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The SF reference is incorrect. She practices in Austin.

Morgellons: Controversial disease doctors refuse to treat

09:23 AM CDT on Tuesday, May 9, 2006

By Janice Williamson / KHOU

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Imagine being so sick you’re unable to work, but can’t find a doctor who will help you.

KHOU-TV

Mainstream medical professionals don't believe Morgellons is real.

KHOU discovered that is exactly what is happening to a growing number of people in Texas, Florida and California.

Morgellons disease is an illness first documented more than 300 years ago, yet it is still considered a mystery.

Cheryall Spiller moves slower than she once did around her Rosharon farm. The 59-year-old suffers from what she believes is a mystery disease.

“Small white worms that come out of my ears, you can feel them itching in there. You can get a Q-tip and dig them out,” she explained.

Spiller is not alone.

“The sores come up and these fuzzy things come out,” said Stephanie Bailey, Austin resident. “It’s almost like spores or something like that.”

Lesions and scars cover Stephanie Bailey’s arms and legs.

Travis Wilson is a victim too.

“Feeling like bugs are crawling all over you. You can’t sleep. It’s freaky. So he’d go days without sleep,” said Lisa Wilson, patient’s mother.

According to nurse practitioner Ginger Savely, all three may have an emerging sickness called Morgellons disease.

“it just looks you know like somebody picked at something and it got a little infected,” Savely said.

When magnified 60 times the sores take on a different look.

“So you focus a little more you can see the black fibers the white fibers,” Savely said.

Savely admitted the idea of creatures living inside our bodies seems more like science fiction than science.

“I don’t think a person can believe it until they see it with their own eyes,” she said. “The problem is people aren’t looking hard enough, most practitioners are not looking because they are not taking them seriously.”

Mainstream medical professionals don’t believe Morgellons is real.

“I think if we look at what is truly evidence-based medicine, what has been proven based on scientific fact we know we don’t have a means to substantiate her observations,” said Dr. Adelaide Hebert, U.T. Health Science Center Houston.

Dr. Adelaide Hebert said Morgellons exists only in the patient’s mind.

“Many of these patients do have delusion of parasitosis,” Dr. Hebert said. “It is actually not uncommon to have patients come in and describe the sensation that something is crawling on their skin.”

11 News could not locate any Houston doctor who believes in or treats Morgellons. At Oklahoma State University research is underway on a volunteer basis.

Ginger Savely has documented 100 cases and treats her patients with oral and topical antibiotics.

“They can’t get anybody to help them in the medical profession. It’s just a nightmare, a living nightmare. I can’t imagine any worse disease,” she said.

Lisa Wilson’s son became so distraught about his condition he took his own life two weeks ago.

“He would tell me he’d rather have cancer because then he’d know what he was up against,” Lisa Wilson said.

“They’re worried about the bird flu coming, you’ve got something here right now that’s spreadable and it’s being hush-hushed,” Spiller said.

“They told me I was doing it to myself and that I was nuts,” Bailey explained. “I stopped going to doctors because I was afraid they were going to lock me up.”

The scars are more than skin deep.