The Mysterious "Fibers" Produced by Morgellons Patients

Morgellons disease is a relatively new diagnosis for a skin condition that appears to cause lesions that produce fiber-like organisms beneath the skin. The fibers have been the subject of research for those interested in finding out about this disease, that science has yet to identify.

Most of the research performed regarding Morgellons has been conducted by those associated with the Morgellons Research Foundation. Randy Wymore, one of the first scientists in the medical community to acknowledge the presence of the disease, contends that Morgellons patients have fibers detectible under magnification under un-broken skin. While Wymore claims the fibers are dark, other scientists have discovered white fibers visible through magnification through patient’s unbroken skin. Those people who are not affected by Morgellons do not have the presence of these fibers.

Wymore took a sample of the fibers from Morgellons patients and sent them to a police crime lab in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The fibers were matched against the FBI’s database of over 800 known substances, but were not found to be from an article of clothing or carpeting as suspected by skeptics. The report from the police department ascertained that the fibers were not man-made and did not come from a plant. The fibers were thought to be of an undetermined origin, possibly from a biological organism.

Early in 2007, two doctors from the Morgellons Research Foundation who are both experts in plant pathology, found that skin samples of five Morgellons patients contained Agrobacterium, a plant-infecting organism. Their research was stymied by the fact that while Agrobacterium can cause infections in people with compromised immune systems, it is not known to affect healthy individuals.

These findings conclude, however that Morgellons is bacterial. Raphael Stricker, President of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, theorized that Morgellons is linked to Lyme Disease. According to Stricker’s research, many patients with Morgellons also test positive for Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme Disease. Stricker concludes that Morgellons is just another form of Lyme Disease and that the same antibiotics that work for Lyme Disease relieves the symptoms of Morgellons. The data for these claims has not yet been published in medical journals, however.

Other board members disagreed that the fibers are bacterial in origin. Dr. Ahmed Kilani, a microbiologist from Stanford University and member of the foundation, felt that the fibers were feeding structures from a fungus, algae or parasite.

According to Richard Fagerlund, an entomologist in San Francisco, the disease may be the result of pollutants and pesticides. Fagerlund does not have any scientific data to back up his claim that environmental toxins are not only responsible for the disease, but that it is reaching epidemic proportions. While the Center for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledges that they have received an increasing number of calls from people claiming to be suffering from Morgellons since the disease was made known on several television news programs in 2006, it is more likely that public awareness about the disease has increased, rather than the number of people affected by the disease.

While there is some dissention among those studying the disease regarding its origins, all agree that more research is needed to find viable treatment or a possible cure.

For more information about Morgellons research, visit the Morgellons web site.