Mysterious Biting Mite

Mysterious Biting Mite

The condition is called Morgellons, and has been coined the name 'black pepper mites', skin parasites and other descriptive terms of some microscopic organism attacking unsuspecting persons. To many, it seems like a TV script straight from the X-Files, but to those who suffer with it, life has become a living hell. Family members, friends, and doctors tell these sufferers, "it's all in your head." Some doctors believe the condition is a form of delusional parasitosis, a psychosis in which people believe they are infected with parasites.

Natural Ginesis, a company dedicated to selling natural and pesticide free products, has helped thousands, and the numbers continue to soar with callers complaining of skin lesions, white (sometimes iridescent) thread-like filaments on their body or clothing or other surfaces in the home. The feeling is a creep-crawly sensation, to biting and pin-prick stings. Strange and freakish symptoms vary from person to person. The most common is these "organisms" gravitate toward the groin, into the eyes, even burrow in the gums. The condition can cause severe insomnia.

The CDC has been getting more than a dozen calls a week from self-diagnosed Morgellons patients for well over a year, and was urged to investigate by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and others. It has been reported in an AOL News report, that the government will soon begin its first medical study of it. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is paying California-based health care giant Kaiser Permanente to test and interview patients suffering from Morgellons' bizarre symptoms. The one-year effort will attempt to define the condition and better determine how common it is.

The study will be conducted in northern California, the source of many of the reports of Morgellons (pronounced mor-GELL-uns). Natural Ginesis receives calls from every state, but notes that larger numbers of sufferers are located in the southern tier of states. Researchers will begin screening for patients immediately. The company expects about 150 to 500 study participants. In the study, volunteers will receive blood tests and skin exams, as well as psychological evaluations, said Dr. Michele Pearson, who leads a CDC task force overseeing the study.

Study participants will be drawn from Kaiser's 3.4 million health insurance customers living mainly in the Sacramento and San Francisco areas and as far south as Fresno. CDC officials say the study is limited and the results won't give a complete picture of the problem. The news of this study is giving sufferers some degree hope with at least the acknowledgement that something unexplained is occurring.

Dr. Joe Selby, director of research for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, says no patient will be excluded from participation, even if a doctor previously determined the problem was psychological. Kaiser researchers will look in their records for previous patients who in the last 18 months reported Morgellons-like symptoms. They will be asked to participate in more medical evaluations.

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