by sophomore Student Life writer Kyle Guice

Have you ever had the feeling that a bug was crawling under your skin, but when you checked there was nothing? Imagine that feeling you felt for a moment imagine it under your skin, all over your body and for the rest of your life, the bugs never stopping. How would you do anything? There is a large group of people all around the world who live through this everyday and have to learn to deal with the feeling. These people have the mental disease Morgellons.

Morgellons is a mental disease that affects thousands of people worldwide. The disease was first reported in 2002 by a stay at home mom named Mary Leitao who had reported a crawling sensation under her two year old son’s skin. Soon rashes and sores appeared on his arms and legs. She quickly rushed her son to a doctor who told them he was baffled by the results. Soon other people with similar conditions and sores started to appear around the world.

Doctors, psychiatrists and dermatologists have regarded Morgellons as a manifestation of known medical conditions such as Delusional Parasitosis. This is because Morgellons has not shown any signs of being different from these diseases. The only reason people with Morgellons refuse to accept this answer is that no medications they are prescribed work well to get rid of the symptoms.

Some doctors think that because most of the cases are relatively close to each other that the disease is caused by pollutants and pesticides. They think that the pollutants and pesticides get into the water and contaminate it, causing consumers to become mentally ill and get the felling of bugs under their skin.

In late 2009 the Morgellons Research Foundation and self diagnosed Morgellons patients successfully lobbied congress members and the U.S. Governments Center of Disease and Control Prevention to investigate the proposed condition. The CCD researchers issued the results of their multi year study in January of 2012 indicating there were no disease organisms in Morgellons patients, and that fibers found in the sores were normal clothing fibers and suggested that the patients’ sensations were manifestations of “Delusional Infestations”

Morgellons is an interesting disease that affects many people worldwide and even though the disease was deemed fake I believe that Morgellons patients and their families will refuse to stop until their disease is cured. Morgellons is a serious disease and if you want to help the Morgellons patients you can donate money to the Morgellons Research Foundation at their website http://www.morgellons.org/.