I seem to be hearing more and more about this!


http://www.gulflive.com/news/mississipp ... 334270.xml

Mysterious skin ailment surfaces here
Monday, August 07, 2006
By NATALIE CHAMBERS

PASCAGOULA -- A Pascagoula woman, who asked for anonymity, said she had never been sick a day in her life until a year ago when Hurricane Katrina struck.

Now the 55-year-old woman's body is plagued with a type of stringy-grayish parasite that continues to multiply within her body.

The woman's husband and family dogs also exhibit the same signs.

Pulling "worms" out of her head, face, body and even the bottom of her feet has become a daily, mind-maddening and traumatic experience, she said.

"You can feel them in your lips. They get in your nose. It drives you up a wall. You can see it if I pull it. You think you've got thin gray hair then you look at it closely. One end is thick and the tail is skinny," she said.

The sizes vary. The longest one she has pulled out of her skin is six inches, she said.

The woman said her husband bathes three times a day, generally in ammonia, just to try and rid his body of the worrisome itch.

Can the worms be killed?

"We just flush them or put them in alcohol to kill it," she said.

Bleach also has been used.

"They grow anywhere there is a hair follicle. Your body gets more hair on it and it's nothing but those white hairs. I have even pulled them out of the bottom of my feet. If we told you some of the stories ... people would think we are crazy," she said.

The woman said she does not know where she contracted the invasive matter that she now believes is Morgellons Disease -- and there is no known cure.

The disease is named after a 1674 event in which black hairs or fibers were found in children in France.

Its' physical symptoms are skin lesions, a crawling or biting sensation under the skin and fibers and granules growing out the skin, according to Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences.

Sufferers also have short-term memory losses, attention deficit and mental confusion.

The woman said her family is experiencing all the symptoms, including the feel of fuzzballs in the mouths.

It is currently unknown how Morgellons is transmitted and whether its contagious.

"Katrina has taken a lot away from us. She took our home, our vehicle and our health. For me and my husband -- it's horrible," said the woman.

Cases of Morgellons' have been reported in California, Texas and Florida.

Lois Koskela, a Pascagoula relative of the two victims, said based on their research and non-ending quest for medical assistance, information about the disease is very limited in Jackson County.

She said a couple of visits to area physicians were moot because the doctors had not heard of it, either. The doctors thought they were crazy, said Koskela.

Koskela contacted The Mississippi Press because to bring the story before the public so others who are possibly afflicted will know they are not alone in their struggle.

"We can't be the only ones in town that have it," said the female victim.

Koskela said twice the couple were prescribed Lundane which is used to treat scabies. The prescription did not work, she said.

"We learned what is going on by going to a Web site and we want the story out. Doctors here need to know what is going on," she said.

Koskela said she worried about her relative because of the itching.

"I thought it was nerves the way she was picking at (hair). Then they discovered the worms," she said.

Opinions within the scientific community differs on Morgellons Disease.

Some physicians dispute it exists and considers patients as having delusional parasitosis or mental illness. Others think something is occurring but are not sure quite what. Some researchers have associated it with Lyme's Disease.

The Morgellons Research Foundation was founded in 2002 to answer lingering questions.

"Morgellons patients differ from classical, delusional parasitosis patents in several areas. They do not respond to antipsychotics and new lesions continue to appear upon complete cessation of manual excoriation," said Dr. Randy S. Wymore, director of research, Morgellons Research Foundation at OSU.

The Pascagoula victim said immediately after the storm her family, along with 11 other people, lived along the water in Moss Point and often showered outside.

"I don't know if we got it there or at our house in Pascagoula on Canty Street," she said.

It was a couple months after the storm that the real problem reared its head, she said.

It began with an itch that would not go away.

"My hair kept falling out little by little and then it kept itching a little bit more," she said.

She recalls once asking her husband to scratch her back. He spotted an abnormal growth of white hair all over her back that turned out to be "worms" she said.

Koskela said a sample was sent to a researcher at Louisiana State University. The diagnoses came back as flatworms.

Because Morgellons remains a mystery disease, much more research is needed, said Koskela.

"Health care providers are shooting in the dark as to how to treat it. Antibiotics seem to help some, but if they are stopped, the symptoms come back," said Wymore.

More information about Morgellons Disease can be obtained at Morgellons Research Foundation, www.morgellons.org or OSU Center for Health Sciences at www.healthsciences.okstate.edu/morgellons/

Reporter Natalie Chambers can be reached at nchambers@themississippipress.com or (22 934-1429.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/health/9644226/detail.html
Skin Disease Has Doctors Scratching Their Heads
Ailment Feels Like Bugs Crawling Out Of Skin

POSTED: 8:10 pm PDT August 7, 2006
UPDATED: 8:39 pm PDT August 7, 2006
Email This Story | Print This Story
SAN DIEGO -- A mysterious skin disease that feels like bugs are crawling out of a person's skin and leaving a trail of worm-like fibers has doctors scratching their heads.

It's called "Morgellons Disease,'' and it's caused by mysterious fibers that have no DNA or living cells but supposedly poke through wounds in the skin.

It's been the subject of debate between skin doctors, many of whom can't find any scientific basis for the ailment.

However, it feels real to sufferers like pediatrician Gregory Smith, who says Morgellons cost him his medical practice and nearly his sanity.

"We talked to each other and questioned our own sanity-- it seems as though some of this stuff was so odd-- that it just couldn't be real-- it just could not be real." Smith said.

Oklahoma State University researcher Randy Wymore calls Morgellons a real disease but admits there's no scientific explanation for it.

"This is not some sort of an insect. They don't look like textile or environmental contaminates that are just showing up that you would find in any sort of environment," Wymore said.

But many dermatologists such as Dr. Noah Scheinfeld of Columbia University dismiss Morgellons as simply a new version of a mental disorder called "Delusion of parasitosis."

He says the skin rash associated with Morgellons disease is made by the patients themselves because the think they are infested with some kind of parasite or they are experiencing a sensation of some kind of parasite in their skin.

The National Morgellons Foundation doesn't state how many Americans may be suffering from the disease but its website claims there are thousands.

Meanwhile, the Center for Disease Control plans to launch an investigative study of 100 people in Texas who report having Morgellons.