Morgellons Watch

Fibers in Morgellons people are often described as being “under the skin”, or “in the skin”. They are also described as “coming out of the skin” when various liquids are applied.

However, the “under the skin” usually seems to refer to being “from a lesion”, or “under a scab”. Scabs form over several days, and it’s quite possible the fibers might simply become mixed in with the normal lesion seepage, and become encased in the scab.

The skin’s integrity has been compromised - there is a hole in it, so any kind of contaminant can get in it.

Likely sources of fibers:
- clothes
- tissues
- bedding
- pets
- airborne fibers from any number of sources

Another thing that might be mistaken for a fiber is a “vellus hair”. This is a tiny hair, less than 30 microns in diameter, found all over the body, but almost invisible to the naked eye.

If some fibers are vellus hairs, then they are already in the skin. Ingrown hairs are possible explanation.

What about the application of liquid causing the fibers to come out?
- for fibers that are nearly invisible, getting them wet can change the refractive index, causing them to be more visible.
- coating fibers or hairs with a liquid increases their effective diameter, making them more noticeable.
- application of liquid can cause “goose-bumps”, causing hairs (including vellus hairs) to stand on end, and become more noticeable. The bump in the skin may be interpreted as the fiber “pushing” itself out of the skin.
- wet skin will attract airborne fibers, which will then stick to the skin.
- applying the liquid will cause some hairs to stick to the skin, as the liquid dries they will gradually pop up, making it look like they are coming out of the skin.
- some liquids may make hairs and fibers actually less noticeable (depending on both the liquid and the fiber). Again, as the liquid dries, the hairs will become noticeable.
- some liquids contain salts. As they dry, they deposit the salts on the surface of vellus hairs, leading to increased visibility.

Back in July 2002, Mary Leitao posted a request for help on the medhelp.org buletin board, and entered into a brief discussion with Dr Rockoff (a dermatologist). Dr Rockoff was very polite. After a few back and forth exchanges the thread devolved into a “me too!” state.

Dr Rockoff’s responses are very reasonable, and should be a model for similar exchanges.

http://www.medhelp.org/perl6/dermatology/messages/31706a.html

Patients claiming to have Morgellons frequently present symptoms of Atopic Dermatitis (which is coded 691.80, amusingly I saw someone claim this was the insurance code for morgellons - that’s probably what the doctor told them so they would get their prescription filled).

http://www.niams.nih.gov/hi/topics/dermatitis/

and

http://www.aafp.org/afp/990915ap/1191.html

Atopic Dermatitis symptoms are:
- Itching
- Rashes
- scratching
- Inflammation

How does Morgellons differ from Atopic Dermatitis?

And how does it differ from scabies - it seems with all these known diseases out there that cover the symptoms, why invent new diseases? Scabies actually is caused by a mite that burrows into the skin.

An interesting thread over here, on a mainstream forum:

http://www.biology-online.org/biology-forum/about1958.html

Particularly interesting are the posts by “CliffMickelson”, someone who also seems to be devotee of Chemtrails and other unusual sky phenomena. Also of note is “tamtam”. Both big on the quorum sensing, etc.

Consider the photos here:
http://www.morgellons.org/symptoms.html

* “These structures can be described as fiber-like or filamentous”
* “The unknown fibers associated with skin lesions can be described as coenocytic (aseptate), smooth-walled, branching, filamentous objects. The fibers have been analyzed by FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) and have tentatively been identified as cellulose.”
* “The fibers are clearly hyphae-like structures, and yet, do not fall within the description of known hyphae or pseudohyphae”

So can the items in the photos be described as “coenocytic” or “hyphae-like”? The two photos are titled “Objects emerging from lesion on child’s lip at 200X”. Now given this “200X”, how long does that make the “objects”? We can’t really say, as the images themselves could be scaled to any size. But approximately, the “fibers” on my screen are 40mm long, and 2mm thick. This makes them 0.2mm long, and 0.01mm thick. (200 microns by 10 microns, where 1 micron=0.001mm). This puts them approximately in the same scale as hyphae (the living, growing parts of fungi, tiny tubes filled with cytoplasm and nuclie).

On an old page at morgellons.org, that is still up, but seemingly not linked to, it says:
“The fibers are clearly hyphae-like structures, and yet, due their immense size (150 microns wide), they do not fall within the description of known hyphae or pseudohyphae. “
Huh? Even if measuring off 1:1 the screen, then at 200x magnification, 150 microns would appear as 30mm wide (about an inch). Plainly the objects are not 150, and are more like 15 microns thick. Either that or the photos are labled incorrectly. However, the SEM photos clearly show “fibers” that are about 15 microns.

Hypha can be both septate and aseptate (Coenocytic). Septate hyphae are divided by cross section segments called septa. Aseptate hyphae are not. Detrmining if a structure is septate or aseptate is difficult with the images provided, as the most of the structures are out of focus. The clearest structure (in the first image) actually shows some evidence of being septate, rather than aseptate. The picture appears to have been taken with reflective light (from above), and a better determination could be made with transmissive light (from below). Additionally, the specimen should be mounted on a slide and stained to enhance contrast.

Additional stained images are given here:
http://www.morgellons.org/images.html

However, this photo does not resemble the first photos at all, clearly they are different structures, much longer, and smoother.

Then we have some SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) photos. These photos reveal surface features.

Here we have a scale, showing the object is about 15 microns thick. Human hair is generally described as “60-100 microns in diameter”, which would seem to eliminate that as a candidate. However, that is the diameter of full grown head hair (a “terminal” hair). Finer new grown body hair will emerge with an initial diameter that is much smaller, children are covered in “vellus” hair, which has a diameter of under 30 microns.

Going back to the first photo, since the “structures” here are from a lesion on the lip of a child”, and the lesions clearly extend beyond the actual lip surface, then is it not reasonably to think they might be vellus hairs, coated in some viscous liquid (blood, puss or sebum)?

In this photo of the site from which the specimen was obtained:

You can clearly see what look like vellus hair in the lower portions of the image