Is Morgellons Syndrome the beginning of the end?

The Black Plague, which is possibly the most deadly epidemic in the history of our species, was responsible for nearly thirty million deaths in Asia during the 1300s and wiped out seventy percent of the population in England alone. With a wide range of symptoms and a swift onset, it left few survivors. The little known about it at the time created a mass hysteria that forced people into exile with the appearance of even one of the symptoms.

Morgellons syndrome is a relatively new and little known disease that many are calling the new plague. Though its symptoms are not quite as severe as the Bubonic Plague and its victims are not as widespread, the illness can be miserable and petrifying. Morgellons syndrome symptoms may include open skin lesions, the feeling of bugs crawling and biting under the skin and obscure fibers emerging from lesions and the skin itself.

The term syndrome refers to a specific set of characteristics or symptoms that are often linked together. Morgellons has been labeled a syndrome by some and a disease by others because pending research has not determined it to be a true disease yet. The missing link between Morgellons Syndrome and Morgellons disease is a cause. This is a factor that has cause the same type of fear and hysteria about Morgellons syndrome as was caused by the Plague, though still on a much smaller scale.

Many researchers of Morgellons Syndrome share differing opinions as to its validity. Sufferers have been accused of mental disorders that lead them to believe that there are bugs crawling inside them. Additionally, the open sores associated with Morgellons Syndrome have been attributed to excessive scratching because of this belief of insects in the body. Perhaps the necessity to disprove Morgellons Syndrome and attribute it to other causes is fueled by the fear that this is in fact the New World Plague.

The book of Revelations in the New Testament of the Bible mentions plague and pestilence as one of the signs of the Apocalypse. For many, the unexplainable Morgellons Syndrome represents one of these potential plagues. By recognizing it as a valid disease, they see Morgellons Syndrome as the beginning of the end and may be consumed with the effort to disprove it.

The acceptance of Morgellons Syndrome as a valid disease does not necessarily mean the end of the Earth is near. In the 1300s and later centuries when the Black Plague wiped out large percentage of the world's population, it was probably believed that this was the signal of the end of the world at the time. Strange new conditions such as Morgellons Syndrome tend to spark mass hysteria once they emerge in the public eye.

Morgellons Syndrome sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, but is very real to the thousands of sufferers reporting its symptoms. Whether it becomes a recognized disease or not is of little comfort to its victims that are plagued with sores and the constant feeling of bugs crawling all over the skin. Though Morgellons Syndrome has sparked the same type of fear as plagues of the past, whether it harbors the same seriousness and contagiousness remains to be seen.