Jan. 26, 2012 -- Extensive study of people suffering from Morgellons disease -- including analysis of their mysterious "skin fibers" -- finds no underlying cause of the illness.

Morgellons symptoms are as creepy as the name implies. Patients report slow-to-heal sores that often feel like bugs are crawling under their skin. They often scratch themselves raw. And they also report that mysterious colored fibers, granules, worms, eggs, fuzzballs, or other stuff comes out of their skin.

The CDC study was launched in 2008 at the request of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein because of a rash of Morgellons reports in that state.

The findings do not rule out the possibility that Morgellons is a newly recognized disease, note CDC researcher Michele L. Pearson, MD, and colleagues in the online journal PLoS One.

Leitao got the word "Morgellons" from a 17th century text describing an illness in which black hairs were said to appear on the backs of children in France. The name stuck, even though there's no evidence the disease is linked to the modern condition.

As in previous studies of Morgellons, the patients tended to be female (77%) and white (77%).

The study was conducted among 3.2 million people in Northern California who all had health insurance through Kaiser Permanente from 2006 to 2008. Based on patient records, the researchers identified 115 patients who had reported symptoms consistent with Morgellons. Of those patients, 77% were white and female, with an average age of 52.

A few doctors, however, have taken note and are convinced that Morgellons is a real disease. One theory is that the fibers are plant-based and that the cause for tree tumors has found its way into the human body. Another theory is that the fibers are the shells of worms that invade the human body. Neither theory is exactly comforting, although they are more comforting that the conspiracy theories that abound related to government toxin cover-ups and alien invasions.

Another line of inquiry, for both medical professionals as well as independent researchers, has been the question of whether a relationship exists between genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and Morgellons disease. Research published by the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2007 indicated a possible connection between Morgellons disease and agrobacterium, a soil bacterium that possesses the natural ability to transfer parts of its genetic material to plant cells. Agrobacterium has been used extensively in agricultural genetic engineering. The pilot study (which included genetic skin testing of only two individuals) stated: “Morgellons skin fibers appear to contain cellulose. This observation indicates possible involvement of pathogenic Agrobacterium, which is known to produce cellulose fibers at infection sites within host tissues.” In an update to the study, researcher Vitaly Citovsky, Ph.D., stated: “Our continuing screen of additional Morgellons patients has identified Agrobacterium genetic material in three additional individuals. Thus, all Morgellons patients screened to date have tested positive for the presence of Agrobacterium, whereas this microorganism has not been detected in any of the samples derived from the control, healthy individuals.”

Originally posted by ~Lucidity
Just an update on the latest CDC study on Morgellons for those following.

CDC: Morgellons Disease May Be Psychiatric Disorder

www.WebMD.com

Jan. 26, 2012 -- Extensive study of people suffering from Morgellons disease -- including analysis of their mysterious "skin fibers" -- finds no underlying cause of the illness.

Morgellons symptoms are as creepy as the name implies. Patients report slow-to-heal sores that often feel like bugs are crawling under their skin. They often scratch themselves raw. And they also report that mysterious colored fibers, granules, worms, eggs, fuzzballs, or other stuff comes out of their skin.

The CDC study was launched in 2008 at the request of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein because of a rash of Morgellons reports in that state.

The findings do not rule out the possibility that Morgellons is a newly recognized disease, note CDC researcher Michele L. Pearson, MD, and colleagues in the online journal PLoS One.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Morgellons Mystery: No Medical Explanation for ‘Crawling Skin’ DiseaseRead more: healthland.time.com...

Morgellons discounted as psychological

Everyone seems to be picking up this update...Newsday, Time, all networks. Why again? Why now. Hmm....

edit on 1/26/2012 by ~Lucidity because: fixed link...

A BRITISH biologist who lives in Paphos has been studying chemtrails for years and has even taken samples and given them to the Agriculture Ministry. A more pressing worry however for Caroline Carter are her recurring bouts with Morgellons disease, which she, and thousands like her, believe is linked to chemtrails.

Carter, who now practises alternative therapies, moved to Paphos from the UK in 2008 to escape what she believed to be harmful chemtrails over Surrey.

The biologist says that chemtrails were not really apparent when she moved to the island three years ago but that occurrences had greatly increased by 2010. "I'm a scientist and I like to work on what I know. I have samples, so know chemtrails are happening. As to the reasons why, I don't know."

Carter believes she contracted Morgellons in the UK after one morning finding her garden and surrounding area "covered in a very strange web-like substance". She said it was thicker than an insect web, fluorescent, and resembled chicken wire, and the green foliage on which the material had settled quickly died. While collecting the web she felt a bite or a sting on her left upper arm, which continued to itch for months. She also breathed in fibres from the substance.

"I got in touch with researchers in the States who had been investigating chemtrails for quite a long time. I received info and air samples, which had been collected after heavy chemtrailing. They seemed to be highly pathogenic and contained all sorts of strange things," said Carter.

Carter sent samples of the fibres that came out of her skin to other biologists but no one could identify them.

"The fibres are alive; yet you can't dissect them and they are unbreakable. They are inorganic but they are alive," said Carter. She has also tried burning them but they did not carbonise. However if fibres are protruding through a patient's skin they pull back at a lit match, Carter said.

In the most recent outbreak in November 2010, Carter says the fibres, some of which appeared to have insect-type legs came out of her face and neck. "We need geneticists to look at this. As a biologist, I know what things should look like, and I and other biologists have never seen anything like this before. My face was horrific and very painful."

Carter says after she handed over a file on chemtrails to the authorities, she subsequently received a visit from a man who said he was from the Cyprus government "and they know about it and wanted it kept quiet," she said.

What is Morgellons?

Morgellons is a controversial condition referred to by the American Centers for Disease Control as unexplained dermopathy. Most sufferers - in the US there are around 60,000 - believe their condition is caused by chemtrails. They complain of sensations of itching, stinging or biting, finding blue, red, black and clear fibres on or under the skin; and persistent skin lesions with black specks falling off their bodies.

Reports have been made of different bugs and worms coming out of the body through the lesions. Most doctors, including dermatologists and psychiatrists, regard Morgellons as a manifestation of known medical conditions, including delusional parasitosis, where patients hold an imaginary belief that they are infested with parasites. However this does not explain the actually existence of the fibres, for which there is substantial evidence. A researcher at the Oklahoma State University Hospital found that dermatologists who either didn't look at all, or didn't use a dermatoscope, might not see the fibres under the skin.

In an article published in The Los Angeles Times last year singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell said she suffered from Morgellons.

"I have this weird, incurable disease that seems like it's from outer space. Fibres in a variety of colours protrude out of my skin like mushrooms after a rainstorm: they cannot be forensically identified as animal, vegetable or mineral. Morgellons is a slow, unpredictable killer - a terrorist disease," she said. "In America, Morgellons is always diagnosed as 'delusion of parasites', and they send you to a psychiatrist. I'm actually trying to get out of the music business to battle for Morgellons sufferers to receive the credibility that's owed to them."

Originally posted by speculativeoptimist
reply to post by ~Lucidity

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Leitao got the word "Morgellons" from a 17th century text describing an illness in which black hairs were said to appear on the backs of children in France. The name stuck, even though there's no evidence the disease is linked to the modern condition.

I did not know it has been around so long, did a lot(most) people wear black back then? Another source called them bristles, not hairs.