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 have been using the Clinique 2® daily with excellent results. It does not burn or irritate intact skin or even my scab covered areas. Actually, what I’ve been seeing for over a year does not resemble normal skin. Instead it appears to be layers (1/16-1/8 inch thick) of dead skin held together by a super-glue like substance that I believe is a bacterial biofilm. The Clinique 2® (See previous post for details) seems to penetrate and decimate this thick dead skin and biofilm and by doing so, over a period of days or weeks, the fibers become visible, and itching is less.
For now, I have stopped using the Cansema® but will do so again for a very itchy area uncontrolled by the above. See previous post regarding safety and precautions with Cansema® deep tissue black salve on for instructions for Clinique 2®.
Also, forgot to mention, items such as washcloths and luffas can accumulate bacteria. Those items that cannot be washed thoroughly, I throw away. I replace the Scotch Brite® weekly and as needed.
Has anyone else had a problem with hair styling since getting Morgellons? I have very fine hair that has seemed weighted down for about a year and it has been impossible to style. Because the “Clinique® 2 Clarifying Lotion, Dry Combination Skin” worked so well on the crusts and scales on my legs, I decided to try the solution on my hair. I shampooed normally, rinsed and then rubbed the Clinique® through my hair and rinsed.
The difference is amazing. My hair feels clean, styles easily and has lots of body. I am not sure why my hair felt so heavy and awful before, but I suspect that I may have gradually transferred the bacterial biofilm from my leg wounds to my hair via my hands. The biofilm is impossible to remove from the hands with soap alone.
I now use the Clinique® on my legs daily to help remove scales and to reduce the itching. It’s fabulous and the fibers are far more visible now. I have no financial interests….
New treatment to help remove crusts/scales. After showering, cleansed scaly areas with “Clinique® 2 Clarifying Lotion, Dry Combination Skin” by pouring about 2-3ounces into a disposable plastic cup and adding a couple “Healthy Accents® quilted facial cleansing pads” and scrubbed the problem areas. I then rinsed then scrubbed the crusted skin with the Scotch Brite® (purple, plastic) and “Neutrogena® Deep Clean Cream Cleanser, Oil Free” combination as described previously. Once the skin was dry, the heavy buildup of scales easily flaked off with my nails.
“Clinique®2 Clarifying Lotion, Dry Combination Skin” is available at fine department stores, such as Nordstrom’s or Macy’s. It costs about $18.00 for a big bottle. I first discovered this product from a Clinique® sample gift pack so check with family/friends for some unopened samples. After skin/wound care, this product works great under fingernails and for cleansing hands (after first washing with hand soap and rinsing). I have found hand soap to be ineffective by itself.
To help prevent accidental bacterial contamination of skin products, I frequently use plastic disposable cups to transfer small amounts of my cleansers. Since it is my belief that a bacterial infection is one of several factors in the chronic wounds, I wash my sheets and bath towels in hot water and dry on the hottest dryer setting after just ONE use.
Have you tried T Tree Oil?
NO. Never heard of T Tree Oil. Please tell me about it if you’ve tried it. Thanks.
Please visit the following link for photos and treatments that I have found effective for Morgellons.
https://www.timesocket.com/disease/effective-treatments-for-morgellons-disease/
I strongly recommend that anyone with a persistent dermatology condition use a high-quality zoom lens camera and start a dated photographic diary of all effected extremities. The lesions (for me) spread contiguously and insidiously and it is difficult to judge progress from memory alone, due to the wax and wane nature of signs/symptoms (s/s). With Morgellons, the condition does not resolve spontaneously, but can improve.
When I noted improvement in symptoms, I tried to immediately recall what had changed, such as number of hours of sleep, antibiotics, and foods/supplements. Certain foods did help, such as the Guava juice previously mentioned. The “Morgi fog” improved after eating walnuts high in omega-3s. Neurological s/s improved with high dose B-12 supplements. (The “time release” B-12” did not seem to help). Blackberries helped sleep. Some of this stuff may sound ridiculous, but many foods provide the nutrients necessary for the body to produce or utilize neurotransmitters. The later helps regulate/improve sleep, mood, depression and anxiety as well as memory.
Update on Cansema® deep tissue black salve. Just used it again (about the 5th time). I’ll post the before and after photos at a later date, as well as a photo from months ago before I started using this stuff. The difference is amazing. I got the clinical size jar and use a Popsicle stick (washed, dried and then wrapped in saran wrap) to stir the salve to a uniform consistency. Be sure to keep pets and kids away from this salve and to clean up in application areas and thoroughly rinse salve from tub/shower.
The first time, I used Cansema® on one small spot, then the entire foot. It burns like hell but subsequent treatments were far less painful. The third time I used it on both feet and both lower legs from the knees down so that all affected areas were treated more or less simultaneously. I start with the worst areas first. The bad spots seem to absorb this stuff at a very fast rate and so I always apply more salve to these areas as needed. Each time, I wash off in the shower after 10-15 minutes.
The previous two times I used this stuff, relief was felt within hours, with less fatigue, less fever and less pain and itching. See previous warnings posted below.
Has anyone else tried this stuff?
Here is a link to my pictures and my experience using the deep tissue black salve. Please see previous warnings posted by myself and t. I certainly cannot recommend anything and there are risks. This is powerful stuff and the pictures are graphic.
https://www.timesocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/cansema-pic-chronology.docx
Will I use it again? Absolutely!
Is this ictmol ointment,thick,black,tar smelling oil or something like
Yes. I ordered Cansema Deep Tissue from Alpha Omega Labs
http://www.altcancer.com/Products/qblack-salveq.html
305-851-2308. I don’t have an opinion on any similar products from other providers. I am a born skeptic- reinforced by my education (masters in nursing).
This stuff is the closest miracle treatment I have found after fifteen months of research. It probably won”t cure in just one or two treatments. I just did my third. There are risks as stated earlier, esp. to facial areas and those with impaired circulation. Safety in pregnancy and lactation is also unknown. See previous comments by t and myself.
Wow! Less than 24-hours since I used the topical black salve and what a difference! Within hours, an intensely itchy sore on my leg ruptured and drained sticky yellow grainy stuff and my fever decreased by 2 degrees. I have more energy and my entire body feels better. I was able to sleep through the night without needing to scratch.
For more info, see my previous post on the deep tissue topical black salve. I have no financial interests-just a humananitarian one.
Just wanted to let you all know that I’ve made some improvements to the comment system including the ability to reply to specific comments. Your response will appear under the comment you replied to.
Would it be possible for us to share photos by sending them within a word file? Thanks.
I’ve added a new section for User Submitted Pictures at the end of the article with a link to share an image. Please try uploading the pictures you want to share through this feature.
I have tried to post individual photos as well as a group of related photos, but neither has worked. It would be helpful to be able to post through a word doc or through a copy and paste jpeg format. I have also tried to paste photos inserted in my word doc in the comments sections, but the images do not appear. Thank you for the improvements.
The feature that was added only allows individual photos to be uploaded and they must be in image format. Word allows you to save the image to a file by right clicking and selecting “Save as Picture”. This will allow you to upload/share the image. I have sent you an email and if you reply with the Word document, I will upload it so it can be shared via a link in your comment.
Dear Admin,
it would be nice to have a vistor counter so we can see how many people check out this site. Also, I tried to sign up for manage my subcription but I wasn’t sure which boxes to enable. Thank you.
You hadn’t fully activated the subscribe feature. I have now marked it as active so you should receive an email if someone comments on the post.
I’m not sure how well a visitor counter would work but will look into the possibility of adding one.
Jessica,
I think you are on to something. Genectically modified food, microbes or anything are sure to have severe human and environmental consequences. GM cotton and gm crops have been linked to itcy rashes in humans and death in cattle grazing on genetically modified plants/feed, and posssibly to colony bee collapse. The latter alone could, according to some experts, reduce the world production of food by 50 % or more. Apparently, in the US, gm foods and consumer products do not have to be labeled as such. So much for consumer protection!
Here are some links on gm cotton you might find interesting.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/BtCottonKillsSoilandFarmers.php
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/farmersSuicidesBtCottonIndia.php
http://www.qwmagazine.com/2012/06/14/brazilian-farmers-win-2-billion-judgment-against-monsanto/#