What Is Morgellons Disease?

Morgellons Disease is a mysterious skin disease that has no known causes and cures. It is often confused with another disorder known as Delusional Parasitosis. Morgellons Disease or syndrome is characterized by irritating symptoms like the sensation of bugs or parasites crawling on or beneath the skin.

The main symptoms of Morgellons Disease are severe itching, skin rashes, the presence of fibers or stringy material on or beneath the skin, joint pain, behavioral changes, inability to concentrate, fatigue and so on.

The patients often try to pull out the bugs or parasites that they believe are the source of their debilitating condition in an attempt to get rid of severe itching and stinging sensation. But, instead of being relieved they are left with painful open skin lesions that do not heal easily.

In certain cases, symptoms like changes in the vision, mood disorders, autoimmune diseases, short term memory loss, hair loss etc may also be present.

Moreover, several Morgellons Disease patients have reported pulling out mysterious fiber-like organisms from their skin which they believed were causing the crawling and itching sensations.

These microscopic fibers are usually black, red, blue or white in color. At times, these fibers or filaments are accompanied by black or white colored granules.

Need for Serious Research

In the present scenario, not much is known about this bizarre disease. It is often associated with Lyme Disease. In fact, the antibacterial treatment for Lyme Disease has also been found to reduce the symptoms of Morgellons Disease. However, whether this disease is contagious or not still can not be determined on this basis.

Another important controversy surrounding this disease is that whether Morgellons Disease is a physical disease or a psychological condition characterized by baseless hallucinations.

Unfortunately, due to this lack of knowledge about Morgellons Disease, the patients suffering from this mysterious disease are often neglected and not taken seriously.

Most of the cases of Morgellons Disease have been reported in California, Texas and Florida. Apart from United States, about 15 other countries around the world have also reported cases of this disease. Currently, there is no formal list of symptoms and differential diagnosis for this debilitating disease.