Posted on 05/12/2006 6:44:12 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
If diseases like AIDS and bird flu scare you, wait until you hear what's next. Doctors are trying to find out what is causing a bizarre and mysterious infection that's surfaced in South Texas.
Morgellons disease is not yet known to kill, but if you were to get it, you might wish you were dead, as the symptoms are horrible.
"These people will have like beads of sweat but it's black, black and tarry," said Ginger Savely, a nurse practioner in Austin who treats a majority of these patients.
Patients get lesions that never heal.
"Sometimes little black specks that come out of the lesions and sometimes little fibers," said Stephanie Bailey, Morgellons patient.
Patients say that's the worst symptom strange fibers that pop out of your skin in different colors.
"He'd have attacks and fibers would come out of his hands and fingers, white, black and sometimes red. Very, very painful," said Lisa Wilson, whose son Travis had Morgellon's disease.
While all of this is going on, it feels like bugs are crawling under your skin. So far more than 100 cases of Morgellons disease have been reported in South Texas.
"It really has the makings of a horror movie in every way," Savely said.
While Savely sees this as a legitimate disease, there are many doctors who simply refuse to acknowledge it exists, because of the bizarre symptoms patients are diagnosed as delusional.
"Believe me, if I just randomly saw one of these patients in my office, I would think they were crazy too," Savely said. "But after you've heard the story of over 100 (patients) and they're all down to the most minute detail saying the exact same thing, that becomes quite impressive."
Travis Wilson developed Morgellons just over a year ago. He called his mother in to see a fiber coming out of a lesion.
"It looked like a piece of spaghetti was sticking out about a quarter to an eighth of an inch long and it was sticking out of his chest," Lisa Wilson said. "I tried to pull it as hard as I could out and I could not pull it out."
The Wilson's spent $14,000 after insurance last year on doctors and medicine.
"Most of them are antibiotics. He was on Tamadone for pain. Viltricide, this was an anti-parasitic. This was to try and protect his skin because of all the lesions and stuff," Lisa said.
However, nothing worked, and 23-year-old Travis could no longer take it.
"I knew he was going to kill himself, and there was nothing I could do to stop him," Lisa Wilson said.
Just two weeks ago, Travis took his life.
Stephanie Bailey developed the lesions four-and-a-half years ago.
"The lesions come up, and then these fuzzy things like spores come out," she said.
She also has the crawling sensation.
"You just want to get it out of you," Bailey said.
She has no idea what caused the disease, and nothing has worked to clear it up.
"They (doctors) told me I was just doing this to myself, that I was nuts. So basically I stopped going to doctors because I was afraid they were going to lock me up," Bailey said.
Harriett Bishop has battled Morgellons for 12 years. After a year on antibiotics, her hands have nearly cleared up. On the day, we visited her she only had one lesion and she extracted this fiber from it.
"You want to get these things out to relieve the pain, and that's why you pull and then you can see the fibers there, and the tentacles are there, and there are millions of them," Bishop said.
So far, pathologists have failed to find any infection in the fibers pulled from lesions.
"Clearly something is physically happening here," said Dr. Randy Wymore, a researcher at the Morgellons Research Foundation at Oklahoma State University's Center for Health Sciences.
Wymore examines the fibers, scabs and other samples from Morgellon's patients to try and find the disease's cause.
"These fibers don't look like common environmental fibers," he said.
The goal at OSU is to scientifically find out what is going on. Until then, patients and doctors struggle with this mysterious and bizarre infection. Thus far, the only treatment that has showed some success is an antibiotic.
"It sounds a little like a parasite, like a fungal infection, like a bacterial infection, but it never quite fits all the criteria of any known pathogen," Savely said
No one knows how Morgellans is contracted, but it does not appear to be contagious. The states with the highest number of cases are Texas, California and Florida.
The only connection found so far is that more than half of the Morgellons patients are also diagnosed with Lyme disease.
For more information on Morgellons, visit the research foundation's Web site at www.morgellons.org.
It could be a third world disease spread by mexicans.
It could be "Delusional Parasitosis" spread by a first-world internet.
The "whiff of hysteria" with all links pointing to "Eye Five News" type sites leads me to credit the latter.
Last time I checked it wasn't just mexicans crossing the border.
We also have the joy of receiving the OTM's and all their diseases and parasites as well which I'd guess they carry here from their country of origin.
The fact that they cross using mexico doesn't mean the infections originate in mexico.
Oh! My bad.
In the old days, dieased people were not allowed to entry the USA and sent back to thier country of origin. Now with "open borders" thier is absolutely no telling who is comming here with what diease. Lot's of third world dieases that we beaten in the usa are now becoming problems again. Just another side effect of open borders, more and nastier dieases.
Put Dr. House on the case, He will figure it out.
Americans travel back and forth between other countries all the time. For all we know, it could come from London. If the disease really exists.
No need to jump to conclusions till all the facts are in however being in a Southern Texas town near the southern border is suspicious at best.
It's either a new fungus or bacteria or it's a bunch of psychotics.
I watched the TV news piece on the phenomenon and did not see one lesion with any "fibers."
It's not surprising that delusions manifest in similar ways. We're hardwired for certain responses to certain stimuli.
But, I'm trying to keep an open mind about it. (and to stop scratching)
bttt
I'm not trying to insult anyone. I am tired of every thread becoming an illegal alien thread when there's no connection.
First of all, we read it's not contagious. The folks mentioned in the story have the last names of Wilson and Bishop. Not likely to be illegal immigrants from Nuevo Laredo.
And tens of thousands of people cross the border every day legally in both directions.
So your observation makes sense how?
Parents often wonder how long it takes to develop the illness after being exposed to a child with chickenpox. This period known as the "incubation period", ranges between 11 to 20 days, although for most children it develops within 14 days. If a child does not develop chicken pox after this period, then he or she has not been infected this time.
http://www.drpaul.com/illnesses/chickenpox.html
susie
http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty65.htm
You'll be out of luck. The website doesn't have any pictures of the victims other than the boy with a scrape, just extreme close-up pictures of .... threads. Whoop-dee-doo. Then they try and argue that the fibers are not textile derived because... it glows under a blacklight. Haven't these people heard of laundry detergent?
Mine,too..I feel so sorry for the victims..I have never heard of this disease.
Yikes. Still scratching....
http://www.morgellons.org/
Yes, but he will insult us all and nearly kill the patient in the process!
susie
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