin. my son has fibers under his arms neck and between his toes and fingers all the time he is 2 months. my 2 yr old has no sores but has the fibers and black specks as well. i got ahold of Bert with the Morgone gel and used it and it worked wonders on getting fibers out . but my internal problems are what im worried about the most. my cholesterol and my liver enzymes are a mess. i have tried everything. to get rid of this. nothing is working the more i clean the more comes out. and i just see the white fibers floating around the house all the time. im not saying its incurable. whats outside is cureable but whats inside is what scares me the most.especially when it comes to my kids.
Christina-I do not believe that what I have is contagious. Nor do I believe it is incurable. Please read my post.
I have photos of my legs and foot but they will not post here. Please send a central email to me at address above and I will email the file. Photos of foot and leg. Lesions itch intensely with scaling skin with dark specks. When â??specksâ?? removed they have the appearance of hair follicles. Foot secretes gel like substance and skin peels. Foot itches intensely and frequently wakes me during sleep.
Photo # 1: Right Foot:
Photo #2 of â??specksâ?? that when removed resemble hair follicles/fibers. I removed these follicles/fibers from my legs and foot. Photo also shows peeling skin and scabs removed from foot:
Photo # 3 is same sample as photo #2 but with a different exposure.
Note similarity of these follicles/fibers to those of Morgellons patients whose fibers were photographed and identified by researchers as High Density Polyethylene Fiber (HDPE) manufactured with nano technology.
Photo # 4 of left leg. Note lesion where scab was removed revealing hair-like follicle/fiber in center of wound.
Lesions/wounds would not heal until hair-like follicles/fibers were removed. Fibers were frequently tenacious and removal was often extremely difficult.
Photo # 5 of same leg/area about one month later:
Letâ??s be honest: we all sound crazy when we talk about fibers growing in our bodies. â??Chemtrailsâ?? as one possible source (etiology) of these fibers sounded especially extreme-that is until I dug deeper into the literature. They donâ??t sound so crazy to me now.
Like many of you, I wonâ??t go to another doctor. Here is whyâ?¦ I developed Norwegian (crusted) scabies even though I am at very low risk for such an infestation. I do not have an immune deficiency. While being treated for scabies, I saw a different doctor than my primary physician and without a focused exam, he diagnosed me with Delusions of Parasitosis. The doctor never even looked for scabies and he did not do skin scrapings or a microscopic exam to r/o (rule out) scabies. Fortunately, I have a masters in nursing and I was aware that the doctor did not perform the correct tests. Possibly, that knowledge saved me.
I was thrown into a psych hospital under a TDO (temporary detention order). I can laugh about this now, but I wasnâ??t laughing then. Scary does not begin to describe what I was feelingâ?¦ Fortunately, I had an excellent psychiatrist. I told him that the doctor did not examine me closely enough to diagnose scabies nor did he do skin scrapings/microscopy to identify eggs/mites. The psychiatrist was shocked that a physician would diagnose me with Parasitosis without the appropriate tests. He did not think I was crazy and neither did the appointed psychologist. My court appointed attorney argued before a judge that I did not meet psychiatric commitment criteria and the judge ordered me to be released.
No, I wonâ??t be asking any doctor for a second opinion on my condition. Not since being arrested, placed in handcuffs, leg irons, etc. and placed on a locked psych ward. I met some very fun and sane people, but Iâ??ll pass on a second visit.
Eventually, it became obvious to me that I was dealing with something other than scabies; something that wasnâ??t in my dermatology textbook (published about ten years ago). I had not even heard of Morgellons until I searched the internet looking for dermatology photographs that resembled my own condition. I canâ??t say for sure that I have Morgellons, but the photos are similar. Family has even remarked that my wounds looked like Morgellons lesions and they taped a TV show to show me. The description/history fits mine minus the â??chemtrailsâ??.
This is where I may start to sound crazy to many of you, but I believe my derm (skin) condition was given to me intentionally. I cannot say who did such a thing, but I did become a target under the Bush Administration and all sorts of terrible things happened to me. For example, Predator drones and fighter jets were used to harass me and in possible assassination attempts. (Yes, of course I have photos and video! Do you think I would be so dumb as to make such a claim without evidence? Go to you- know- where- tube and enter the keywords: predator drones home video 911 remembers.
I have made complaints to the FBI and as far as I know, they have never investigated a single complaint. I told them I had videotapes of a military jet and drones as well as other evidence, but I have yet to hear back from them. My first call to the FBI was in July 2007, when I feared that a predator drone strike on my home was imminent. The FBI hung up on me! No, I do not live near a USA border or near a military/sensitive area.
Enough of that. Back to my derm condition and what has helped me. I certainly cannot guarantee it will help anyone out there who reads this, but I know how horrible it is to have a derm problem that wonâ??t go away, and the loneliness and embarrassment that can accompany this disorder. Not to mention the endless nights spent scratching the blood out of my wounds during my sleep.
It is important to have good hand washing before and after wound care with special attention under fingernails and to be careful not to allow others to have contact with your blood, tissue or secretions. I do not advocate avoiding an expertâ??s (dermatologistâ??s) opinion, since many conditions are treatable, but I do understandâ?¦
The following has helped me. However, for legal and ethical reasons, I certainly cannot recommend anything. There are always risks involved when dealing with the skin, especially if there is an undiagnosed infection, diabetes or impaired wound healing or impaired circulation. Scarring, infection and very serious consequences, including death, are possible, so I will not recommend anything. But, you might wish to discuss with your private physician whether any of the following would be contraindicated in your situation.
Through much trial and error, I have made progress. Progress is slow but noticeable. I will give the brand names of the things that worked best for me since trying out so many things got to be very expensive. I have no financial interests in any of the items I mention.
My experience:
First, I stopped shaving the affected areas.
Many wounds were hidden beneath scales and at first, the scales were nearly impossible to remove. Sometimes, when the itching on my legs and feet was intense, I would use Clinique Body Exfoliating Cream (â??Sparkle Skinâ??) to help remove the less difficult scales. Mainly, the Clinique worked on the â??normalâ?? areas, but it did help the itching.
To remove or soften the scales, I applied â??Neutrogena Deep Clean Cream Cleanser, Oil Freeâ?? to affected scale-covered skin. Sometimes, I left it on for hours and then scrubbed it off in the shower with Scotch Brite Stay Clean Scrubbers (or my nails). Luffas were useless. Neutrogena works well to soften the scales so they can be removed. Sometimes, I would only leave the Neutrogena on for a few minutes and then I could scrape off the scales. Wounds were sometimes visible on the surface, but frequently small wounds were hidden beneath the scales.
Some wounds were covered with a black scab, which appeared to be something other than the normal healing process. I removed the scabs and using excellent lighting I examined the area. By excellent lighting, I mean a pharmacy lamp with a 100 watt bulb, plus a clip on lamp with a 60 watt halogen bulb, attached to a plastic step-stool. At first, I removed the skin, scales, and scab, but the wounds always returned. Then, I stared removing the hair follicles/fibers present in the wound or around the wound edges. Sounds simple but it is not. (Obviously this is a risk for infection.)
Frequently, I could not see any follicles/fibers until I removed the scales, gel and scab, working on one area at a time. Invariably, the fibers were nearly always present, but sometimes ran horizontally in the skin and were very difficult to grasp. I tried about ten different tweezer brands and styles and settled on the two that worked the best for me. One was made by Tweezerman (3.5 inches long) and had a slant tip for â??expertâ?? gripping. It wasnâ??t cheap and I have been through several already. Only once did I get a bum pair. The second tweezer is made by Revlon and has a very pointed tip, almost needle thin at the end. The last one I use less frequently, but is particularly good for the very small fibers present in the toes. Aluminum foil is placed on a table to contain infectious material and help keep the surface beneath clean and dry. Makes for a quick clean up.
Initially, I used Dakins Solution full strength which I then diluted with water using equal amounts of each. I applied the solution to some of my wounds to help prevent/control infection. I no longer use the Dakins since my wounds are small and not infected.
Removing the follicles/fibers (hereafter just referred to as fibers) is an art. Too much force and they break. The Neutrogena helped the fiber release smoothly so it could be removed with tweezers. Sometimes when the fiber would not release (pull out), I added a small amount of Neutrogena (if needed) and had to rotate the direction of pull. There was no logic in the way the fiber came out: sometimes a left direction worked, sometimes a right pull, sometimes straight and horizontal to skin and other times a backward pull direction. I would apply a slight pull to the fiber and if it did not release, I would gently rotate the direction of pull 360 degrees if necessary, until I could feel the fiber releasing. Tweezers had to be cleaned with the alcohol swabs frequently since any scales/skin on tweezers prevented a tight grip on the fiber.
My foot was the only area where gel was present and the gel accumulated quickly after the area was cleaned. Locating the fibers beneath the gel was difficult, but once removed, the foot area did not secrete gel any longer. These fibers are so fine and small, light has to be angled from different directions/angles to help locate fibers. Even when located, they are sometimes impossible to remove. I am still working on finding a better way to remove the fibers from this area.
Summary
Apply Neutrogena to affected skin
Later shower and scrub scales with Scotch Brite. Do not use regular soap on affected areas due to soap residue
After shower, wash hands, nails, and wipe tweezers with alcohol swabs. Place tools on foil covered surface
Remove scabs with tweezers and locate fibers
Remove fibers with tweezers and safely dispose of fibers/scabs, etc. on cotton pads
On completion, clean tools, wash hands and skin with residue free soap (shampoo usually works) to remove blood/debris
If anyone gets physician/health care provider okay to proceed, please post a comment to let me know how it worked. Donâ??t give up hope. Together, we can beat this bio-technological (in my opinion) disease. I canâ??t help but wonder if we have more in common than Morgellons. Maybe, a clearer picture will emerge if we share personal information such as age range, race, state, political party, etc.
I am a white, divorced, heterosexual, over forty female and considered socially liberal. I live in the mid-Atlantic area. If not for my TDO, I would be more specific as to my location, but one psych visit was enough for me. I was also a vocal critic of the Bush Administration and the â??Patriot Actâ??. Oh, and a member of the ACLU.
You are in my prayers.
â??
My Tools/Supplies:
Tweezerman (3.5 inches long) and with slant tip (Available at Target, about $21.00)
Revlon all metal tweezers with very pointed tip (Available at Target)
Neutrogena Deep Clean Cream cleanser, oil free (Available at Target)
BD alcohol swabs, box of 100. (Available at Target by special order) CVS brand is not as good but works in a pinch. I do not recommend Target brand because the swab dries too quickly.
Dakins Solution full strength which is a 0.50% solution (Available at pharmacy, may be special order)
Cotton makeup removal pads
Aluminum foil
Pharmacy Lamp with 100 watt capability
Clip on lamp with 60 watt Halogen bulb (available at Lowes)
(Caution with pets or children since lamps get very hot and can cause burns.)
Step stool
Scotch Brite Stay Clean Scrubbers (plastic with purple color) (Available grocery store, Target)
Optional: Clinique Body Exfoliating Cream (â??Sparkle Skinâ??) in 8.5 ounce tub. Available at fine department stores
well i found about Morgellons like everyone else. thinking it was something else and asking about blue and black fibers coming out of the skin on the internet only for this uncurable disease to pop out at me like a demon. I have a 2 month old newborn and a 2 yr old and im scared to death they are going to catch this. The fibers and sores have mostly accumulated around my breast/areola area. im assuming because im still producing milk because i just gave birth a few months ago and they are feeding on the supply. but i have alot of fibers on my legs. im scared to shave my legs sometimes because everytime i do i see more and more of the fibers under my skin which look like vericose veins. i am 31 and always healthy. now i have high cholesterol in the 600’s . im always tired. i never want to do anything and im scratching up a storm constantly. someone needs to find a cure for this now before it kills off half the population especially if this is contagious. someone please help im scared for my childrens sake more than mine.
I first noticed that i was experiencing these detrimental parasites in 2001. I had been living w/a new boyfriend fir only a month or so. I saw him picking his face in the mirror and went to the mirror and faced him, asking him what he was doing when all of the sudden, as he was looking in the mirror and i at him, these black worm thread-like things came out of the hole he was digging at. Both of us were very startled, to say the least. Over the next couple of weeks I was at the herbal store it seemed about everyday looking for a cure and doing all kinds of research, so it didn’t spread to anyone else. I made him go to the hospital and all they said was that he had a legion on his liver. We broke up shortly after, I was too grossed out by it all. About 2 months later I noticed small bumps on my inner knees that wouldn’t go away, I treated them w/anything and more to no avail. I could feel fibers that were not hairs. I looked at my skin under this super powerful magnifying glass I had and was horrified for when I went to pull out one of the fibers with some tweezers, it ripped on about an inch in a jagged pattern. A day or two later there was a small sore in it’s place, i got the magnifying glass out and the tweezers, convinced it had to be an ingrown hair. I picked at the sore for a split second and it immediately hurt and it was like I could feel something move in my skin! I went to the Dr. and he thought I was tripping: sent me home w/ nothing. Over the next few months I had a bad succession of chest colds and I was extremely lethargic until after 5 weeks or so the cold would pass. I ignored any skin itches, movements, tingling. I had already become neurotic about home and body hygiene, what else could I do? Two Dr.’s quit on me. I KNEW what I saw and what I felt and had heard several other people mention spiders in their skin and didn’t share my story, preferring to keep it to myself. I liver, blood, colon detoxed fifty or so times over these 10 or so years. Seemingly, I had gotten rid of them, but recently I have become friends with some not so clean people and they”re back with the chest colds. I had at one time thought they were schistotomiasis, a parasite in snails humans can get from eating fish. Liver fluke? hook worm? Something new, I thought it was, so I dubbed it 7n1 because they seem to transmutate so much. With the terrorist threats, I thought about our nations water supply being attacked by another country. What if a certain type of person can see these? Or else everybody would be at the Dr. Why aren’t more people noticing these in their body or is everyone, including the medical profession, in denial? Liquid oxygen especially w/chlorophlyll applied directly onto the body and drank got rid of them the first time(s). The zapper is on my list. My feet and legs are greatly affected after all these years and I think it has to do with this
I have experienced what I thought at first might be this. But 5 years later having it return harshly again I have realized that I am severly electrostatic. The fibers actually got sucked into my skin, without me noticing, and dust and other organisms that lay dorman on top looking almost identicle to these picure. They dont use me as a food source. The scab stays for what seams like forever, i believe they then settle into the skin, and are along for the ride. I think they may take high sulpher content in the body and use it as a kind of photosynthesis. The fillings in my mouth caused dust and organisms to enter my lungs ears nose and throat.
when i grounded myself with my feet in a pail of salt and water, ran a copper wire to the tep on the sink, and the sink full of salt water, I couldnt belive my eyes. Strands, fibers, fluff, hairs, and all kinds of other crap that was stuck in my skin came out! oh yeah baking soda too was added’ alot like half a box. I also stoped coughing and choking on matter. Its not gone yet but when the electricity builds up I know because dust and stuff is attracted nto me, when its really bad my lungs have trouble, i cough and choke even get a sore throat. I go to the sink and ground myself again. it helps. try it, maybe this might be a cure for you too. gold and silver attached to the wire in any way helped the electricity leave my body.
Well, there’s not much I can say that hasn’t already been said by my fellow sufferers. The disease is incredibly REAL and SERIOUS. I’ve been suffering with Morgellon’s for over two years now…two TERRIFYING, LONELY, SHAMEFUL, and FRUSTRATING years. I’ve feared it, ignored it, instigated it, “treated” it, etc…I thank God for finally bringing this disease to light in modern medical research. I’ve never mentioned my Morgellon’s to any physician’s in fear of the inevitable: “You’re just paranoid-delusional (aka “crazy as heck”)…”
But, thankfully more and more sufferers are telling their stories. Although I hate the thought of ANYONE dealing with this constantly, I am overly relieved to know that I’m either not losing it, or we’re all losing it.
This is to Mark whose comment appears shortly before mine:
A GIGANTIC CONGRATS TO YOU!!
Do you have ANY IDEA what true Morgellon’s victims would do to be able to factually debunk the disease?!?!
You should definitely Thank God everyday, Mark, that you don’t have Morgs cause you clearly lack the strength, intelligence, and education to deal with what we deal with on a regular basis. I mean, do you SERIOUSLY believe that all of us are imagining things?!
Oh, and by the way, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve checked my clothing before wearing, after wearing, before washing, after washing, before buying, after buying, before Lysol, after Lysol, etc…Twice I’ve thrown out my COMPLETE wardrobe while moving, among other items…all out of fear of the unknown within the boundaries of my own God-given skin.
And so, Mark, I’ll finish by saying this:
Keep comparing clothing fibers to skin “fibers” as a form of research…And pray that you keep getting your “genius” conclusion…One day it might be YOU that people assume is on meth, have poor personal hygiene, or are simply “paranoid delusional!”
God Bless All!!
I became aware of this while undergoing treatment for scabies mites, which have given me a new found respect for upholtered surfaces in any public place, especially hospitals. Anyway, before my 2nd permethrin application I started itching again, and began to question if it was scabies at all. With a 50X microscope at work, I did some investigation of my own, where I found blue fibers coming out of some of the sores. That led me to google and then to learning about Morgellon’s.
My doubt multiplied many times over and I became very concerned about it. Upon further investigation, the fibers I found in my arm were the same color as a long sleeved T-shirt I was wearing a couple days before, when the itching started to return (larvae and nymphs from scabies eggs surviving the 1st permethrin treatment were hatching and digging in). Sores on my wrist did not contain any fibers but had the same itchiness. I brought the shirt in to compare its fibers to those coming out of my arm sores. They looked identical in diameter, color, and typical length. I really think I was simply pushing the fibers into affected areas of skin as I scratched over the clothing. As the scratches healed over, this would trap fibers lodged there, making them look like they were growing out. This is unscientific I know, but now that the scabies are gone, I don’t itch and am relieved to not be left with a rare and unidentified infection.
I sympathize with people suffering, but don’t write off the DoP diagnosis. Chemicals used to treat parasite infections can dry out the skin or damage nerves, causing itching even after the parasites are gone. Allergies and seasonal dryness can also generate an itch. I’m sure some psychological conditions lead to paranoia that you have parasites and obsessively scratch, which leads to wounds, infections and other problems. I have heard about “meth mites”, where users of crystal meth experience itching sensations under the skin and literally rip their skin open trying to get at imaginary bugs under there. I’m not saying you are a meth head if you scratch non-existent parasites, but reading some of the completely crazed posts here I have to wonder if one or two are in this category.
Again, this is all very unscientific and doesn’t explain the condition experienced by the first little boy for whom the condition is named, but I hope some people read this and try to match up the color and nature of fibers they might find to clothing they have been wearing, or other fiber-producing material that may have been used to relieve the itch. This would have saved me some effort and worry.