CDC Announces Study of Morgellons Disease

On Wednesday, the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta announced a study of reports of an unexplained dermopathy known as Morgellons disease and has issued a $338,000 contract to Kaiser Permanente to aid in research due to the numerous cases being found in Northern California.

According to the Morgellons Foundation the disease is of unknown etiology or origin. Doctors Virginia R. Savely, Mary M. Leitao, Rachel B. Stricker who led efforts to gain CDC investigation into Morgellons, document in a 2006 article that victims share the following environmental and health characteristics: 1) many patients have positive Western blots to Borrelia burdorferi, the causative agent behind Lyme disease 2) family members and pets who have come in contact with the same agent share the disease 3) have had contact with soil and waste products.

According to the Mayo Clinic more than 100 doctors have reported patients with similar symptoms. The Mayo clinic claims that every state in the United States, and in fifteen countries world-wide have patients-a variety of articles mention China, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Germany having cases.

Disease symptoms documented by the Mayo Clinic include

- Skin lesions accompanied by intense itching

- Fibers that grow out of the skin tissue, some with a spore like root, which are variously colored and sized, and fluoresce under ultra-violet light.

- Sensation like bugs crawling beneath the skin

- Fatigue that interferes with daily activities

- Inability to concentrate and difficulties with short-term memory

- Behavioral problems

- The CDC also lists joint pain and changes in vision

Some unsubstantiated articles are reporting these fibers as being made from the same material as used in fiber optics. Others that they are made of cellulose. In their 2006 article, Doctor's Savely, Leitao, and Stricker make no claims to the composition of the fibers. The Morgellons Foundation reports them as The fibers are clearly hyphae-like structures, and yet, do not fall within the description of known hyphae or pseudohyphae-a characteristic of a fungus. A lab report by Jenny Haverty in December of 2004 lists many characteristics of the fibers but no report of the composition.

The initial case definition by the Morgellons Foundation states that "consistent finding of numerous unexpected biologic agents at atypically high levels (some thought to be non-pathogens, others definitely pathogenic) strongly supports that an immune deficiency state exists in Morgellons patients".

The Merck Medical Manual describes Immunodeficiency Disorders as a group of more than 70 diseases in which the immune system doesn't function adequately, so infections are more severe, recur more frequently, are unusually severe and last longer than usual. Because our immune system is responsible for preventing disease, ones they are incapable of resisting have more potential of affecting large numbers of people.