Mystery Illness Baffles Doctors; Frustrates Patients

[Minstrel Boy]

California

Mystery Illness Baffles Doctors; Frustrates Patients

Feb 8, foxreno.com

SAUSALITO -- Is an unknown disease hitting the Bay Area or is it just a case of mass delusion? If you ask intensive care nurse Cindy Casey she'll tell you that the mystery disease is very real and very painful.

Casey is one of at least 150 Bay Area residents battling the illness that is characterized by lesions and strange string-like fibers.

"It sounds really strange, it's kind of understandable why people don't believe us, because it sounds so weird," Casey said. "The lesions start out as bumps that are itchy, little round raised bumps. The fibers are quite alarming."

...

Tests on similar fibers taken from Bishop's skin and those of several other patients in the Bay Area show them to be tiny tubes of protein. But how and why the filaments are formed remains a mystery for now.
http://www.foxreno.com/news/4170085/detail.html

Florida

Mystery Disease Spreading Through Florida

Feb 8, CBS Jacksonville

A mysterious skin disease is currently spreading across Florida, and doctors are searching for answers on how to stop the epidemic.

The disease, called Morgellons Disease, is a parasite-like infection that literally makes the infected person’s skin crawl. The disease has already been found in thousands of patients in Florida, Texas and California.

...

“People were calling us with very similar symptoms from all over the country,” says Altschuler.

...

They took skin samples from 20 patients who claim they have the bugs, but were diagnosed by their doctors as delusional. Researchers found collembolan, a microscopic critter, in 18 of the 20 patients.
http://www.wtev.com/news/reports/story.aspx?content_id=6F1E0724-63C5-4834-AA8D-FEB358F61CB4

[Kimber Scott]

1. Why would doctors say people are delusional? Like people just like

to pretend they have bugs growing on them? Augh!

[Warpy]

8. They do it to women all the time

"Honey, it's all in your head. Take a Valium."

Things that have proven NOT to be psychosomatic are menstrual pain, PMS, hot flashes, allergies, and things all the way up to heart disease, frequently misdiagnosed as either anxiety or poor physical conditioning.

I'm nor surprised that the patients were misdiagnosed. Most GPs don't expect to see exotic parasites and unusual bacteria.

Of course, you'd think they'd learn better after the third or fourth patient...

[TahitiNut]

18. Hence the word "hysteria"

:shrug:

[BiggJawn]

29. A condition for which the treatment was....

...Masturbation!

That's why Hamilton-Beech invented the electric vibrator, because doctors were complaining "Dynamo Hum, Dynamo Hum, I done spent 3 hours and I ain't got a crumb..."

My GF's menopause has thrown the chocks to our love life. Her doctor's advice? "It's all in your head. Watch some porno movies to get in the mood..." :-(

Doctors don't know everything. In fact, I bet they know damn little besides what the drug salesmen from PHARMA tell them...

[TahitiNut]

30. The 'cure' was also a hysterectomy. (Hence the name.)

The removal of tonsils is called a tonsillectomy. The removal of the appendix is called an appendectomy. Thus, the removal of hysteria is called a hysterectomy.

(I think I'll go eat some Graham crackers.) :silly:

[BiggJawn]

32. Have some Corn Flakes, too!

That was supposed to "control urges" also....

[Lydia Leftcoast]

59. Actually, hysteros is the Greek word for uterus

It was once believed that only women could be hysterical and that it was caused by the uterus. I wish I were making this up.

[TahitiNut]

66. Yep. Both 'hysteria' and 'hysterectomy' depend on the uterus.

:evilgrin: Makes me glad I don't got one. (j/k)

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

44. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bullimiami]

43. and the hysterectomy to remove it.

[ChickMagic]

39. Boy, that's the damn truth

When I was young, I had primary dysmennorhea. The pain was so severe with irregular menstruation that I would pass out from it and couldn't stop moaning. The doctor sent me to a psychiatrist.

Years later, when I had cancer and had my uterus removed, it actually had holes in it from cramping. They described something about it as "powder burns".

[Maine-ah]

63. yep, this happened to a friend of mine

she was having major abdominal pain all the time, would bleed amounts way larger than normal. Docs said, we can't help you, it's in your head. She finally went to a female gyn. and found out she had endrometriousis (sp?) and sists. "it's all in your head" what a load of shit.

[Ilsa]

68. I hope she slapped them with a lawsuit to recover

her expenses. Or maybe at least sent them a letter to tell them how effing stupid they are.

I work with new mothers who are nursing their babies. SOmetimes, they'll tell me, "something's wrong with my baby, he isn't crying right, but the doctor says it's nothing." I listen and then usually tell them to keep looking for a doctor who'll listen to them and their instincts, because their instincts are usually correct.

[knitter4democracy]

82. Yes, they are--why else do we have them?

I've had to do quite a bit of doctor shopping myself--and now have to do it all over again because we're moving this spring. Ugh.

I have endometriosis, too, and those ovarian cysts are terribly painful. I had both of my children naturally because I've dealt with that kind of pain before--for longer, too, since when the endo pain comes, it can stay for days (once as long as a month). Labor was a breeze in comparison. For a doctor to say that it's all in her head is criminal--and he should be reported to the state board.

[Lizzie Borden]

88. Yeah, if they can't diagnose it, it must be...

the patient's fault.:mad:

[amazona]

98. my mom's heart disease

...was misdiagnosed as depression. She could have died. She barely got bypass surgery in time.

Trying to fob women off with Prozac or the like seems to be a big problem with doctors even today.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[barb162]

16. Doctors, IMHO, are not as good as they were years ago. Now

they tell us we are delusional if they can't find something right away. I think the medical training is not as good as it was years ago. I was told to see a shrink by several doctors when they couldn't find a diagnosis on me easily. Turned out I had severe allergies. When I finally got to an alllergy doctor, she said most people were just like me, tha they had seen about ten doctors and most had called us crazy with the symptoms of the allergies staring them right in the face. Fucking rotten diagnosticians!

[kutastha]

52. That's right

After three years of med school, the only classes and clinical exposure we've had are psychiatry, "How to tell a patient (s)he's crazy" and Obfuscation 101.

/sarcasm

[barb162]

56. I wish there were more classes in diagnosis and deductive

reasoning in med schools. Too bad doctors dismiss patients with 2" long iron nails in their brains and ALSO complaints of vision problems; "go home kid, and take two aspirin"
Oh and when I was sitting in the doc's office with a 103 degree fever and a staph infection near my brain because of nasal allergies, maybe it would have been better for the doctor to do some tests, narrow some things down, etc., instead of telling me to see a shrink because he couldn't use some basic deductive reasoning (gee, maybe this person is allergic to something????) After all I'm sitting there with some very real and serious physical symptoms.

[kutastha]

74. There are..

A day doesn't go by where we aren't challenged with providing some sort of differential diagnoses on patients. I don't know to what you refer regarding about these iron nails, vision problems, or aspirin treatments. It is too bad that are bad physicians out there, however there are also very good ones out there too.

[barb162]

86. I was referring to the news story a few months ago and other similar

stories where a man had a long nail in his head (from a nail gun) and the guy was getting terrible headaches, vision problems,etc. The doc sent him home ...take two aspirin routine. Then the pain also started affecting his upper jaw and his wife work worked for a dentist. He went to see that dentist who took an x-ray and hark!!! big nail shows up on the X-ray. Keith Olberman on MSNBC did a few stores with X-rays on these incidents. One Japanese man had about 6 nails in his head and was still alive somehow.

[Conservativesux]

54. You are lucky if they spend 5 minutes with you in the examining room today

the days of Marcus Welby, M.D. are long gone.

[barb162]

57. see my post 56, you are right!

[knitter4democracy]

83. Blame the insurance companies for that one.

In order to get enough income to cover all their expenses, they have to crowd in a lot of patients each day. It's because insurance companies do their darndest to not actually pay for anything at all. Your insurance company can take years to pay for that visit (I'm not exaggerating--Blue Cross/Blue Shield here had bills outstanding for many doctors in our area from over two years back)--and then they'll try to not pay it all or even any of it by changing your codes or challenging your diagnosis.

You wouldn't believe how many doctors I know who hate insurance companies more than they hate lawyers (which is saying a lot).

[barb162]

93. ah, insurers, yes, they have completely taken over the patients and

doctors. They are trying to make everything preexisting and not payable, beyond reasonable and customary and not payable, etc.

I have worked for insurance companies and I hate them too. Twenty years ago they weren't like this; they paid valid claims...now they try everything they can to not pay a claim. They have become vultures and they weren't like that 20 years ago.

[knitter4democracy]

95. Thank you.

They are terrible, and the big ones are getting worse, it seems. They want their billions of dollars of profits but to not actually spend any of it to help the people paying them.

[barb162]

108. the big ones are getting worse; they hang on to their money

as long as they can. I was actually working on stuff where they went back 14 years collecting on big retro and other plans on these complex deals they do for super-large clients. They have actuaries figuring out every damned angle on the way the claims will fall and the clients are almost never big enough to be hiring actuaries or to know when the actuaries are doing the right work. It is sort of like betting in Vegas...the house/insurer almost always has the edge.

[knitter4democracy]

112. Exactly like Vegas! Good analogy! nt

[Betty]

106. If we got rid of the insurance co. middleman

think of all the money that could be saved. I wonder what percentage of health care dolars go to the insurance co's profit margins?

[barb162]

110. typically 60% of a premium dollar goes to pay claims if they

are to break even. The amount over 60% pays for salaries, overhead, etc. When you look at some HMOs (our esteemed and extremely wealthy Senator Frist family, for example) and how many millions the top people make in salaries and other benefits and at the same time they try to screw the average schmuck out of needed cancer treatments (bone marrow transplants being called "experimental" and not covered, etc) you realize how totally mucked up the system has become.

[Sivafae]

73. ^and then we wonder why medical expenses are so high! n/t

[barb162]

17. because they are fucking rotten doctors who don't know what

the hell they are doing

[DELUSIONAL]

28. You are right about that!

Thank god for the Internet -- sometimes self diagnoses is the only way. Very often an obscure disease has several seemingly unrelated symptoms and doctors will toss prescriptions at the symptoms instead of putting the diagnosis puzzle together.

I don't have a whole lot of respect for the medical profession's diagnostic abilities -- they are good at human plumbing and surgery -- but when called to figure out what's making someone ill -- all too often they miss the obvious.

The doctors we have now may have done well on tests -- but they need something that most test can't measure -- the ability to make sense out of chaos of human symptoms. Plus most doctors have a very poor ability to listen to what their patients are saying.

[Delphinus]

31. That's one of the strengths of

homeopathy. The diagnosing (repertorizing).

[loudsue]

50. Boy, that's the truth!

Homeopathy is used in many European countries, and is used hand in hand with allopathic medicine (American-type medicine). Homeopathy is very superior to allopathic medicine in the treatment of some types of situations.

There are still conservative-style skeptics in the U.S. that think homeopathy is voo-doo or something. As usual, they're the people that haven't seen it work its miracles.

Medicine in America is becoming more and more ineffective in a lot of areas, simply because they ARE too conservative.

:kick::kick::kick:

[barb162]

58. how do you find a good /excellent homeopath

[DrWeird]

64. Is that a setup for a joke?

Sounds like one.

"Excuse me sir, I'm looking for an honest quack."

[barb162]

65. nope, I am serious. I have never personally used alternative medicine

and maybe it is worthwhile to look into it.

As an aside, one of my best friends, an RN, died of breast cancer last year and although she was going to doctors galore as "her guts weren't feeling right" the MDs weren't finding a thing although she had a super high PSA (or whatever it is called) blood cancer test level, like 4000. As her back started really hurting like hell, she decided to see a chiropractor who, guess what, discovered cancer of the spine in about ten minutes through an X-ray. The breast cancer had already spread to her bones. So here's this chiropractor who figures something out and these teams of doctors she was seeing at a major nationally-known medical center, couldn't figure out their thumbs from their a--es, even after several breast exams and mammograms. Makes me wonder how radiologists read mammograms. Makes me wonder a lot about the whole medical profession.

[kutastha]

79. That's awful. I'm sorry for your loss.

Out of curiosity, how was it finally determined she had breast cancer?

Also, if the doctors weren't finding a thing, why did they test for the "blood cancer test level"?.

And PSA is prostate serum antigen, a protein elevated in prostate cancer.

[barb162]

89. I can't remember the name of the blood test and all that was

coming to mind was the PSA and I do in fact know that is that prostate test. And I still can't think of the name of the blood test but she had astronomically high numbers indicating cancer. Thing was, after she had the these tests and mammograms and I don't know how many exams, they couldn't find cancer. As I recall it was the old "you have dense breasts" line. I remember she had this one exploratory of the abdominal area as she kept telling me "my guts aren't right" and she had several hundred if not a few thousand tumors. The biopsies of some samples of these many tumors indicated NO cancer. The MDs had no explanation for what the hell all these tumors were doing all over her abdominal area nor the high levels indicating cancer in her blood tests.

I remember her telling me how she would be in the exam room with all the breast type MDs and each would take a turn examining her breasts and nobody was coming up with anything despite these incredibly high readings indicating cancer was in her body. They let her go as a patient despite the blood test readings as the multiple exams were not finding anything

Her breast cancer had already metastized at that point and once the chiropractor found the spinal problem, he told her he wasn't going to touch her and said for her to make an appt. back at the medical center ASAP. Back at the medical center this time, she was almost immediately diagnosed at stage 4 at that point, with 6 months to live. From the time she last saw the MDs to the time she saw the chiropractor was maybe a month. SO the MDs couldn't find anything but hundreds of "benign" tumors, these bad blood tests, but about a month later they were diagnosing her at stage 4.

Her cancer spread slowly and in very unusual fashion. SHe had hundreds of tumors in the collagen layers under the skin over her entire body and as she always pointed out to me, "that won't kill me." The abdominal tumors were similar. These hundreds of tumors were about the size of marbles under her skin and she gave them names. Then it spread to her brain but in areas again that didn't kill her, but affected her balance, her eyesight, etc., and they made life fairly miserable. She had 3 masters degrees and loved to read and the tumor behind her eye caused her to have double vision and she couldn't read...you could see her penmanship deteriorating a lot during this time. Some laser work to the tumor behind her eye helped for a while but then her one eye started bulging outward anyway. The cancer spread to ALL of her bones. She lasted six years until she died in May 2004.

How did they determine the breast cancer? After she went back with the spinal xray from the chiropractor, one of the doctors she had been seeing determined that the "dense" breasts were really dense all right (with cancer), the starting point for all the rest. I don't remember that much about that part...it was all after the fact, the fact she was dying. It became unimportant. We were all worrying about her that this cancer was in her brain, bones, that it was stage 4 and they gave her 6 months at that time.

She went on several different chemo drugs for a year to 18 months at a time until they ran out of drugs.

Anyway, my point was they did this exploratory and saw all these hundreds of marble-sized tumors in her abdominal cavity, did the biopsies on some and found no cancer. "Dense" breasts. Multiple mammograms. And her back was killing her. ANd those blood tests showing these high levels of cancer. They put nothing together. NOTHING. And one month later the same guys tell her she's stage 4, 6 months to go at best and turn her over to the oncology guy.

She was a brilliant woman, a real loss to the world IMHO. All along she kept telling me her body was "wrong" that there was something drastically wrong and even when they found those abdominal "benign" tumors, she said what the hell am I doing with hundreds of these tumors, my guts aren't right, my guts aren't right... and these MDs couldn't find anything and they stopped investigating. They had no explanations for her

[DELUSIONAL]

71. Bastyr University in Seattle -- is a place to start

Bastyr University in Seattle has been training homeopathic doctors for several years --

This is a place to start researching

http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/homeopathy-resources.htm

DUers in other parts of the country might have suggestions of where to find a homeopathic doctor.

One advantage of going this route -- their work-ups are unlikely to be put in a massive database.

And it is true that they are trained to listen and to make sense of seemingly unrelated symptoms.

[Delphinus]

72. Hi Barb162.

Here's just one link I have. If you don't find what you're looking for, try a google. If you live in one of the larger states, you probably won't have a hard time finding a good one.

http://www.homeopathic.org/find.htm

[Conservativesux]

55. Wow! I couldnt have said it better. Its all about the HMO's theses days.

..get the wallet, err, I mean "patient" in the door, make a quick Dx, write an expensive Rx to make Eli Lilly and Pfizer filthy rich then its out the door for you, sucker!

[barb162]

60. you got it straight; you have to diagnose yourself! There was an article

in our local paper about a month ago where a bunch of parents thought they knew what was wrong with their kids by checking the symptoms on the internet, Lyme Disease I believe, but I don't quite remember,and when they went to the pediatricians, the docs said no, no, no. Turns out the parents were right about diagnosing their own kids. Simple blood tests finally confirmed the parents were corect and the pediatricians were dead wrong. Why are we paying these people??? The non-professionals can put two and two together but the highly trained professionals, the specialists can't. The Amer. Pediatric Assn. then came out with some guideline or something about doing the simple blood test to confirm the set of symptoms (versus the high paid arrogant pediatricians sending the parents and untreated ill kids back home with an arrogant pat on the head and a one or two hundred dollar bill).

[peacetalksforall]

87. Allopathic, Homeopathic, Naturopathic

Homeopathic medicine - preventive, diagnostic, and curing.
Naturopathic medicine - preventive, diagnostic, and curing.
Allopathic medicine - emergencies only.
Allopathic medicine - expert at referring to specialists and ordering lot of tests and handing out prescription drugs or a prescription.
Apologies to the allopathic doctors among us.

Allopathic doctors sent me scrambling. I regret the dollars spent by my employers health insurance program coverage.

[this_side_up]

48. Women are more likely to go

to the doctor while men just tough it out by boozing, until
they get to the point where they either cannot work
or they hurt so bad.


macho macho macho Be a man! Men don't cry!

[knitter4democracy]

40. I'm sure not all doctors are saying that to their patients.

I'm sorry, but I get a little upset at all the doctor bashing on these boards. Yes, there are bad doctors out there making bad diagnoses (I've lived through that myself--I have endometriosis that took years to get diagnosed, and there's nothing good they can do for it). However, there are also good doctors out there working their asses off to help these people and figure out what the heck is going on.

Self-disclosure: my husband's an internist, and we've been together ever since our junior year in college. I've helped him study for all three sets of the board exams, helped him get through med school, residency, and his first year of practice. Medicine is a freakin' hard job these days. His med school curriculum covered ten times the material the same school covered in the fifties in the same amount of time. David works very hard to be the best doctor he can be. He's made some pretty impressive diagnoses just because he listened to the patient and figured it out from that. He isn't the only one, either. (He's also a strong Democrat!)

[barb162]

62. He sounds like a great doctor. I am bashing the bad doctors, not the

good ones. The bad ones, and there are seemingly so many, deserve bashing. My mother died, IMHO, because of a lousy rotten doctor who misdiagnosed her and treated her for the wrong thing. By the time I just about dragged her out of her house and forced her to go to the best diagnostician (an internist in this case) I could find, it was too late, the disease had progressed too far.

[knitter4democracy]

81. How awful for you and your mother. I'm so sorry.

Trust me, the bad ones get a lot of bashing in our household, too. There are too many, and the stupid thing is, everyone in the local medical community know who they are most of the time. I just wish they could break the old boys' club thing and get rid of them. My husband does what he can, but he's getting really tired of cleaning up other doctors' messes and trying to save their patients.

I wasn't diagnosed with endometriosis early enough, either. Everyone kept telling me that what I was going through was "normal," and it took the disease progressing to the point that I couldn't walk from the pain before anyone would help me. A month later, I had a diagnosis but no real treatment other than to change my diet and go on painkillers. I understand a bit of the pain of crappy doctors and crappy American medicine, but I am not trying to say that I understand your pain. All I can do is feel so very sorry that something so awful happened.

[barb162]

92. Thank you for your kind words. There are three RNs in my

mom's side of the family and they always have stories about the MDs at their hospitals and yeah, the bit about everyone knowing the lousy docs, too true. Malpractice liablity rates are high but they are high for a reason. For every junk claim that a good MD has to fight off from patients looking for a fast buck, I think there are probably 20 cases that are real claims and probably another 20 cases where the "wronged" never sue. For example, I never sued that quack doctor who was treating my mother. I just wanted to kill him; I wanted him dead. Suing him wasn't good enough because that meant I would have gotten his insurer's money, not his.

I had a lot of pain and extremely heavy bleeding and other things too when I was younger and the gynecologists (about 4 in all) always kept telling me that's the way it is. Whether they ever put endometriosis on my charts I have no idea. I would also get some horrible bladder infections and never once did I get a sample or slide taken so I could be put on the proper antibiotic.(The bit where you're bent over in pain, perspiring, etc., and call the doc and they can't get you in for 2 days. Like could the guy have cleared ten minutes in his schedule on an emergency basis as I sure understand when I have to wait beyond my scheduled appt. when the MD tells me he had an emergency). It was the days before the internet was available and before a person could really check things out themselves without trying to get into a medical school library, which you couldn't do anyway.

[knitter4democracy]

94. Wow.

That was seriously wrong. I was lucky, I guess, that I finally found a doctor who could help me. Your story about your endo is like so many--when are women going to be taken seriously by the medical establishment? I still hear doctors making fun of fibromyalgia (calling it SLS--shitty life sydrome), and that one really gets to me. Yeah, we're all hysterical women who just need valium or need to get laid or whatever. Grrr!

I've been working on my husband ever since we've been dating, and he also was a nurse's aid in nursing homes to pay for college. He listens, and he works really hard. Based on some of the stories I've been reading here, I wish he could get to everyone. He at least fits in patients with emergencies to the best of his ability and would never be okay with someone suffering just because of scheduling.

[barb162]

107. May I ask then what a good doctor

did for endometriosis?

[knitter4democracy]

111. She and I went through all the options available.

She recommended that I read _Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom_, eliminate dairy and possibly meat from my diet, exercise more, and let her know if things seemed to get worse. Unfortunately, I then had to move, and I haven't found a doctor like her in our area yet, but things haven't been too bad until lately. We talked over pain killers, but given that my mom still hasn't gone through menopause (she's 60 and just starting peri-menopause), we didn't want to go with stronger stuff just yet or the surgery route. I also have odd reactions to morphine-deriviatives in my family (and I have some too), so I'm sticking to ibuprofin for now.

[DrWeird]

47. Actually, yes.

There's a mental condition that causes people to believe they have bugs crawling under there skin. Extreme cases lead to self mutilation. Can't remember the name of the condition, but I'm fairly sure it's not that uncommon.

[DrWeird]

53. Here we go: "delusions of parasitosis."

http://www.emedicine.com/derm/topic939.htm

prevalence unknown. Interesting stuff.

[Maple]

2. Could be something

that has returned home with the soldiers who were in Iraq

[Jamastiene]

3. Or...

a new bioweapon test. I've read where the Bay area was used that way before.

[Straight Shooter]

4. Well, bush makes people's skin crawl

And so it's no wonder that our collective unconscious has manifested an actual skin-crawler to symbolize our psychological apprehension. ;)

[barb162]

67. Bush doesn't make my skin crawl; he makes me puke

[Speck Tater]

5. This sounds REALLY familiar.

I could swear I read about the same kind of symptoms about 6 or 8 months ago, only I think it might have been in Arizona. (But don't hold me to that. It might have been somewhere else.)

[merwin]

6. There was an episode of 'House' recently that had something like this :-)

[mike_c]

7. this is a hoax that was debunked thoroughly....

I'm referring to the latter article, which is based on a paper that was originally published in the Journal of the New York Entomological Society (Altschuler et al, 2004, COLLEMBOLA (SPRINGTAILS) (ARTHROPODA: HEXAPODA: ENTOGNATHA) FOUND IN SCRAPINGS FROM INDIVIDUALS DIAGNOSED WITH DELUSORY PARASITOSIS). The paper has been utterly refuted. I won't bore you with the details, but the paper is damned nearly as delusional as the poor patients whose personal hell it leverages. One of the enduring mysteries of the discussion that this paper sparked was "How in the hell did it pass peer review by entomologists?" It includes photos of lint, hair, and skin scrapings that have fuzzy, blurry, indistinct blobs that the authors label "collembolans" but which no other entomologists have been able to identify as anything other than lint, fuzz, and camera movement. Here's the abstract:

Twenty individuals diagnosed with delusory parasitosis participated in a single site clinical study under the auspices of the National Pediculosis Association (NPA) and the Oklahoma State Department of Health. The objective of this study was to determine if there were any common factors in skin scrapings collected from this population. These individuals, whose symptoms were originally attributed to lice or scabies, were part of a larger group reporting symptoms of stinging/biting and/or crawling to the NPA. Multiple skin scrapings from each person were microscopically examined. Any and all fields of view that appeared incongruous to normal human skin were digitally photographed. When the photographic images were initially evaluated, no common factor was identified. However, more extensive scrutiny using imaging software revealed evidence of Collembola in 18 of the 20 participants.

Collembola are small, but they're not microscopic and you certainly don't need digital manipulation to photograph them.

Delusional parasitosis is a very real issue for some people. Dermatologists and entomologists frequently have to deal with it. I once consulted on a case in which a dermatologist gave me pint jars of colored fuzz preserved in alcohol that a patient swore was crawling with "bugs" that were eating her skin. The jars were filled with synthetic fibers, like from a sweater or something, that looked like wet dryer lint. I spent hours examining them, looking for anything that was once alive. Nada. Another patient forwarded baggies filled with wadded paper towels, at the center of which were supposedly skin parasites. The only thing any of them contained was bits of hair, or clothing fibers, or scabs. No insects.

[yardwork]

12. Thank you for posting this! I was really concerned by the second article

because it stated that the CDC was ignoring an article that had appeared in this peer-reviewed journal. I'm glad to know it's a hoax and the CDC was right to refute it. I'm a little concerned about the journal now...

[mike_c]

15. IIRC the New York Ent Soc was pretty red-faced about the...

...whole incident.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

21. did you watch the 3 news video's...it is NOT "hysteria" you can see

the filaments and lesions...you can see the people and their ailment...yuck!

http://www.foxreno.com/news/4170085/detail.html

[mike_c]

34. oh I don't dispute the reality of these people's suffering....

I do dispute the notion that Collembola have anything to do with it. That they might is based largely on this single paper that has been thoroughly discredited.

Quite aside from any skin condition that the folks in the videos might have, delusional parasitosis is quite real. It is difficult to diagnose because many suffers scratch and scrape real physical wounds all over themselves. In one of the cases I described above I examined LOTS of scabs someone had picked from their body. This person had "caught" dozens of the "insects" in bits of wadded paper towel, or at least they thought they had. None of the materials I examined showed any trace of insects or insect parts, and the dermatologist I was consulting with confirmed that the patient's sores and lesions were consistent with self abrasion rather than insect bites. The unfortunate thing about the collembola myth and some others like it is that it diverts their attention away from seeking treatment for their real problem-- they run back to their doctors saying "See? There really ARE insects eating my skin!" and the cycle starts all over again.

[Shakespeare]

61. Perhaps not Collembola, but certainly some kind of biological agent.

One of the SF stations did a lengthy piece on this the other night; one of the scientists they spoke with didn't fully buy into the lyme connection, but said "it certainly appears to be some kind of external biological agent."

I don't think this is delusional parisitosis, because the people who have developed the condition do not know each other and have no connection to one another, but are afflicted with identical lesions--those vicious red sores with black "fibers" (actually some form of protein, like a very fine hair) growing from the sore. I don't believe it's possible for an identical condition--one that's quite odd--to manifest itself on a diverse group of people in clusters around the country (none of whom knew or knew of each other when the condition first developed).

Whatever this is, it's nasty. And makes me wonder what sort of experimenting the military or government is doing with biological agents. Tinfoil hat? Not something I normally don, but I'm making an exception in this case.

[mike_c]

76. there's a very good reason why a diverse group of people...

...might develop the same "condition" that has nothing to do with biological agents and everything to do with hysteria-- all of them share the same societal aversion to "bugs" and "germs" and "infestation" and they interpret their symptoms in light of that aversion. That freaks them out further. It becomes a chain reaction. As noted above, I've looked at a number of the so-called "photos of unknown organisms" and some of the supposed actual organisms and NEVER seen anything identifiable as a macroparasitic organism, and that includes examples that were supposedly "caught" by their victims. The only organic material I've ever seen was derived from their wounds, i.e. scabs and dried body fluids mixed with dirt, lint, and bits of flesh. Now that doesn't rule out microbial or otherwise cryptic pathogens, but again, the photos I've seen of the "fibers" are just as consistent with their being lint rather than some sort of endogenous structure. That bit's not my field however, but I am an entomologist, and I can assure you that NONE of the evidence I've seen suggests any sort of arthropod infestation.

[Shakespeare]

96. Oh, come now.

What are the odds that people with no connection to one another, geographical or otherwise, and who have no knowledge of each other (and their respective illness/disorder), would manifest identical symptoms? To posit such a theory, you'd have to have some sort of evidence to support it, and there is none.

I'm not saying there's no such thing as delusional parasitosis; but it's highly, HIGHLY unlikely that that's what's going on here.

I also didn't say I think it's an arthropod.

[AngryAmish]

114. Easy to explain

Many delusional people manifest similar symptoms. For example, in the past many people beleived that devils were causing them harm. Now many of these people think the CIA or FBI are plotting against them. It is all delusions of persecution and the persecuted person makes the decision that the most sinister force possible is the one persecuting the ill person.

These folks have different delusions, this one that there are bugs under their skin. Since there are no bugs, and everyone has scabs or lint, their symptoms will be similar.

Delusions change over time depending on the particular society's norms.

[Sivafae]

77. I saw that piece too

And I thought it was strange that most of those that were in the piece worked in the medical industry. I was kinda thinking that if they are working in hospitals and they have a unrecognized ailment, then perhaps they shouldn't be working with people!

[displacedtexan]

75. I'm in Baltimore, and I had that last year!

It started out as a simple rash. But it "crawled" under the skin and spread until all four limbs were covered. The worst part was that it crawled onto the bottoms of my feet (and the PDR says that the only thing that does that is syphilis!)

Boy, was I sacred! Married to the same person for almost 30 years (and totally faithful), and these baby ER doctors are checking me for venereal disease!

They took pictures and skin scrapings, but they had no idea what it was that I had.

Two weeks of steroids and powerful antibiotics cured it, but I was miserable and scared to death!

I thought it was something I had eaten.

[kodi]

9. Are there any exotic Middle East desert diseases akin to this?

.

[MADem]

19. There are a couple of beauts over that way

Sand fleas, not terribly exotic, but horrid. http://www.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/leishmaniasis.htm Read all about it! Ugh!

Then there's this parasite that can enter your feet (or any skin) in the water and really screw you up. Don't paddle barefoot in the Nile in Egypt, or the Tigris or Euphrates in Iraq. http://www.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/schisto.htm

And this mosquito borne illness is no fun, either: http://www.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/filariasis.htm

Deet wipes are appreciated by service personnel in flea biting areas, FWIW.

[area51]

27. parasite

There's another parasite ... living @ 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. :evilgrin:

---

"Prosperity is just around the corner." -- Herbert Hoover
"The economy has turned a corner." -- GW Bush

Herbert Hoover = GW Bush

Neither man cared about the Depression their economic policies created.

[smirkymonkey]

42. Yeah, and he's definitely getting under my skin...

I've had the creepy crawlies for over four years.

[zann725]

22. There was a newspaper article 1-2 mo's. ago re: flying parasites in Iraq

causing bleeding lesions on U.S. Soldiers, that left scars when they finally healed. According to the article, there were at least 60 cases of soldiers suffering from multiple parasite lesions. Maybe they're bringing it home UNtreated?

[kodi]

41. that was my initial reponse too. the soldiers are acting as carriers.

.

[this_side_up]

46. believe you are thinnking of

leishmaniosis (spelling?)

Surface infection and/or very bad internal infection

believe it comes from sand flea bites

[tridim]

10. Freaky.. It sound like an X-Files episode.

I wonder if the bugs are shooting silk like a spider? Silk is a protein right?

[yardwork]

13. Toward the end the article mentions Lyme Disease

suggesting that this new illness might be carried by ticks like those that carry Lyme Disease. It's possible that the parasite or virus or bacteria (Lyme Disease is a bacteria) that causes the illness also causes the human body to react by forming the protein fibers.

[amazona]

99. yeah but I wonder about that

I believe a disease associated with Lyme Disease would first be observed in Connecticut and New Jersey where Lyme Disease has run wild for years.

Not California, Texas, and Florida. Do they even have Lyme in those states? We don't have it in Louisiana.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[Shakespeare]

100. Yup-cases have been reported in all regions of the country.

We have it here in California, too.

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/jake/mosaic/lyme.html

"The disease is reported worldwide and throughout the United States. The states of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey account for the majority of cases in the United States. However, cases are reported from all geographic regions of the country."

[amazona]

101. cases can be widely reported because people travel

For instance, a birdwatcher died of a tickborne disease in Louisiana but that doesn't mean he got it here -- don't recall the details but I believe he got it in New Mexico.

I just think if a disease was associated with Lyme you would have been seeing it first in people who are or recently were in Lyme areas. Birdwatchers were among the first to get and report Lyme in the 1980s.

I'm not comfortable with a disease originating in Texas, California, and Florida as being associated with Lyme. Now if they tracked these people back and they were all birdwatchers who had spent the week at Cape May or something...it would be a different story.

But right now I'm not seeing where they get the Lyme idea at all, it seems pulled right out of the hat.

The person in Baltimore who said she had a syphilis-like skin disease that had to be aggressively treated with antibiotics and steroids, OK, I agree, that sounds like a rare but unpleasant variant of Lyme. I heard of a birder in the 80s who was told that her Lyme was a lot like syphilis. But it doesn't sound (to me) like she had the same disease as these people with the "fibers."

Time will tell, I guess. All we need are more new skin diseases. The old ones are intractable enough. :-( For various personal reasons, my heart really goes out to victims of skin disease. It's a miserable fate.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[rainbow4321]

11. Then we have the "virus contaminated money" story....

http://kyw.com/Local%20News/local_story_028223622.html


Money that has been contaminated with a virus; it’s a whole new possible direction for bioterrorism. It is a case that the FBI terrorism unit has taken over from state police that involves several cities, including Philadelphia. In an exclusive investigation, CBS 3 has obtained documents detailing a bizarre criminal plot involving a virus, suspected drug money, and the Russian mob in Northeast Philadelphia.

Earlier this month, Pennsylvania State Troopers intercepted $250,000 dollars during a routine traffic stop. The alleged drug money, which had been sealed in plastic, was being driven from Columbus, Ohio to Northeast Philadelphia.

According to law enforcement sources, after counting the seized cash, troopers began feeling ill and one trooper was even hospitalized with flu-like symptoms.

Fadal has learned that a warning has been issued at both the state and federal level, recommending that officers should take extra precaution and wear protective masks when handling suspected drug money, now more than ever.

[yardwork]

14. Not many viruses can survive outside the human body

That's why we don't all have HIV - the virus dies almost as soon as it leaves the protection of the human body. Same with most other viruses - even cold and flu germs have to be spread directly from damp hand or sneeze to damp mucous membranes.

I don't think there is any virus that could survive on money for any length of time.

[spotbird]

97. The flu or a common cold?nt

[LizW]

36. They did that one on X-Files, too.

[havocmom]

20. Oh, swell! I am up posting at this hour cuz I can't sleep. Can't sleep

cuz the frigging itching and crawly feeling on my skin is making me irritable in the extreme!

Well, at least I have company.

Small comfort for moi. Doctors in my general area have decided there is an epidemic of pertussis raging. This comes three years after I noticed a lot of folks in my small town (my family included) with coughing that lingered for months, relapses and would get so bad we would throw up and damn near stop breathing. I did some research and everything I read about pertussis matched what I was observing. Doctors finally figured out the shots babies are given DO NOT give lifetime immunity and teens and people in their prime were getting the damn stuff.

But I was just delusional when I noticed it. The doctor said so. :grr:

[NYC]

23. Thanks. I didn't know adults still got pertussis.

I have a friend who had it as a child. She had black circles all around her eyes, like shaken child syndrome.

P.S. I have read about formication, the feeling of ants crawling all over.

Formication: The illusion or hallucination that ants or other insects are creeping on or under the skin. Formication is a feature of some psychotic states as well as drug and alcohol abuse. From the Latin formicatio, from formicare meaning to creep like an ant.

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=26008

[havocmom]

37. It is also something which some women get with menopause

Guess what age range I am in ;)

[NYC]

105. Don't tell me you have it?

(Formication) I read about formication in relation to menopause. I think it is classified as a vaso-motor disturbance, but don't truly remember.

If you suffer formication, is there anything you can do for it?

[knitter4democracy]

51. How odd!

The medical community has been saying that pertussis is on the run again for as long as my husband's been out of medical school (three and a half years). He heard about it years ago and always checks to see if that's it. Of course, they've all been arguing over the vaccine and whether adults need boosters, but to have your doctor say that you were delusional suggests that he doesn't read his journals or work on his CME very carefully.

[this_side_up]

24. Morgellons is real.

There is a patient who has filled quart bottles with
them.

http://www.morgellons.org/

It is interesting that someone chose to stir up
the government corporate whores by publishing
this article...as it leads to other very
expensive infectious diseases which the
corporations do not want to pay for.

Coming soon to all of us: that is no longer a
covered disease as it does not exist or if
it does, it's no big deal and has NO effect
on your health or life. IOW, Hurry up and die
because you are too ill to work and produce
tax monies for us.

[mike_c]

35. quote from that site...

...regarding the "history of Morgellons disease:"

"There is a type of intercutaneous worm which is wont very frequently to infest infants under six months and not infrequently also children of two years or of about that age. They are born, in preference to all other places, in the muscles of the arms, legs and back, and arise from an excrementory humour which is contained within the pores of the body, and is common at that age. This, because of the repression of transpiration and dispersal, undergoes putrefactive changes and becomes alive and, in proportion to the number of receptacles of the pores, is converted into worms, which have a shape not at all unlike those that are born in putrefying cheese, but very much smaller. They never creep entirely out from the pores, but protrude their little heads, which are distinguished as so many black points."

Now I understand that this is presented to provide historical context, but references to spontaneous generation cited as evidence are hardly credible.

Note that all of the images on that site are from a single individual, and that all are consistent with the alternative hypothesis that the "fibers" are clothing or other fibers-- including household lint-- that were trapped in lesions caused by some other condition. The photos of "objects emerging from a lesion" look more like bits of lint stuck to a crust of coagulated fluid and skin scrapings. The one picture of an "organism" is completely unidentifiable. It is certainly NOT an insect or an insect part.

[anarchy1999]

25. Put on tin foil gear and then google "chemtrails".

Have fun.

The best for the fiber research is

www.carnicom.com and also Will Thomas

[seemslikeadream]

80. Space Preservation Act of 2001

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/L?c107:./list/c107h.lst:2901

Click on this
2975 . Space Preservation Act of 2001 (Introduced in House)



Space Preservation Act of 2001 (Introduced in House)

HR 2977 IH


107th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 2977
To preserve the cooperative, peaceful uses of space for the benefit of all humankind by permanently prohibiting the basing of weapons in space by the United States, and to require the President to take action to adopt and implement a world treaty banning space-based weapons.


IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

October 2, 2001
Mr. KUCINICH introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, and in addition to the Committees on Armed Services, and International Relations, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A BILL
To preserve the cooperative, peaceful uses of space for the benefit of all humankind by permanently prohibiting the basing of weapons in space by the United States, and to require the President to take action to adopt and implement a world treaty banning space-based weapons.


Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Space Preservation Act of 2001'.

SEC. 2. REAFFIRMATION OF POLICY ON THE PRESERVATION OF PEACE IN SPACE.

Congress reaffirms the policy expressed in section 102(a) of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (42 U.S.C. 2451(a)), stating that it `is the policy of the United States that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind.'.

SEC. 3. PERMANENT BAN ON BASING OF WEAPONS IN SPACE.

The President shall--

(1) implement a permanent ban on space-based weapons of the United States and remove from space any existing space-based weapons of the United States; and

(2) immediately order the permanent termination of research and development, testing, manufacturing, production, and deployment of all space-based weapons of the United States and their components.

SEC. 4. WORLD AGREEMENT BANNING SPACE-BASED WEAPONS.

The President shall direct the United States representatives to the United Nations and other international organizations to immediately work toward negotiating, adopting, and implementing a world agreement banning space-based weapons.

SEC. 5. REPORT.

The President shall submit to Congress not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and every 90 days thereafter, a report on--

(1) the implementation of the permanent ban on space-based weapons required by section 3; and

(2) progress toward negotiating, adopting, and implementing the agreement described in section 4.

SEC. 6. NON SPACE-BASED WEAPONS ACTIVITIES.

Nothing in this Act may be construed as prohibiting the use of funds for--

(1) space exploration;

(2) space research and development;

(3) testing, manufacturing, or production that is not related to space-based weapons or systems; or

(4) civil, commercial, or defense activities (including communications, navigation, surveillance, reconnaissance, early warning, or remote sensing) that are not related to space-based weapons or systems.

SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

(1) The term `space' means all space extending upward from an altitude greater than 60 kilometers above the surface of the earth and any celestial body in such space.

(2)(A) The terms `weapon' and `weapons system' mean a device capable of any of the following:

(i) Damaging or destroying an object (whether in outer space, in the atmosphere, or on earth) by--

(I) firing one or more projectiles to collide with that object;

(II) detonating one or more explosive devices in close proximity to that object;

(III) directing a source of energy (including molecular or atomic energy, subatomic particle beams, electromagnetic radiation, plasma, or extremely low frequency (ELF) or ultra low frequency (ULF) energy radiation) against that object; or

(IV) any other unacknowledged or as yet undeveloped means.

(ii) Inflicting death or injury on, or damaging or destroying, a person (or the biological life, bodily health, mental health, or physical and economic well-being of a person)--

(I) through the use of any of the means described in clause (i) or subparagraph (B);

(II) through the use of land-based, sea-based, or space-based systems using radiation, electromagnetic, psychotronic, sonic, laser, or other energies directed at individual persons or targeted populations for the purpose of information war, mood management, or mind control of such persons or populations; or

(III) by expelling chemical or biological agents in the vicinity of a person.

(B) Such terms include exotic weapons systems such as--

(i) electronic, psychotronic, or information weapons;

(ii) chemtrails;

(iii) high altitude ultra low frequency weapons systems;

(iv) plasma, electromagnetic, sonic, or ultrasonic weapons;

(v) laser weapons systems;

(vi) strategic, theater, tactical, or extraterrestrial weapons; and

(vii) chemical, biological, environmental, climate, or tectonic weapons.

(C) The term `exotic weapons systems' includes weapons designed to damage space or natural ecosystems (such as the ionosphere and upper atmosphere) or climate, weather, and tectonic systems with the purpose of inducing damage or destruction upon a target population or region on earth or in space.

[DulceDecorum]

26. Black Water

in Florida in "winter" 2001-2002 was covered by only one newspaper,the Naples News.
http://web.naplesnews.com/sections/specials/blackwater/front.html
More at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1310537#1312088

Fishermen who touched the water developed SEVERE lesions which were highly resistant to most anti-biotics. There were no fish in the area and it was suspected that the bacteria which sometimes formed webs or black strings, had consumed them all. After the black water went away, the area was found to be devoid of life.
Wrecked.
Dead.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/63144_deadzone21.shtml
http://www.floridakeys.noaa.gov/news/sit_rep/03_19_02.html



Black Water Reports Again Surfacing
October 30, 2003
Besides the black water, Whitezell said he also came across water between the Marquesas and the Dry Tortugas that looked "Army drab green" and another area that looked the color of dark yellow mustard.
"There was a whole lot of bad water in there," said Whitezell. "It was bizarre. It was all the bad water I'd ever heard of, and it was all in one place."
In the black water, Whitezell's chum line was not bringing fish to the surface, and what he did catch seemed lethargic and were pale white, he said.
Where there usually is clear water, Whitezell's tackle was disappearing into the blackness 20 feet below the surface, he said.
Three fishermen have reported seeing black water between the Marquesas and the Dry Tortugas, said Edward Little, the fisheries biologist with NOAA in Key West.
"It's not just one person spinning a story," Little said.
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/southflorida/news/blackwater2003.html

Sunday, October 17, 2004
Twenty years after it began its downward spiral, the debate still rages about what is causing big problems in Florida Bay.
The western part of the bay is where the Naples Daily News first reported black water in the spring of 2002, but the problems are older than that by decades.
The crescent- shaped bay between the Florida peninsula and the string of Keys islands was once home to crystal clear water and lush sea grass beds.
Now the turtle grass that suffered a massive die-off in the early 1990s is being replaced by another species that likes nutrient pollution. The patch reefs just north of the middle Keys are barren of lobster that used to crowd under massive boulder corals.
Those corals are dead now, covered in a carpet of smothering green algae, the water often cloudy in an ecosystem that demands clear.
Black water, a phenomenon that scientists link to massive algae blooms and that damages life on the sea floor, has happened a few times since on a smaller scale than the 2002 event.
http://www.reefrelief.org/scientificstudies/article.asp?file=20041128article.html

[R Hickey]

33. Scabies?

That's my diagnosis.

[this_side_up]

45. Nope. Not when

.... *it* begins with *it* (bloody red pulpy cigar-shaped tissue,
approximately .5 inch long, 1/8 diameter) emerging from where it splits the lip


... when you dig the black filament-laden blobs from your skin,
appriximately 1/8+ diameter (sizes vary)

... when cigar-shaped, snow white, hard as a rock emerges
halfway from your finger bone (.5 long, 1/8 diameter)

Doctors (real ones) are investigating, testing and asking
patients about this

[AnneD]

49. Doc's don't believe Nurses most of the time, and they

seldom believe patients.....unless they see it for themselves or it happens to them. If I had a nickle for every time I told a doc something and was not believed, I could hang up these worn out clogs. But God love those that do believe you or admit they made a mistake. They are the Doc's you want. Thanks for the info.

[RawMaterials]

69. The End Of The World

Or...After The Horse Has Gone

Recently I noticed a few things, I mean, I noticed them for the first time in context with one another, and I realised that the world, at least as we (think) we know it, has finally come to an end.

The first thing I noticed - quite involuntarily, as I was afflicted with it -- was a mystery illness that is making the rounds even here in Switzerland, a lumpy bumpy, subcutaneous rash, for which no dermatologist seems to have any cure, nor even a proper name, though thankfully, one is not told, as apparently in the United States, that one is simply imagining it, that one has "a mental illness".

It itches like blazes, one scratches until one's skin is raw, and the skin never properly heals either, going from rashy skin-scape of pustules of one-to-two millimetres' diameter, that finally burst, exuding a clear-to-yellowish, sticky fluid, to a broken landscape of thinned skin, red-to-purplish in colour, that looks like the mosaic of a dried-out mud-scape, with oozing lines of suppurating, yellowish skin between little, uneven islands the colour and surface texture of fried bacon.

Strangely enough, they seemed to appear simultaneously with the onset of regular, heavy chemtrailing across our skies, parallel lines of white trails dragged behind high-flying planes, some flying through the night and laying down a spiderweb-like network of criss-crossing lines against bright moonlight, that don't simply dissipate like familiar, ordinary contrails, but seem to have enough dense, particulate matter in them to slowly descend, forming strips of cloud that all run together in a white-out that of a beautiful morning generally put an end what had promised to be a cloudless, wonderful day.

So what? you might ask. "This is to counteract global warming" - if you believe governmental explanations now slowly appearing on the Web, now that the populace has actually started asking hard questions, though the local environmental agency here still has a form letter sent out to inquirers, claiming that Chemtrailing is purely an internet rumour.

Then I got something in my mail today, starting out as:

http://www.foxreno.com/news/4170085/detail.html
Mystery Illness Baffles Doctors, Frustrates Patients
February 7, 2005

SAUSALITO -- Is an unknown disease hitting the Bay Area or is it just a case of mass delusion? If you ask intensive care nurse Cindy Casey she'll tell you that the mystery disease is very real and very painful.

....more....



http://www.rense.com/general62/eend.htm

[Minstrel Boy]

78. well, here we go...

Let the great die-off commence.

Is this why microbiologists have been targeted?

Another thing the "Merlin Project" forecasts:

"In 2008-2009, something even more profoundly changing will happen that will affect about 4 out of 6 people. Something like a pandemic."

I wrote in my blog in January:

Culling the population by about two-thirds is what many expect to come of our world's convergence of crises. Two billion or so of us is a potentially sustainable number, living at reduced means under a technocratic feudalism. A great die-off seems all but inevitable. How we get there is the question for the High Globalists. Leave it to chance, or anticipate the curve? Bioterror? Eco-terror? Climate change? Nuclear exchange? Have they already answered? And what will be our response?

More on the "Merlin Project":

Who is behind - or perhaps, in front of - the Merlin Project: a "high-tech crystal ball" which boasts of a "track record of timely and accurate predictions"? The two names linked to Merlin are "futurist" Paul Guercio and "SDI physicist" Dr. George Hart:

"The MERLIN Project is officially born on July 4, 1989 after Dr. George Hart offers to design software built around Paul Guercio's Theory of Time. A team of SDI (Star Wars) physicists is recruited to design the MERLIN Project software, which becomes known as TimeTrak.

...

"In 1995, the MERLIN creators were approached by a Strategic Planning Office of the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff and asked to provide a long-range forecast and timetable for potential incidents of domestic terrorism over the following seven years. This "white paper" which was submitted in July 1995, included indications of a significant threat culminating in the Fall of 2001, which we now know to be the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon."

What's MERLIN predicting for this year?

"At the end of 2005, something profound will happen...asteroid strike or massive UFO invasion"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2900519#2902101

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=245&topic_id=2941

[amazona]

103. isn't this psoriasis ?

Agree that it is a bear to treat if there is any treatment at all that does anything about the itching, especially if for some reason your case doesn't respond to steroids. But it is not a new disease or a rare one, at least not in the U.S. "the heartbreak of psoriasis" has always been very common.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[superconnected]

70. my only thoughts are

which lab created it and who released it on the gays.

[genieroze]

84. That's stupid, saying it's in their head. It sounds like some sort of skin

infection or a reaction.

[mike_c]

90. it's not stupid....

Believe me, I've been involved in a some of these cases and have colleagues that are much more involved in them. Delusional parasitosis is real-- it's a "reaction" to an obsessive fear of "bugs" and "germs" on the skin. It's seriousness for patients is not diminished by acknowledging that-- they really suffer no matter what the cause-- and refusing to face the real nature of the disease for those that actually are delusional only denies them therapies with any chance of helping.

[amazona]

102. how can it be treated?

Is it an obsessive compulsive order? Would SSRIs help? I knew someone many years ago who had a condition as a child, who couldn't stop from digging into her skin with her nails and drawing blood. There seemed to be no treatment at that time, fortunately, it passed after awhile but it was pretty scary while it lasted.

Another friend said he had the bugs-under-the-skin thing when he was suffering alcohol withdrawal and, again, there was nothing to do but wait it out. But, again, this was many years ago since he had to go through this.

Thought I was hearing that sometimes our modern drugs can work very well for treating this?

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[mike_c]

104. I don't know-- I'm the entomologist...

...not the physician. My understanding is that it is treated like an obsessive-compulsive disorder, along with treating the physical symptoms, abrasions, etc, which can be quite distressing.

[seemslikeadream]

85. What is being done about this unknown skin disease?

Images above: Objects emerging from lesion on child's lip at 200x.

What is being done about this unknown skin disease?
Twenty physicians in the U.S. are currently treating patients with this baffling skin disease. These physicians are trying to determine the optimal medical management of their patients, while scientists identify the filamentous skin pathogen related to the Borreliosis.

Several hundred people with Morgellons Disease have tested positive for Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), the bacteria which causes Lyme Disease. The working hypothesis of this foundation is that an infection with Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) may alter the individual's immune system and allow this unknown organism to become an opportunistic coinfection.
http://www.morgellons.org/

[mike_c]

91. please, those micrographs don't show anything...

...that's not consistent with an aggravated and scraped lesion that's had a tissue held against it, or a pillow case, or a sleeve-- while its surface is wet. I'm sorry, but they really don't. Nor do any of the others on that site, which are ALL taken from a single subject, BTW, and are all equally devoid of anything that is remarkably different from dried tissue fluids, dead skin, dirt, and clothing or cellulose fibers-- all the sorts of things that accumulate when someone worries their skin obsessively.

[Chicago Democrat]

109. I get all ichy just thinking about it! (nt)

[symbolman]

113. About 5 years ago

on the Island of Molokai in Hawaii I was visiting my sister and spent some time on a beach she liked to frequent..

SHe complained that there were flies there that were laying eggs under her skin, that they "hatched" and then left about three inch lines of red under the skin..

I scoffed at her (as I have spent a lot of time in Hawaii, mostly on Maui, back in 1984 or so, a lot of it on the beach) and never even got a mosquito bite..

BUT, these same flies "bit" me too and tho I didn't get any red lines I had about 5 skin eruptions on my back, very painful and pussy and deep feeling. I could swear that when I layed on my back I could feel "movement" in the sores, and I asked my girlfriend to soak them with a hot towel and try to pinch them out..

She did so, not with much strength, and I swear that she got bug parts out of the sores that wouldn't heal - like little maggot heads and white tissue that wasn't mine.

The parts were all smashed and hard to tell for sure - I really had the impression that something had hatched under my skin, caused an eruption and created a sort of hole in the skin.. like I was the wrong host and they died in there real quick and just rotted, causing infection.

I went to a doctor in the states and he laughed at me and said there wasn't anything like that in humans - I told him that I knew there were flies that bored into cow flesh and layed eggs that hatched, why couldn't the fly mistake a human for a host and do the same thing?

Also, I've read stories of people in the Amazon that get maggots that live under their toenails and they have to burn them out, or lift the toenail off to remove them.

As a matter of fact, if you look at the seal for a doctor (the two "snakes" wrapped around a pole") and do some research you'll find that it's based on a parasite that gets under the skin (in parts of India I have heard as well) and that the only way to get them out is to cut into the end of the lesion, wrap a stick around the worm and turn the stick a quarter turn each day to slowly pull the parasite out from under your skin - if it breaks you'll either get poisoned by the dead creature or a massive infection.. people have lost legs from this animal..

Check out the symbol for doctors, really creepy - can't remember the term for it right now, but it's for real.. those aren't "snakes" on the pin that doctor is wearing, they are parasitical WORMS!

My deep scars from my infestation have gone away, but I was very freaked out, thinking I was giving "birth" to something, not only was it disgusting to think about it, but I couldn't even reach my back where the problem was..

Plus being a male, I do not wish to give "birth" to anything :)

Parasites ARE real, not the ones that hard core drunks see when they come off the juice, but they are REAL..

now off to bed to dream of more friendly things! Like Dolphins or puppies :)

[Occulus]

115. Sounds to me that doctor didn't know much about parasites...

I had what we call "swimmer's itch" once. I got it from swimming in a local lake. Apparently, the parasite I had uses freshwater snails as its host, and the parasites get into the water when the snail defecates. So, here I am, a day after I swam, covered head to toe with tiny red dots that itched, and itched, and ITCHED. I had to cover myself neck to ankle every night with some sort of medicated lotion, because at night the parasites would burrow out of the skin, crawl a bit (they're microscopic, btw), and then burrow back in to lay some eggs. The doc told us it's totally harmless to human, if mildly annoying, but STILL... I was going "eeeeewwwwww" for a week.....

[Bo]

116. Do you have a link for the FLAG on your post?

Looks interesting