Mystery Illness/Parasite Said To Be Afflicting Idahoans Getting Attention

Boise, ID - "Not only do they say I can't help you but they say and you are crazy too." There are people all over the country telling the same amazing story about parasites. "I was seeing too many strange things, actually seeing little creatures surface on my skin. I don't think we are all having this mass delusion, you know." Those comments came from people in northern California. But there are alarmingly similar stories coming from people in Idaho who claim to be afflicted by parasites that they say create stinging and crawling sensations under their skin. But most medical doctors do not believe those claims. "They say I have a problem but it is a mental problem. It is crazy, it is enough to make you mental."

Around the country, 729 people -- and just under a dozen in Idaho -- believe they are infected with a mystery illness many are calling a parasite while some clinical researchers believe it is linked to bacteria. "Actually there are ten patients in Idaho and I know three of them fairly well. I have spoken with them on the phone and I believe all ten of them. Because what they report to me is very consistent with what we have seen,” says Mary Leitao, a Pittsburgh-based medical researcher.

Leitao is a biologist by training and an investigator of this unknown medical condition by necessity. She began clinically studying it when her three-year-old son showed her an unknown organism coming out his lip and on his heels. When she first spoke with dozens of other people who claimed to suffer from the same type of unusual skin lesions, they said, "The physicians will not acknowledge this. They are telling us we are all delusional and we have what is known as delusional parasitosis."

So Leitao began doing her own research, started a website and a foundation called the Morgellons Research Foundation based on comparing what was she saw coming out her child and the name of an obscure 400 year old medical manuscript with drawings of an ancient parasite that looked the same. "The microscopic drawings of Morgellons were done in the 1600's. Since this was the only thing that was even similar to what we were seeing under the microscope, we decided to base our name on that."

Leitao admits the medical community is slow to recognize the problem and believes that most of her evidence is anecdotal. In other words, medical officials are concerned that the "evidence" thus far amounts to clinical experiences based on individual cases, rather than an organized investigation with appropriate scientifically approved controls. Adding to her problem, there are no "peer-reviewed" medical studies to document the problem. Local health officials in Idaho contacted by Idaho 2 News declined to be interviewed for this story citing similar concerns.

But a former NASA physician and epidemiologist based in Houston believes there is an infectious bacteria at the heart of this problem. Dr. William Harvey is the current chairman of the NASA Education Advisory Committee. He has documented more than 565 of these (Borreliosis) cases in Texas and says 94% of (those with Morgellons’ skin lesions) have tested positive for the bacteria associated with Lyme disease, or Borreliosis. "I think we are a looking at a major problem that has been unrecognized in humanity right now."

Harvey co-authored a published medical study concluding the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, associated with Lyme disease, could be at the heart of a widely unknown misdiagnosed infection. In 2003 Harvey published his research in the medical journal Medical Hypotheses. His article 'Lyme Disease': Ancient Engine of an Unrecognized Borreliosis Pandemic, suggests that the bacteria associated with Lyme disease is much more widely distributed. "The yet-unrecognized form appears to have a broader clinical presentation, wider geographic distribution, and vastly greater prevalence," Harvey wrote in his report. He says research suggests it attacks the immune system in a specific way rendering it susceptible to these unusual organisms. "The lab tests that we do are predictably showing certain immune damage and it is consistent from patient to patient to patient to patient."

Harvey believes the bacteria is the bigger problem. But the so-called parasites, which have yet to be clinically proven in a controlled laboratory setting, do have highly unusual characteristics as seen through a scanning electron microscope. Leitao says they also defy being easily identified. "What we see are branching structures very fungus like but so large, these fibers, these hyphae are so large that they can not be any of the known fungi." Harvey says some of the "filaments" have been confirmed as the infectious yeast Candida tropicalis.

Conventional wisdom says ticks spread the bacteria associated with Lyme disease. But Dr. Harvey's research suggests that bacteria maybe spread through casual and congenital human contact. Whatever it is, people like Rebecca Hewitt of Nampa who believes she has it, are desperate for a cure. "I honestly believe there are a lot more people out there with it that have given up." The ones who have not given up like Daryl Crockett admit it is a day to day struggle. "I really am trying to tough this out."

Crockett has tried to cure himself with all kinds of ointments, salves, and over the counter drug store items so far to no avail. Leitao says expensive antibiotics have shown some positive results. "Recently people have begun to be treated extremely aggressively with very strong I.V. antibiotics and that seems to be pulling people out of this disease the fastest." The aggressive antibiotic treatment Dr. Harvey has been using with Morgellons patients is the antibiotic Rocephin administered through a central line. In the meantime the research continues, as does the suffering of people who say they are desperate for help.

I've seen fly infestations in humans...where you get boils and then the larvae wiggles out.

I've seen ringworm. And hookworm. And whipworm. And ascaris. I've seen scabies which are bugs that put eggs in the skin and cause itching. I've seen spider bites that take forever to heal. I've seen elephantiasis, where worms infest your lymph nodes. And schistosomiasis where they infect your rectum and bladder. And dog parasites that get lost in humans and you see boils full of larvae-- a common cause of epilepsy in South America. In Africa, I even had one tumor come back as an algae infection.

I didn't see these type things. But I suspect that there are probably a lot of different causes mixed together, and that is the reason for the confusion.

I am the guy featured in mystery Illness this Has been a catch 22 nightmare to be misdiagnoses as delusal when this is real"
Seven doctors later..{all dingosed me delusional}...and broke left to my own expermentaion with pestasides and herbs of which I almost died more than once
I truly beleave that If I would have had the right medications at the begining of this illness I would not still be dealing with this today
Every Doctor that I went to would not believe me that I had critters crawling under and on my skin not one used a magnifier to look
They had already decided the first time I mentioned the word parasites based on the diagnosis protocol
{delusional parasitosis}which links a mental affliction hand in hand with a physical illness that I was off my rocker
Little did I know at the time nor did they let me know
that I didn't stand a chance of getting the medication's
I needed to stem the tide of rapidly reproducing parasites
Instead I get shuffled from doctor to doctor until one of them got up the gumption to tell me that they thought I was delusional and explain to me that the only medication's that would be prescribed would be anti-phycotic drug's I do not have the faith In doctors that I had before
I have completely quit going to doctors because they will not even try to think out of the box

At one time I was so bad that I had thought that I would die from this
I still am unsure of the out come but I will not go to a doctor now to save my life and yes suicide has entered the equation with no hope for a Doctors care

When I ask for test to be done such as stool test skin scrapings for round worm river blindness most of the doctors were combatant when I got insistent
They told me that we don't have those infections the United States
With todays streamlined global travel how could they not
If you want to see the pictures from the mystery Illness click here http://antguy.50megs.com/photo2.html If you want to see the day to day struggles of thousands of people just like me click on the nuspa decusson form this is no joke! and It Is not a delusion http://216.122.128.184/dc/dcboard.phpaz=show_topics&forum=2

Yep this is spreading all over U.S. and Canada, and alot of other Nations. I have suffered this Mystery disease for 3 years, I am in Tennessee. This seems to spread people to people, pets to people, and people to pets. Skin to skin contact. the Doctors and Vets, don't seem to have a clue, or just don't want us to know if they do.
But they really need to get on top of this before it becomes a full blown epidemic.
Keep us in your Prayers.
Thanks
Hummer(susan in Tennessee)

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