Morgellons Disease

I read last night that singer Joni Mitchell is suffering from Morgellons Disease, which reportedly prevented the famous Canadian from performing at the Olympics.

This odd disease sounds like science fiction... it leaves painful sores all over the body. The sores ooze blue, black or red fibers, white threads and little black specks of sand-like material. Bizarre!

Most people report an itching, biting or clawing sensation, as though something were crawling under the skin. While the odd threads resemble some type of hyphae, a filamentous form of fungus, they are not natural.

Doctors don't know what causes the disease, who is at risk and exactly how many people may be suffering. One count has the number at 1,200, but The Morgellons Foundation fears the real number of infected people is much higher. Some patients are finding relief with either antibiotics and/or a form of colloidal silver -- also being used in treatment of MS.

The disease has an unusual geographic spread in clusters, large ones, which suggests that it may have some environmental or infective origin. The clusters are in California, Texas and Florida, with cases showing up elsewhere in the country and in the UK, France and Germany.

Since January 2008, the CDC has been studying Morgellons Disease, trying to establish the cause, which remains unknown, with theories ranging from deliberate chemical experiments to environmental toxins to psychosomatic origins.

The name comes from a condition involving "black hairs" emerging from the skin of children that was documented in France in the 1600s. It is unknown if it is the same disease.