interesting morgs article

[Guest guest]

Has anyone read this yet?

http://www.jonchristianryter.com/Plain_Talk/080123.html

Morgellons Syndrome: Old Plague, New Disease.

A mysterious, rare parasitic disease called Morgellons Syndrome by

biologist Leitao of McMurray, Pennsylvania who discovered—or

rather, rediscovered—it in 2002 because doctors could not identify

it, is taking its toll on an estimated 7,000 US citizens. Up until

Leitao named it, the medical community had no answer to [a] what it

was, what triggered the condition, and [c] how to kill the

unidentified parasite that indiscriminately attacks men, women and

children.

Morgellons Syndrome, which many in the medical community still

insist is an imaginary disease caused by too much Internet exposure

and too much time on someone's hands, is not only real, but there is

no consistent protocol to treat it. Nor, does it appear, is there a

consistent manner in which its victims contract the disease.

Morgellons presents itself with the sensation of bugs crawling

around just under your skin. When the disease, first described 350

years ago, reappeared in 2002, it was dismissed by doctors as a

psychiatric condition known as " delusional paraitosis. " The

condition was first recorded by Sir Browne in 1674. Browne

described it as itching caused by some type of wormlike parasite

crawling around just under the skin. The sensation was accompanied

by biting, stinging and, occasionally, the brightly colored parasite

burrowing out of the skin for a few moments, then retreating back

into the epidermis.

Chemtrailers are convinced that Morgellons Syndrome is the result of

government experimentation, and that its victims contract it through

chemtrail debris. Interesting theory. Wrong conclusion. Morgellons

Syndrome is a parasitic infection. The parasite appears to be a

filarial nematode that acts like a silkworm, leaving behind a trail

of bizarre fibers. If the condition was caused by inhaling either an

inorganic chemical or biological agents, or having them land on the

victim with the ability to penetrate the skin and burrow into the

epidermis, the chemical or biological agent would still be inorganic

on, or in, the human body. In addition, if that was the case,

countless hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people would

have been exposed to the chemtrails. Why would only 7,000 or so

people in the United States contract the disease? The only answer:

because its not related to chemtrails.

Of course, as advocates of the chemtrail theory insist, it may be

that the disease simply has not manifested in its other victims yet,

or they may be being treated by their dermatologists for eczema,

cellulitis, scabies, or some other skin disorder as they complain

that there are bugs crawling around under their skin.

Modern Morgellons has been around long than chemtrails. Dr. C.E.

Kellot first identified it in 1935. He used the provincial term,

masclous (little flies) to describe it. Dr. Meffert, MD,

Associate Professor of Dermatology at the University of Texas has

attempted to debunk Morgellons Syndrome as a nonexistent disease. He

agrees that patients have something, but it's more likely scabies or

some form of eczema which he believes may be prurigo modularis (a

skin disorder characterized by itchy pea-sized nodules which usually

appear on the arms and/or legs). However, prurigo nodularis may look

like a Morgellons outbreak in its initial stage, but as the disease

progresses, prurigo nodularis does not develop the fiber strands

which are prevalent in all patients exhibiting symptoms of

Morgellons Syndrome.

It was summer, 2001. It was late evening in a middle class home on a

wooded, dead-end street in the McMurray area of s,

Pennsylvania. Leitao's husband was sleeping. He came home from

work, tired. Hard day. Leitao's two oldest children, and

had also gone to bed. Leitao's 2-year old son, Drew, was

sick. He had a irritated spot under his bottom lip—which he told his

mother felt like it was " full of bugs. "

Leitao had taken Drew to several Pittsburgh-area dermatologists and

pediatricians. None could identify what Drew had. Most referred to

it as a case of scabies or eczema. They prescribed various ointments

and creams to treat it. None of them worked. On this night, she

bathed Drew and was applying a cream ointment that appeared to be

working well to stop the itch. Drew lay in his mother's lap, lulled

by the bath and his mother's caress. Leitao began rubbing the

ointment on her son in gentle, circular motions. Something unusual

happened. A fiber-like substance came from Drew's skin. She

collected a sample of the fibers and got her older son's $8 Radio

Shack microscope and looked at the fibers. Since that night, she has

examined those strands—and others—under various microscopes at the

University of Massachusetts and, later, as a medical researcher at a

Boston-area hospital.

The fibers now obsessed her completely because of what she sees in

people with Morgellons Syndrome—a name she coined based on her study

of the research done by Sir Browne—are at odds with the

majority of the American medical community which still believes

Morgellons does not exist.

But if you ask former Oakland Athletics relief pitcher Koch or

his wife , or California resident Verna Gallagher, each of

them will assure you, it's real. When Morgellons struck Koch, he was

sold by the Toronto Blue Jays to Oakland, and from Oakland to

Chicago and, finally, from Chicago back to Toronto. He developed a

mysterious illness in 2004. So did his wife . What was the

mysterious illness? According to Koch, it consisted of

strings and black specks coming out of their skin. " [] freaked

out, " she said. " He wanted to ignore it. I wanted to, too. But when

it comes to your kids, you gotta stop ignoring it. " In two years

Koch was out of pro ball. The fans couldn't understand the illness

because his body didn't twitch and he showed no signs that he was

sick when he pitched. Except, he stopped winning games. And the

teams that owned his contract dumped him.

When it first struck Koch, she said she began to be

increasingly forgetful and detached. Her doctor diagnosed her as

having Lyme Disease. " Then, " she said, " the horror really started. I

noticed there was some kind of matter coming out of my skin, not

just where I had sores. " Prior to the illness, she worked regularly

and competed in 10K runs. Then her legs and arms began to swell, and

for no reason, she got lesions on her back. Doctors decided she had

an auto-immune disease, perhaps arthritis. Then they decided it was

scleroderma. In truth, the doctors had no idea what was wrong and

chose to ignore the fibers which she insisted were coming out of her

skin. Attributing the fibers to the clothes she wore, they refused

to associate them with her illness.

Verna Gallagher, 50, of Roseville, California has suffered from

Morgellons for three years. Her dermatalogist doesn't believe in

Morgellons and is convinced the fibers she thinks are coming out of

her skin is actually clothing fiber and lint. The doctor is

concerned that she might be suicidal because she now cries a lot.

Meanwhile, Gallagher says she is concerned about the dark specks and

fibers that now infest her house. She has paid for exterminators,

bathed in Borax, takes antidepressants and spends hundreds of

dollars on vitamins, garlic pills and other potential remedies she's

found on the Internet. Now Gallagher has become a hermit in her own

home, spending most of her day isolated in her bedroom to reduce the

chances of infecting others.

In 2006, a young man in Texas who was afflicted with Morgellons

Syndrome committed suicide because his doctors refused to believe

there were " things " growing out of his skin. " Parasitosis is a

classic form of shared delusion, " Dr. Seeman of the University

of Toronto said. " Skin disease is [a] perfect [catalyst] for it. A

person gets in a rush or something, then the disease spreads through

any shared space in which there is close contact. " One woman, she

said, convinced her husband that neighbors were shooting at her with

lasers. Another convinced her sister that they were both being

attacked by bugs. " When a person has something bothering him these

days, " Seeman said, " they get online [where they] get reinforcement

[of their] ideas. " And, of course, the conspiracy is born.

Leitao, who in Seeman's view would likely be one of the

ringleaders of the fiber conspiracy, created the Morgellons Research

Foundation website in her home using her own limited financial

resources. But Drew Leitao, like most of those who have been—and

still are—misdiagnosed, still see doctors who fail to believe that

he fibers are not related to the illness, which is still being

diagnosed as eczema.

When Sue Laws of Gaithersburg, land first experienced Morgellons

Syndrome, it felt like bees stinging her back. The stinging

sensation was so severe she screamed for her husband. When he

checked her back, there appeared to be nothing there. She didn't

believe him. To prove it, he stuck duct tape on her back and ripped

it off to prove it was nothing. The tape was covered with tiny red

fibers. Only, Laws was not wearing any red clothing. Over the next

few months, the itching got worse. And, worse yet, it felt like

there were bugs crawling around under her skin. Her doctor, of

course, could find nothing wrong.

Believing she was suffering from insect infestation, the Laws tore

up all of the carpeting in their home and sanded the floors. Then,

suspecting it might be some type of mold, they stripped off all the

wallpaper and painted the walls. Her condition worsened.

Every morning she found black specs on her sheets, and where the

specks were on her body, there were droplets of blood. Like the

Kochs', her joints began to ache. But, in her case, her hair began

to fall out and, for no reason, her teeth began to rot. Then one

morning as she looked in the mirror, a pink worm came out of one of

her eyeballs. Sue Laws was convinced she was going to die a very

horrible death. It was at that time she found Leitao's website.

What the Laws were experiencing was the laundry list of symptoms for

Morgellons—except the pink worm. No other Morgellons victim has

reported that oddity of the disease.

(last name omitted by victim), a New Yorker, decided

to " winter " in a rented condo in Florida in 2004. Within a month or

so, she began to wonder if the rented house was infested with fleas.

She was experiencing what felt like bug bites; and she developed a

nagging itch. One Florida friend thought she might have noseeums (a

microscopic mite), or possibly chiggers, or some other form of mite,

and gave her remedies for all of them. Because the people who owned

the house had a dog and because several stray cats constantly hung

around the home, set off a bug bomb to kill what she

believed was a flea population—eight times.

When she returned to New York in the spring, she passed the

infection on to her sister, two daughters and a granddaughter. Like

Leitao's son Drew, the Koches, Gallagher and Sue Laws,

experienced all of the Morgellons symptoms. Her doctor,

like everyone else's doctor, gave her lotion for the itching and the

constant stinging sensation. While her sister and daughter—both

blood relatives—contracted the disease from, her daughter's husband

and grandson did not. After a year-and-a-half of suffering,

discovered Leitao's Morgellons Research Foundation

website and realized what it was that she had. But, like every other

victim of Morgellons, she still has the problem because the medical

community insists on calling it eczema. And no one has yet

discovered how to cure Morgellons.

Carol Doe, also a New Yorker and also an alias, managed the employee

communications department for a Fortune 100 company until she

contracted Morgellons Syndrome. Where she used to spend hours each

week negotiating multi-million dollar contracts for her company, she

now has trouble writing simple statements—which can take a whole

day, or longer, to construct. She also has trouble getting out of

bed before noon. She no longer drives, and no longer invites friends

into her home. And, she no longer allows her husband to share their

bed, fearful that she will pass her horrible disease on to him. In

2006 her doctor correctly diagnosed her as having Morgellons Disease.

Pam Winkler of Bel Air, land was a placid suburban housewife.

She had two beautiful children and a bright future until she

contracted this strange malady that some people were calling

the " fiber disease. " When Morgellons struck, the doctors told her it

was her imagination. And, because everyone insisted it was " in her

mind, " Winkler began to believe that perhaps it was. She ended up in

a psychiatric ward of a suburban DC hospital against her will, and

ended up on antipsychotic medication—also against her will. In the

end, using her confinement as grounds, her husband divorced her and

gained custody of their children. According to Winkler, she still

blows black fibers and specks from her nose. The doctors who were

treating her at the mental facility insist the lesions and black

fibers are self-inflicted.

While the medical community is still skeptical that Morgellons is a

real medical condition, thousands of those afflicted with the

disease have flooded Congress with letters, demanding that they

devote the research dollars needed to identify the origin of the

disease and find an adequate treatment, and cure, for it. As a

result of pressure from the public, the Centers for Disease Control

[CDC] agreed, on Jan. 17, 2008, to dedicate a million dollars a year

in 2008 and 2009 for an epiderminological study on what the CDC

termed " an unexplained dermopathy " which was now affecting

approximately 2,000 new victims each year. Leitao claims 7,000

people have registered with the Morgellons Research Foundation, the

CDC has thus far found over 11,000 families in the United States

that are affected with the strange, as yet medically undefined

disease.