Morgellons Disease

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Morgellons Disease:

The Truth and the Myth

Written by Zephyr Faegen
September 18th, 2009

The Mystery of Morgellons disease has been debated over and over again by medical professionals as well as lay persons who have dedicated their time to studying this cryptic and debilitating condition. Because of political and public pressure, Morgellons disease has gained significant recognition in the last 8 years and has lead to the formation of multiple support groups, independent research groups, as well as the Morgellons Research Foundation. This all began in earnest because of one woman’s love for her child combined with the complete abandonment of the mainstream medical community’s ability to provide any real medical diagnosis or treatment within their known paradigm.

In 2001 Mary Leitao, a biologist and former Medical lab technician of five years, found that her two-year-old son was developing sores under his lips. The child soon complained of bug-crawling sensations under his skin. Upon hearing this from her son she examined the wounds on his lips and took samples. She examined the tissue taken from her son under a rudimentary home microscope and found that there were red, blue, white and black fibers imbedded within the taken tissue samples. Being a concerned mother she proceeded to take her child to the doctor. This lead to multiple tests on the child and eight more doctors that failed to find any diagnosis within the known medical paradigm. Eventually, Leitao took her son to Dr. Fred Heldrich, a Johns Hopkins pediatrician with a reputation for “solving mystery cases”. The end result was Heldrich’s suggestion that "Leitao would benefit from a psychiatric evaluation and support".

Out of frustration and feeling completely abandoned by the mainstream medical society, Leitao began researching all known literature describing her son’s symptoms. During her research she found the work of two men from the late 1600’s, Sir Thomas Browne and Dr. Michel Ettmuller. Both men observed, wrote and illustrated what they described as hair-like structures protruding from wounds on the backs of patients combined with convulsions and coughing. They named this condition “The Morgellons”. Though not a perfect match to what her son was suffering from, it was the closest thing she found in any known medical material. Using Morgellons as a temporary label for her son’s condition, Leitao began to seek out others with like symptoms. She started a website called the Morgellons Research Foundation (MRF) in 2002 (http://www.morgellons.org/index.html) .

The object of the site is to give people suffering from this undiagnosible and strange condition an outlet to be heard and to find emotional and possibly medical support. Since then the MRF has registered over 14,000 households who suffer from symptoms like Leitao’s son. The foundation has created such a public following and has put so much political pressure on government officials that the Center for Disease Control (CDC), with the help of Kaiser Permanente Northern California and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, has been forced to begin a formal investigation and comprehensive study of self-diagnosed Morgellons sufferers, the majority of which reside in California where the study is being focused.

Morgellons disease has a wide variety of symptoms that can eventually lead to the complete debilitation of the sufferer. The MRF has posted a case definition along with the major symptoms associated with Morgellons on their website. The list of symptoms provided by the MRF is listed below.

1. “Filaments” are reported in and on skin lesions and at times extruding from intact-appearing skin. White, blue, red, and black are common among described fiber colors. Size is near microscopic, and good clinical visualization requires 10-30 X. Patients frequently describe ultraviolet light generated fluorescence. They also report black or white granules, similar in size and shape to sand grains, on or in their skin or on clothing. Most clinicians willing to invest in a simple hand held commercial microscope have thus far been able to consistently document the filaments.

2. Movement sensations, both beneath and on the skin surface. Sensations are often described by the patient as intermittently moving, stinging or biting. Involved areas can include any skin region (such as over limbs or trunk), but may be limited to the scalp, nasal passages, ear canals, or face...and curiously, legs below the knees.

3. Skin lesions, both (a) spontaneously appearing and (b) self-generated, often with pain or intense itching. The former (a) may initially appear as “hive-like”, or as “pimple-like” with or without a white center. The latter (b) appear as linear or “picking” excoriations. Even when not self-generated (as in unreachable regions of babies’ skin), lesions often progress to open wounds that heal incompletely (e.g., heal very slowly with discolored epidermis or seal over with a thick gelatinous outer layer.). Evidence of lesions persists visually for years.

4. Musculoskeletal Effects and Pain is usually present, manifest in several ways. Pain distribution is broad, and can include joint(s), muscles, tendons and connective tissue. Both vascular and “pressure” headaches and vertebral pain are particularly common, the latter usually with premature (e.g., age 20) signs of degeneration of both discs and vertebrae.

5. Aerobic limitation is universal and significant enough to interfere with the activities of daily living. Most patients meet the Fukuda Criteria for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as well (Fukuda, Ann. Int. Med., 1994). Cardiology data and consistently elevated heart rates suggest a persistent myocarditis creating lowered cardiac output that has been partially compensated for by Starling’s Law.

6. Cognitive dysfunction, includes frontal lobe processing signs interfering with logical thinking as well as short-term memory and attention deficit. All are measurable by Standard Psychometric Test batteries.

7. Emotional effects are present in most patients. Character typically includes loss or limitation of boundary control (as in bipolar illness) and intermittent obsessional state. Degree varies greatly from virtually absent to seriously life altering.

The biggest question of all about Morgellons is “where does it come from”? As we move forward in today’s society we are finding that the foods we eat and the air we breath are becoming more and more dangerous to our health and well-being. These factors are being looked at very seriously as contributing factors of Morgellons. Currently there are three main contributing theories that pose a spectrum of possibilities.

The first theory is that Morgellons is caused by the exposure to GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) within the food supply, through inhalation and through actual bug bites from insects that have been modified through their interaction with GMO plant material. This theory is supported by that fact that the use of a genetically modified plant bacteria called Agrobacterium tumefaciens is used to infect and modify the DNA of plants and insect subjects with a pesticide in order to create stronger and more bug-resistant plant crops. In a study done in 2001 by Dr. Vitaly Citovsky from the State University of New York Stony Brook, it was found that when introduced to Human DNA, genetically modified material containing this bacterium successfully invaded, modified and corrupted human DNA. Though this was done under laboratory conditions Dr. Citovsky himself stated that “it may be prudent to be careful or at least aware” and that ” presently, it appears that Agrobacterium is the only example of trans-kingdom DNA transfer”. Dr. Citovsky is currently working with the MRF on Morgellons research.

The second theory is that Morgellons symptoms are caused by the introduction of the controversial chemtrail programs that have appeared across the United States and the globe. These vaporous trails that are usually produced in a grid pattern by jet airplanes have had a lot of media coverage over the last few years, but have yet to be officially recognized by the United States government except for a bill proposed by representative Dennis Kucinich in 2001 (H.R. 2977) which was rejected and quickly rewritten by Kucinich’s office as to have no mention of chemtrails at all. Though there have not been any “official” studies done on the connection of chemtrails to Morgellons, there has been a significant contribution of material from the private scientific community. The current theory is that the chemical and biological components of the chemtrails are being inhaled by individuals in affected areas and are interacting with the body in two ways. First is that the inhalation of the chemtrail material compromises the person’s immune system. By compromising the immune system the person is then open to infection by a bacterial, fungal, viral, or even nano-technological components that is in the chemtrail vapors being sprayed by these planes.

The third theory is that Morgellons is an infection of nanotechnology. Several independent studies on Morgellons fibers taken from patients have shown that the fibers consist of both inorganic and unidentifiable materials. One group of fibers was sent to a forensic scientist at the Tulsa Police Crime Lab in Oklahoma for analysis. After analyzing and cross-referencing the morgellons fiber with the FBI’s national database, it was found that it did not match any known fiber within the database. Other studies claim that fibers can withstand temperatures of up to 1400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Though more information on Morgellons is becoming available, the cause of this debilitating disease is still unknown. The Study by the CDC and its partners has produced nothing of substance yet and the independent studies are so varied that it is hard to come to one distinct conclusion. What we do know is that tens of thousands of people are suffering daily from this mysterious and destructive disease and that it seems to be systemic to the whole body, manifesting itself in different ways at different times. A Patient might have fibrous sores manifest for two years in one place then heal and manifest in another. They might have intense itching or stabbing pains under the skin for days, weeks, and sometimes years. Whatever Morgellons disease is, it should be treated with great concern, care and with the best professional insight and research possible. For more information on Morgellons please look through the links below.

References:

CDC Morgellons website: http://www.cdc.gov/unexplaineddermopathy/

The Morgellons Research Foundation: http://www.morgellons.org/

Current Wikipedia definition of Morgellons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgellons

Dr. Citovsky’s Study: http://www.morgellons.org/suny.htm

GMO/Morgellons connection: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1710422/posts

WINR Interview on Morgellons: http://www.worldinternetradio-winr.com/Shows.html#anchor_133

A Media Report on Chemtrails: http://s52.photobucket.com/albums/g34/thedreadzone/?action=view&current=NBC4Newschemtrails.flv

Chemtrails/ Morgellons: http://www.rense.com/general71/mmor.htm

H.R. 2977: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h107-2977

Tulsa Crime Lab statement as reported by ABC: http://www.morgellons.org/docs/Tulsa_Police_Crime_Lab.pdf

A study on a Morgellons fiber: http://www.cherokeechas.com/rSmith02.htm