Dozens of people in California a couple of years ago were calling government doctors 20 times per day talking about the feeling of bugs crawling on their bodies, having oozing sores and then getting fibers sprouting from the skin. Dianne Feinstein, a California state senator, called for a scientific study of the problem. The study began in 2008 of the problem called Morgellons.
The study, despite costing $600,000, found that the problem exists only in the minds of the patients.
“We found no infectious cause,” said Mark Eberhard, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who was part of the 15-member study team.
The symptoms described by Morgellon sufferers include erupting sores, fatigue, crawling sensations on the skin and mysterious red, blue or black fibers sprouting from the skin. Some patients claim they have suffered for decades but the syndrome was not named until 2002.
In May, the Mayo Clinic published a study of 108 Morgellons patients, with the study saying none of those patients suffered from unusual physical ailments. The Mayo Clinic study also said that the sores on their skin were caused mainly because of their own picking and scratching.
The CDC study included 3 million people living in 13 counties within Northern California, which was chosen because the majority of the people in the area had health insurance through Kaiser Permanente of Northern California. The majority of the anecdotal reports came from that area too.
Hundreds of people were tested using blood and urine tests and skin biopsies for various infectious diseases that included fungus and bacteria. None of the results were able to explain the cases. There was no visible sign of an environmental cause either, even though investigators did not go to each patient’s house.
The one thing that stood out incredibly was the fact that the majority of the patients had more depression than the general public and more of them were also more obsessive about physical sicknesses than the general public.
“The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” said Felicia Goldstein, an Emory University neurology professor and study co-author.
Randy Wymore, a pharmacologist from Oklahoma State University, was the most recognized scientist to work on the project and said that Morgellons is not a psychiatric disorder.
“There is always the question: How many of the study participants actually have Morgellons Disease?” he said.
There is no additional study planned by the CDC. The expertise of the agency is in infectious diseases and environmental health problems and the researchers on the project could not find any evidence of that.
“We’re not mental health experts,” one CDC spokeswoman said.
This just saddens me too end, my sister has been suffering nearly 8 years now with this I have done so much research that it led me to believe that for her particular case it was somehow contracted through the soil in here pond. Prior to the outbreak of sores on her body she explained and described the very same things far before Morgellons was even a thought in the internets head. Her dog who was a young healthy lab first began when she drank from the pond water, within months she got a strange rash that was incurable- the vet’s could not help her nor figure out what is was, he health deteriated and within 3 years she was lame in the legs and was visablly suffering. My sister made the choice to put her to sleep so she would not continue to suffer, at this point in time my sister a year earlier prior to her dogs death began with a larger ammount of sores I have pics to proof and she Is not a meth user or mentally ill. She is a normal person who has suffered so greatly since the beginning of this nightmare that my heart has been broken for her and that is why I continue to try to the best of my knowledge to find a way to make sense of this. It is now 2012, my sister is so debilitated that she is covered in lesions that are now all infected, that is the problem also at hand the secondary infections that come with the disease. She is mentally foggy now all the time, her speech is that of a person who has had a stroke, her teeth all all falling out on their own, her hair is falling out. She has lost most of her hearing. She is continually confused and tries the best she can to stay clear and focused but that is the later progression of this condition- the sores are half the battle, its the neurological distruction that poses the greatest threat of all. The quality of life is zero now, she stays home all the time since people look at her and treat her like she is a contaminated monster. She has a heart of gold, and leans on her faith is Christ that somehow he will make sense of all this and cure her. Like most people suffering the medical field offers no help, rather just makes a mock of you! I have went to numerous medical appointments with her to be a mentor and advocate for her since she can barely face a thing now. The shame that comes with this disease, making you not even recognizable to your self or your children is the greatest loss. I believe my sister will lose her life to this and its a damn shame that many others in the next 5-10 years will be at the same stage my sister is at. The end basically. And why? Because she was an outdoors girl that had her hands in the dirt too much?? The awnsers will never be told, but I will stand tall to tell her story when she can not. There is more then meets the eyes, this is not in peoples heads or they would never have spend $600,000 researching it in the first place and that is the bottom line, I believe the findings were too scary- and in time the truth will be told.
Lisa – please call me re Morgellons; I’m sure we can help each other. Keith 619-550-9755
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