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Is this a disease or an episode of the X Files?
Last updated at 19:07pm on 18.09.07The symptoms sound like something from The X Files - sufferers complain of a crawling sensation all over the body, egg-like lumps under the skin and, even more bizarrely, cuts which produce tiny red and blue fibres.
Many doctors, however, are highly sceptical - dismissing the symptoms as imaginary and patients as delusional.
But a growing number of experts believe the symptoms are genuine, and the U.S. government's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating the condition - Morgellons disease - as reported in the New Scientist.
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Morgellons disease: Sufferers complain of cuts which produce tiny red and blue fibres
This belated recognition comes as a great relief to the many thousands of sufferers, such as Beverley Warren, who have struggled for years with this debilitating condition.
"It feels like tiny insects crawling or biting under my skin," says Beverley, 63, from Manchester.
As a result she hardly sleeps at night, constantly woken by the intense itching on her arms.
"I scratch and scratch, but it doesn't help. I've suffered hundreds of nights like this. Sometimes I just lie awake, crying."
Beverley's arms are covered with dozens of sores. Some have tiny, white, egg-like lumps on them, just under the skin surface.
More bizarrely, when Beverley scratches her arms, small black specks, which look like tiny grains of pepper, appear from under the surface of the skin.
The problem appeared 11 years ago.
Doctors and dermatologists have been unable to give her a diagnosis, and two skin biopsies have provided no answer.
At the suggestion of a dermatologist, Beverley applies creams to try to soothe the itching and then bandages her arms for two days to protect the area.
Unfortunately, this hasn't helped.
"The only thing that provides relief is when I put ice on my arms," she says.
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Sufferer Beverley Warren
Then in April, Beverley discovered that she was not the only person with the problem.
After typing 'itching on the arms' into an internet search engine, she came across a website for Morgellons disease.
"My husband looked at the screen and said: 'My God, those are all the symptoms you've described.'"
Incredibly, more than 10,000 people worldwide had registered on the website claiming they suffered, too.
But in addition to Beverley's symptoms, many complained of something even stranger: tiny fibres, of various colours, growing out of their skin.
One of them is Rita, who lives in Somerset.
She says: "The fibres are 1mm or 2mm long and are either pinky red, blue, brown, black or transparent. They look like little hairs and most grow out of the lesions on my arms, legs and torso."
Four years ago, Rita, 47, started being affected by what many sufferers describe as brain fog.
"My thinking became cloudy and forgetful," she explains. "I jumble up my words and sometimes, if someone is talking to me, I can't understand what they are saying so I have to ask them to repeat themselves."
The condition forced Rita to give up her career as a legal secretary.
"The doctors are very dismissive. One doctor sent the fibres off to a lab, but all she said was that nothing abnormal had been detected." Among Morgellons sufferers, this is a common experience.
The disease was named in 2002 by an American mother, Mary Leitao, whose two-year- old son one day pointed to his lip and said 'bugs'.
Mary was alarmed to find fibres growing there, but soon became frustrated that no doctor would investigate her son's condition.
She began researching it for herself, and came across a 17th-century article which described a condition, 'The Morgellons', where unusual hairs would grow out of the skin.
In the U.S., where the majority of cases are found, the number of people claiming to have the same symptoms - and the absence of a medical explanation - led to last month's launch of the government's CDC investigation, involving a team of specialists in epidemiology, environmental health, dermatology, chronic diseases, infectious diseases, pathology and mental health.
However, most experts believe the condition is a psychological disorder called delusional parasitosis.
All in the mind: According to Morgellons sufferers doctors are dismissive of their illness
Sufferers convince themselves the crawling sensations and fibres are evidence of an infection by a parasite.
"The brain tells them something is crawling on or under their skin," says
Professor Lynn Kimsey, an expert on insects and disease at the University of California.
"The human brain is wired to make connections between events, but we don't always draw the right conclusions. Only in a small proportion of cases do real parasites - such as mites - cause this type of thing."
Instead, Prof Kimsey says, the skin sensations are likely to be the result of changes in brain and nerve chemistry, commonly triggered by drug or alcohol abuse or hormonal changes such as the menopause.
The patients constantly scratch their skin - a process called neurotic excoriation - creating sores that never get the chance to heal.
As Professor Noah Scheinfeld, a dermatologist at Columbia University in the U.S., explains: "The skin becomes a sink for nervous energy and the slightest sensation can lead people to itch."
Even the fibres have a simple explanation: "They inevitably turn out to be lint from clothes, household fibres or hair," Kimsey says.
"Sores and scabs attract and trap these fibres."
The sceptics say Morgellons is best treated with dermatological creams for the sores - and possibly anti-psychotic drugs in severe cases.
But a handful of experts have found evidence that seems to contradict conventional explanations.
Randy Wymore, assistant professor of pharmacology at Oklahoma State University, stumbled across the Morgellons website and, surprised by the number of people claiming to be affected, offered to test some of the fibres at his lab.
"I thought it would be easy to determine their origin," he says.
But contrary to his expectations, the fibres did not match any common environmental ones.
So Wymore invited some Morgellons patients in to be examined by a colleague, Rhonda Casey.
She found that even under unbroken skin there were masses of fibres. A
fter extensive tests, scientists including a police forensics team drew a blank as to their origin, despite comparing them to more than 90,000 organic compounds.
Meanwhile, at the State University of New York, Vitaly Citovsky, professor of biochemistry and cell biology, found that the lesions of Morgellons patients test positively for the presence of agrobacterium, a bacterium used in the commercial production of genetically modified food - but not normally found in skin sores.
Psychiatrist Robert Bransfield has studied a database of 3,000 Morgellons patients and argues that the psychological profile of Morgellons patients does not fit with a diagnosis of delusional parasitosis.
"Before the onset of their illness, their mental status appears to be quite representative of the general population," says Bransfield.
"Later on they may become paranoid and delusional; but they don't start out that way."
Immunopsychology experts such as Bransfield are discovering that the body's own immune reaction to invasion by a parasite can significantly affect levels of brain chemicals, such as serotonin.
In other illnesses, such as hepatitis C, this can result in altered psychological states and mental symptoms.
Morgellons could work this way, too, Bransfield suggests.
Some test results have led researchers to speculate that Morgellons may be caused by an unusual fungal parasite.
For Beverley, the new investigation cannot come soon enough.
"I'm not delusional," she says. "I just want to find out what is happening to my body."
Reader views (19)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
This is not a disease as far as a technical term goes. The sores are produced due the body ''sweating out'' what is being put into our bodies and not by our own choice. Have you ever heard of Chemtrails? Chemtrails have been found to contain among other elements, aluminum and barium in high quantities. When these nano particle elements filter down to us we breath them, drink them and ingest them in our foods. Some of us are fortunate enough to have bodies that excrete them through our skin. These small granular particles are a product of the chemtrails that the world government is putting in the skies. Browse ''chemtrails and skin sores''. My doctor even told me that is what they are from. And as far as vibrations in your body, Anita, browse ''project woodpecker'' and ''ELF waves''. These vibrations are from things like HAARP. Look up http://us.figu.org/portal/Knowledge/HAARPProject/tabid/110/Default.aspx
- George, Hendersonville USA
suffering greatly, I have seen a dermatologist,a infecttious diseas DR. no understandig of what I'm going through. I am being stung daily, many bites to many to count. Spraying poisen & all natural srays as well it only seems to keep them small enough so that they don't draw blood. My finances ars ruined by this. My son is living with his dad right now because
when he spends time here he is targeted as well, he's just 7 and has always lived with me. I am a mess, I moved because of this and it came right along as well. My story is lenghly and I can't spend to long on the comuter
I't feel best to be under covers and sleeping but the minute I wake up I know the problem is still there. desperate for help and uderstanding?????
- Anita Banuelos, colorado springs colo
i have be having this movement in my body for the past five years,is just like a virabration,it moves all over my body,every seconds and any time am in a still postion,i can also feel it crawing on my head,my pinnar,i have gone for series of test but all nagative,sometimes i feel like is a bug or worms,but just confuess,any hospital i go for checkup am told that there is nothing wrong with me,please can u tell me what is wrong with my body and what step i can take next,because am so confuse
- Sonia Rose, lagos state,nigerian
Everything just the same, I don't go back to the Dr. anymore. Humiliating . I can't stand much more. Everyone tired of hearing it and don't believe it anymore. However they don't think I'm crazy.
- Lynn, Eugene, Oregon
I have had a parasite infection for a while but only found one doctor who would test me several years ago & said it was negative. Although I knew I saw a parasite move under my skin he like the others were dismissive so I gave up not knowing what to do.
Then about 8 mos ago I awoke a few times with small cuts on my arms and lesions on my chest and one on the side of my face like the one the woman has. I started using something called a zapper and some antiparasitic herbs and thats when I started feeling the crawling sensation. No doctor would beleive me but that the some mainstream conclusion in this article that I was imagianing it, it was some sensation in my brain. And they wouldn't even examine me let alone test me. So I resorted to trying to treat myself and I have been thankful to find lots of support on the internet and many others dealing with the exact same thing. Many have physical stool specimins of worms that still come out negative when given to a lab for testing so you get no where with those in conventional medicine with this.
I have recently even found blood coming from by hear where I have felt a lot of parasite movement. I'm sure they would claim I did it, but my word that that isn't ture would be totally dismissed or ignored. Amazing how if a dog's butt itches he can go to the vet and be treated for parasites but humans are told they are crazy. Amazing or is something else going on with giving dogs better treatment and respect than humans.
- Shoronda, New Jersey
Last year my friend Anne Fenton jumped off the top of a nine+parking garage because she was fed up with the illness. She did not know it was Morgellons. She was however labelled mentally ill and treated for it. She had no support on the disease at all. I was witness to the small grainings and the fibers and her long relentless misery. I hope people will do the right thing and get a hold of this issue because it could grow out of proportion in the world. Stop engineering food and grow the real things so that we don't end up with alien parasite food attacking our biology.
- Reina Brown, baltimore, maryland
After reading many of the Morgellons reports, I am hear to say that you victims of this are not crazy. I have experienced this for 13 years and it has gone from bad to worse. I was told I wasn't crazy then but I am a little now. Nothing works, and trust me I've been guinea pig to it all. If anyone can shed light on this ---please---let me hear from you. Thank you so much.
- Lynn, Eugene, Oregon
Dear Jan,
If Dr Hilde Staninger has the data, why does she not publish this? If she is saying that the tiny fibres are in some way 'alive' and have intelligence, and that they are from the world of nanobiotechnology, is she saying that they are actually nanomachines?
Now, even if this is true, how do you know that they come from chemtrails? It seems that some people in the UK think that they might have this new disease. Is there much in the way of a chemtrail problem here?
Dr Staninger seems to think that the fibres are man made. Dr Randy Wymore could not get them identified as any known textyles in the police forensic labs, and his colleague said that the fibres are growing under some people's skin, and are thus not just present in the wounds, (the latter could be environmental contaminants, but not if they 'move on their own).
Professor Vitaly Citovsky has detected an unusual species (in human infection) of agrobacterium in the lesions of sufferers. This DNA altering species of microorganism usually is found in plants, giving rise to crown gall disease.
So, we are being asked to believe that there is some kind of link between nano machines and agrobacterium infection. Not only that, we must also take account of a contemporaneous infestation with possibly worms or insects.
Does Dr Staninger think that such a mixture could come out of chemtrails?
It seems that the CDC is investigating this. What about the ECDC? (If a sufferer is in the EU.)
- Myrtle Jones, Glasgow, Scotland
I am mentioned in this article and I am not delusional. The arms and the problems are cyclical, starting with the white hard (egglike) lumps. These develop and the itching starts. Then little grains like black pepper come out. I can go for months without a problem although the last "infestation" has been carrying on now for over a year. I was not menopausal 11 years ago. In fact I had a complete hysterectomy at age 41 and this problem did not start until I was 52. It was originally diagnosed as Sweets Syndrome but that was later on retracted. I have lived in Africa and the Middle East and have wondered whether I have actually contracted something in either the desert regions or the tropical rain forests. One way or another long before I saw anything about Morgellons I was describing what I was experiencing as "like worms or insects in my arm".
I am an intelligent, well educated, down to earth person - not given to hysteria and wild flights of imagination.
All I say is that in the absence of any other diagnosis I am willing to go along with Morgellons which, if articles are read correctly, more and more scientists are beginning to research and take more seriously.
- Beverley Warren, Blackpool, UK
Thank you for mentioning my research in your article. Morgellon's is a true foreign invader.
- Dr. Hildegarde Staninger, Los Angeles, CA
It seems this is a story to watch - all too oftened sidelined. It is certainly worth doing your own research on this one.
- Andrew Johnson, Derby, UK
This report was also in the Daily Mail, So I am heartened to see it finally getting the attention it deserves.
I would like to see a study that shows if there is any correlation between GM crop sites and Morgellon's sufferers.
- Ken Hall, Barrow in Furness, UK
Anyone who doubts Morgellons is real needs to look at the work being done by world renowned toxicologist Dr Hildigar Stainger Phd.
Following a years research Dr Stainger has discovered that Morgellons fibres are not only alive they are in fact intelligent. Morgellons is spreading at the alarming rate of 1000 new infections daily.
- Caroline Carter, Surret UK
Thorough-going studies in the USA show that the Morgellons threads are nano-scale, active objects. If they have no natural equivalent then it is reasonable to think that they are recently man-made.
- David Burnett, Wimborne UK
There is physical evidence with this illness. There are videos of the fibres that move of their own accord. I have watched this condition spread for 12 months. I told the bbc about it 6 months ago and they will not report on it.
The latest independent research shows that the fibres are made of polyethelyne, a man made chemical. This suggests that Morgellons is a by product of nanotech science. Well done Thisislondon, to have the guts to report this.
- Anna, Nottingham
This diesease is simply an acute form of Candida Albicans and can be easily treated through diet and supplements. It is caused by people taking too many anti-biotics which, of course, kill all the pro-biotics in the body. Eat some yogurt and you'll be fine.
- Paul, Perth, Australia
"...the lesions of Morgellons patients test positively for the presence of agrobacterium, a bacterium used in the commercial production of genetically modified food - but not normally found in skin sores".
And our government is doing their best to allow companies like Monsanto to introduce genetically modified food (AKA Frankenstein Food) into the UK! We need to do everything we can to prevent this from happening before it's too late and the food chain is contaminated!
- Andrew Miller, Manchester, UK
Professors Dr. Lynn Kimsey and Dr Noah Shienfeld should not be commenting on Morgellons until they educate themselves about this particular illness. There is a growing body of very convincing scientific research and evidence that those with symptoms of Morgellons are suffering from a unique, new and very real systemic disease. Fibers found in the skin lesions of Morgellons victims are clearly NOT common household fibers or lint. Morgellons victims share common blood abnormalities. The majority of these people also have coinfections of Lyme or Lyme along with Babesia, other tick borne diseases and various parasites.
In addition to making idiots of themselves, based on current scientific research and evidence doctors who continue to insist on brushing off the complaints of Morgellons victims with diagnosis of Delusions of Parasitosis or with claims that the lesions are self inflicted will inevitably be the focus of future lawsuits for non treatment and malpractice.
- Glenn, San Francisco
Professor Scheinfled is dead wrong. The people who have Morgellons disease have fibers called nanowires that burn at 1400 on their bodies. These are not blanket fuzz or textile fibers.
There are also communications arrays and chembots. There is nothing else in the world that can be mistaken for them.
These people wouldn't know nanotechnology if it bit them. There has been real research done using state of the art lab equipment and Morgellons disease has been positively identified as nano technology that has invaded the human race as well as animals and insects. The nanotechnology is coming from chemtrails. Dr Hildegard Staninger has the data. The mainstream media has been told not to run the story and her life has been threatened.
The new findings broke last night on Rense.com. Go there and see the photos of nanotech debris taken from human beings. Time to wake up and smell the evil .
The mainstream press and the govrnments will not tell you what they have been doing so please go to Rense.com to learn the truth.
- Jan Smith, New Hampshire, USA
