M0rge11ons Disease :o

[voyd]

Originally posted by tumblezweedz@May 16 2006, 11:54 PM
Check out wikipedia's article for a perhaps more balanced assessment.

[snapback]121290[/snapback]

Actually, I've discovered this disease is highly-political. In fact, I would stay out of the political rabbit hole because it could lead you down a very dark path:

CD C and N1H have gone about doing nothing about it and even sending doctors notices that if a patient mentions M0RGELL0NS that they are D0P ( my cousin an immunologist got this notice,)

Therefore, MDs have already been federally-ordered to basically prediagnose and maybe even institutionalize, ID and watch1ist anyone claiming the "M" word.

Someone said that a pharmaceutical cure isn't profitable enough, but lifelong suppression would be. So, that's what I might expect to see once this ever gets more widely-accepted. Remember, the medical industry, R&D, Feds and you the consumer are all interlaced in one giant circle-jerk. But, you the consumer are at the rock-bottom of that hierarchy - and it's more profitable to keep us sick than healthy...

Anyways, I would just focus on avoiding the vector risk factors and boost your immunity. That should already be plenty in itself!

[expatben]

Man, thats messed up! Thanks for all the info

[tumblezweedz]

Voyd, is there any source of information on this topic that you and I will agree is a reliable one?

[voyd]

Originally posted by tumblezweedz@May 21 2006, 05:26 AM
Voyd, is there any source of information on this topic that you and I will agree is a reliable one?

[snapback]121977[/snapback]

Probably not yet - as this mere possibility is so bizarre & frightening that it has already polarized people into 2 camps:

Non-believers - mainstream medicine and skeptics (some of whom even speculate this may just be a viral PR stunt for "A Sc@nner Darkly")

Believers - generally the self-proclaimed victims who are painfully insulted and frustrated by the insinuation that it's "all in their heads."

I am definitely leaning towards the "believers" camp - as it seems too elaborate, far-reaching and consistent to be merely made up. Also, it has garnered some media reports lately - as well as allegedly a few fatal victims.

Perhaps only time will tell - but you have to remember that anytime a potential new disease like this comes out - it may be denied and misdiagnosed for years by the medical estabnlishment until it reaches a critical mass. This was the case with Lyme, GWS, CFS, etc.

[tumblezweedz]

Well, put me in with the non-believers in this camp. I think the issue is more about the mental health of these "sufferers", not their physical health. It would be interesting to see their complete health histories - many have Lyme, but what about depression, paranoia, drug use, etc...?

I personally refuse to live in fear (or adjust my life - I didn't do it for the terrorists (NY/ DC/Madrid/London, nor for the DC snipers) of something that currently poses me an infintessimal risk, particularly as it is questionable whether it even exists. I have enough to worry about (my husband's high risk job, my kids' chances of drowning in the river at the back of our yard, the destructive force my three-year-old can unleash at will...) without stressing about rare or non-existent illnesses.

Life is good, why be miserable?

[Joker]

+1, Ms. Weedz.

While all of you were reading and watching about the DC Snipers, I was living with it on a daily basis. I worked 2 blocks from where a victim was shot, only minutes after I got to work that day. The sheer randomness could have made it me, a coworker, a client, etc.

I even met the fucker John Allen Mohammed, who posed as a Post editor interviewing me outside a starbucks about 30 minutes from DC- two days before he was arrested, and I saw the Caprice roll out of the parking lot. I wasn't the only one that saw it. Let me tell you of terrorism, kids- the people that died on 9/11 didn't see it coming- they had that in their favor. We all lived in fear because of some nutjob with a Bushmaster.

[tumblezweedz]

That is creepy, Joker. Just nasty.

We couldn't understand the reaction to the whole sniper thing - we lived in DC, took our kids to school on the city buses every day - waiting at an open stop, on a busy thoroughfare. They had cops stationed outside their schools, and couldn't play outside for three weeks. And do you remember how glorious that fall was? Warm and sunny every day - and three states full of kids cooped up inside. That's scary in itself...

But we'd get emails from friends and relatives around the country (in places like Iowa) saying how they were being more careful at gas stations, and avoiding open areas...I mean, how off the scale is that?

It seems that some of these people would benefit from some risk assessment lessons:

1. Risk exists. It's called life.
2. Just because something awful happens somewhere else in the world, doesn't mean that it's going to happen to you. It's called common sense.

This is a website devoted to encouraging people to travel, to explore, to learn and to grow. All of these activities, by their very nature, involve risk. Yes, it's good to be prepared, but it's also important to size up the risks realistically, and not be overwhelmed by fears, real or imagined.

NOW, GO DO SOMETHING FUN!

[worldwidemike]

Originally posted by tumblezweedz@May 22 2006, 07:17 AM
This is a website devoted to encouraging people to travel, to explore, to learn and to grow.* All of these activities, by their very nature, involve risk.* Yes, it's good to be prepared, but it's also important to size up the risks realistically, and not be overwhelmed by fears, real or imagined.

[snapback]122048[/snapback]

Amen.
Well said, sister!

worldwidemike

[omisan]

this all just dounds like some weird sci-fi movie...

Probably because it is... Or so, that's the theory being raised now.

http://www.adrants.com/2006/05/fake-diseas...-movie-camp.php

[voyd]

^ Yes, while I wouldn't put anything past Hollywood, I remain skeptical of that theory because the skin-crawling D0P in "A Sc@nner Darkly" is just a common symptom of speed use. Which is what Philip Dick was writing about - his drug abuse, not some bizarre new disease. Therefore, I don't see why they would need to invent a whole new fake disease for promos?

Not to mention, the C D C is now finally doing some damage control and actually creating a task force to study it.

Many of these boards have also been up since 2002, with discussions preceding that on other boards. And many of the personal accounts posted are also pretty vivid and extensive.

And there have been several fatalities - including most recently, Tr@vis A11en Wilson...his official obit reading:

Travis Allen Wilson, born on December 29, 1982, died on Sunday, April 23, 2006, at the age of 23 from complications of Lyme disease and M0rge11ons disease. Travis was born in Olympia and lived most of his life in Shelton. He lived for a time in Tenino, and for the past three years had resided in Leander, Texas. He is survived by his mother, Lisa Wilson, of the family home in Leander; father, Mark Wilson, of Shelton; sister, Trisha Wilson, of Herndon, Virginia; great- grandparents, John and Mary Thompson, of Rainier, Oregon and St. Petersburg, Florida; and numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. Viewing will be at McComb Funeral Home in Shelton on Friday, April 28, 2006, from 12:00 noon until 5:00 p.m. A Funeral Service will be held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 916 North 12th Street, Shelton, on Saturday, April 29, 2006, at 10:00 a.m., with burial to follow at Miller Cemetery in Agate, outside of Shelton. A gathering will follow at the Shelton home of Mimi Cook. Memorial donations may be made to the Morgellons Research Foundation, P.O. Box 16576, Surfside Beach, South Carolina, 29587. Arrangements are under the direction of McComb Funeral Home, Shelton, Washington.

So, if this were all a prank, it has now officially been taken waaay too far!

I wish it were all just a lame joke...but I have to seriously doubt that.

[voyd]

I really don't think this is a joke, folks. Now, the first high-profile victim has come public about it:

Doctors Make Progress With Mysterious Disease

POSTED: 7:26 pm PDT May 23, 2006
UPDATED: 4:48 pm PDT May 24, 2006

OAKLAND -- A horrifying and fascinating disease is affecting thousands of people in the Bay Area, along the Gulf Coast and in Florida. Though some doctors have claimed the malady is psychosomatic, other scientists are making headway unraveling the mystery of Morgellons Disease.

Former Oakland A's pitcher Billy Koch has it. And so do his wife and their three children. And though they can afford top medical care, doctors have no answers.

It started in Oakland four years ago. Koch saved 44 games and was the top reliever in the major leagues. His fastball wowed crowds. And then the strangeness began.

"He freaked out. He wanted to ignore it … I wanted to too. But when it comes to your kids, you gotta stop ignoring it," said Koch's wife Brandi.

She describes their symptoms: "It was the scariest thing I had ever realized in my entire life. There was matter and black specks coming out and off of my skin."

Within two years -- at age 29 -- Billy Koch was out of baseball, partly because of the uncontrollable muscle twitching that went on for months at a time and often kept up him up all night.

The disease is characterized by slow healing skin lesions that often extrude small, dark filaments, especially after bathing.

"That's when it would really just ooze -- literally ooze out of my skin," explained Brandi Koch.

The couple was at wit's end after numerous doctors not only provided little in the way of relief, but actually were skeptical about their health problems: "There's no reasonable explanation for it. I'm not seeing things. l'm watching it happen. We're pretty sane people…" lamented Billy.

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Neelam Uppal sympathized with the Kochs' plight: "They've seen several doctors, [and] everybody's told them they're crazy. It's in their head. They're delusional."

Dr. Uppal gave the Kochs and fifteen other patients a powerful anti-parasite medicine and antibiotics that helped temporarily. But the filaments come back.

Testing of the filaments brought no results, according to Dr. Uppal: "I've seen [it]; sent it to the lab. They can't identify it. They'll say 'They're nothing.'"

The reaction of medical professionals has made a difficult situation even harder for Brandi Koch: "It's not enough that you're suffering and hurting. It's 'You're an idiot!' and 'You're crazy!' on top of it. I'm really hurt and sad and scared."

The Kochs may be the most recognizable of more than 3,000 families nationwide reporting these same unexplained symptoms. There are curious clusters, in Florida, along the Gulf Coast and in the San Francisco Bay Area. That's where we begin our investigation into new clues to this medical mystery.

San Francisco physician Rafael Stricker took samples last spring from Bay Area sufferers. Patients report pustules and filaments that most doctors dismiss. Dermatologists claimed the filaments were all delusions, although none had studied them.

Oklahoma State University Professor Randy Wymore was the first scientist to conduct research on this disconcerting disease. He says it's the biggest mystery he's ever been involved in.

The UC Davis trained physiologist is leading a medical team at Oklahoma State University in Tulsa, researching what is now called Morgellons Disease.

With cooperation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Wymore's team is studying Bay Area patients and others from around the country. His first finding disputes the frequent diagnosis of delusions.

"Pathologists and dermatologists and lab reports [said] that these were textile fibers appearing in the skin of the sufferers. Now that's just not true, to be perfectly blunt about it," says Prof. Wymore.

Wymore says his tests rule out not only textile fibers, but also worms, insects, animal material and even human skin and hair. He says the filaments are not an external contamination.

Instead, they are a substance that materializes somehow inside the body, apparent artifacts of something infectious. More results are expected soon. And Wymore says skin problems are not the worst symptoms.

He says a neurotoxin or microorganism may disturb muscle control and memory.

"The neurological effects are the much more severe, life altering and much more dangerous of the conditions," explains Prof. Wymore.

This month, Georgia began a statewide Morgellons registry. Prof. Wymore says he is about to begin a clinical trial and offers this to sufferers: "We know there's something going on here. You're not delusional."

Prof. Wymore has just released an open letter to doctors treating patients with Morgellons symptoms. It asks physicians to take it seriously, saying these patients are likely suffering from a still untreatable emerging disease.

And not to start the rumor mill, but there is some very loose speculation that Heath Ledger and Halle Berry might possibly also now have it too...as far as celebs go. In any case, I think we might see this issue snowballing...

Again, take safe precautions people! Better to be very safe than verrrryy sorry!

[florencia9699]

Yeah.. I also heard there were people dying from colera, and cancer, and AIDS, anthrax, SARS, the bird flew, hunger, and heart failure, and smoking all their lives, and I actually believe you have a higher risk of dying in a car crash.... and your airplane crashing, or being in a town where an earthquaque starts and it ignates a volcano (in Indonesia over 5000 people died in the span of three days...)

So seriously Voyd... go more outside, let the fresh air in your lungs and thank God that somehow, someway, you're alive...

[voyd]

^ Yes, none of those things really freak me out per se - because they're essentially one-time events. And those diseases are fairly avoidable.

Whereas this thing appears to be fairly infectious and thru fairly casual means. These microbes appear to be highly resistant to varying environmental conditions and can thus stick around surfaces to infect others indefinitely. Which means that it has the potential to become pandemic, with NOTHING TO STOP ITS SPREAD! And it's a verrry slow, rocky road to death with it too. I really don't think this particular disease is one to be underestimated. Its advanced teleological complexity is just so seriously sinsister!!

[tumblezweedz]

And not to start the rumor mill, but

For the record, statements beginning like this generally are intended to do so...

[voyd]

^ Lol, true. I should have omitted "And not"

Now, as many believe this bug was a designer Frankenstein germ - here's an interesting excerpt of the types of experiments that could possibly have resulteed in it (from the National Textile Center Annual Report, 2000):

Clothing is an obvious habitat for biological micro-machines.

Clothing materials are generally bio-friendly (non-toxic to cells); and sources of heat, moisture and even nutrients for cellular micro-devices are all readily available from the human body.

Our vision is to create fabric based bio-reactors in which colonies of mammalian cells or bacteria can live and function for extended periods of time.* We want to learn which types of fabric based bioreactors are best for promoting growth and function of the cells.* We want to develop methods for making the cells and their environments more tolerant of cold, variations in humidity and washing.

In our proposal we identified as one of our first year's aims to createa GFP (green flu0rescent protein) producing strain of e. coli.

We intend to use GFP and luciferase producing bacteria to quantify function.

The lux operon is a cluster of genes, (luxCDABE) isolated from the nematode symbioant bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens.

The GFP gene was originally isolated from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria.* The GFP protein as well as any bacteria that contain it fluoresces bright green upon exposure to UV or blue light.

Hmm, highly-resistant GM microbes that love living in fabrics and feeding off the human body and autofluorescing fibers? Sound familiar, anyone?

I think all this genetic tampering is a VERY SERIOUS IRRESPONSIBLE & IRREVERSIBLE F-UP and you can't close Pandora's Box once you've opened it! I can't believe our world's health may have been so severly compromised for just a new type of T-shirt or crop pesticide! Don't we have any say in what these mad scientists can cook up and unleash upon us? FDA...HELLO?? Anybody home??

I can only think of one saying right now:

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools

[Joker]

If thats the case, Voyd, I'm glad I don't have any of those uber-cool Hypercolor shirts hanging around, anymore.

[voyd]

And then a great monster will rise up from the water and destroy mankind. One of the names of that monster is “the sickness that eats you up inside”

"You're going to see a time in your lifetime when the human beings are going to find the blueprint that makes us." They call that now DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid. They said, "They're going to cut this blueprint." They call that now genetic splicing. And they said, "They're going to make new animals upon the earth, and they're going to think these are going to help us. And it's going to seem like they do help us. But maybe the grandchildren and great-grandchildren are going to suffer."[/b]

Some believe Morgs has a "fluke" lifecycle stage that is waterborne...not to mention that it may have been genetically-engineered...hmmm. Well, I heard reported cases of this are up to 4500 and counting now.

And I think we can all discredit the "A Scanner D@rkly" PR stunt rumors now...

[mermaidnz]

this is a joke aye? like seriously..? its not real....surely!!

[tumblezweedz]

^^^Only if you choose to believe it is. Relax. I was just wondering last night if this topic was put to bed forever. I guess one can only hope. Oi.

[voyd]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mermaidnz @ Aug 29 2006, 07:58 PM) [snapback]137318[/snapback]</div>

this is a joke aye? like seriously..? its not real....surely!![/b]

I wish it was...but sadly I cannot believe that it is based upon the growing coverage...

It seems to have some correlation to Lyme Disease - which started just in the 1970s in Lyme, Connecticut...only 10 miles from the Plum Island US bi0warfare lab that was conducting experiments in tick-vectored germ w@rfare at the time. Well, it would appear those experiments were "successful," lol.

Anyways, Lyme disease was also originally misdiagnosed, since it had no case history. However,

Lyme Disease is now thought to be the fastest growing infectious disease in the world. There are believed to be at least 200,000 new cases each year in the U.S. and some experts think that as many as one in every 15 Americans is currently infected (20 million persons)[/b]

(although perhaps only 1/8 are symptomatic).

So, I think we may be hearing a LOT more about M0rgellons in the coming years as it multiplies like a calculator. And if it's just a joke, well it''s gone waaay too far already! Although, I wouldn't worry too much all the way over there in NZ...