⊙ AntiQuark

Truth, Beauty, Charm, Strange

2005/03/27

Imaginary Parasites



NUSPA: National Unidentified Skin Parasites Association
People share stories about their parasites that look amazingly like pieces of lint, particles of dust, grains of salt, and eyelash hairs.

What's up with people who think they're infested with bugs?
Some debunkage from The Straight Dope.

Delusional Parasitosis
An informational page from UC Davis.

A Medical Mystery: Delusional Parasitosis
Newspaper story that's sympathetic to the problem (with a somewhat creepy picture). An alternative theory is that sufferers don't have actual parasites, but are afflicted with an unusual bacterial infection that mimics some of the parasite-like symptoms.

Morgellons Research Foundation
Some unpleasant pictures of Morgellons disease, a skin condition that mimics scabies and lice.

A google image search for Morgellons returns lots of pictures.


7 Comments:

  • At 7/16/2005 4:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    07/15 When it isn't lice or scabies - Maybe not a mystery anymore.

    Radio Interview (larger download)
    First in a series: Barbara Glickstein, RN, MPH Producer and Host WBAI Public Radio NYC

    http://www.headlice.org/news/index.htm

     
  • At 8/29/2005 2:33 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Humans prefer to bury their heads in the sand, or make fun of things they don't understand. Sometimes they kill the messenger. They burned people at the stake for claiming that illness came from invisible creatures floating in the air. I am one of those flaky persons with strange parasites. This isn't something that one does for fun.I am quite sane and as normal as any other person, and I am not hooked on drugs. I have had this problem for three years and seen many doctors. Some have been interested in researching this but others have discouraged them.

    I know this is real but can understand those who doubt. I am sure some people may imagine their problem.BUT this disease must be investigated closley. If there would be just a small group with the real problem they need to be helped.

     
  • At 10/12/2005 12:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    This is for real, I am a college educated woman with this disease. And it is affecting my children. Please fund research for this, it is similiar to Lyme and may be a coinfection of Lyme. Regardless of the cause, it is coming to a town near you as it is documented in all 50 states now. We need to make the medical community aware of this problem so they can treat us and not act like we are delusional. Wait till you get this and are told you are nuts.

     
  • At 12/05/2005 7:57 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I also have had this condition for a year. It is REAL and you had better pray that your or one of your loved ones never get this and that someone finds the actual cause and the cure because it is here in the United States and it is spreading. I have three college degrees and am as sane as anyone out there. Seven doctors so far and no solution. Half were frigtened by my presence, because they know it is REAL. They cut samples of the leasions, but can't find the cause, because they are looking for something that they are used to seeing. This is not your usual disease/infection/infestation.

     
  • At 4/23/2006 1:23 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I have suffered from this for five and one-half years since acquiring some lice on a trip. The lice were resistant for quite awhile, but got rid of that myself. However, the aftermath has been horrible, the typical itching, biting sensations, hairlike things individual and masses, specks, fuzzballs, unhealing lesions and actual sightings of various living organisms--a quickly scooting small brown speck to collembola-like creatures that can actually swim, yellowish gel-like masses, white egglike things, large bluish masses wrapped in black thread. Then the reaction is to clean and shower endlessly and to monitor reactions to different environmental stimuli. I am not an obsessive-compulsive person, just desperately seeking a cure.

    My experience with the medical community is like most--since they don't have the answers, they ascribe "delusional parasitosis" as the answer and prescribe dangerous antipsychotic drugs. Some have a mild interest in this phenomenon, but making a diagnosis would take actual time and research, none of which satisfies the bottom line of our money oriented clinicians. It is interesting that most doctors don't actually want to "touch" me, which shouldn't be a problem if I psychosomatically created this. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU who laugh at, denigrate, or assume an attitude of superiority about this--until it happens to you or a loved one.

    I do not drink, take drugs or indulge in a dangerous lifestyle. I am educated, raised a large family and should be enjoying my "golden years". Of course, reference to my stage of life puts me in the "older woman" category, not unlike the "matchbox syndrome" doctors use to say AHA!--this fits into my textbook diagnosis. I no longer seek medical help officially, because I don't need the arrogance and ridicule (and huge bills), when I know what I see and feel is ALL TOO REAL, though no help seems forthcoming there.

    I try many homeopathic remedies, some of which help somewhat, though usually briefly. My health has deteriorated. I feel like a social leper, afraid even to take a chance on exposing the family I love.

    Finding some commonality on the internet in the past two years, where I can't find answers elsewhere, helps me not doubt myself (that many people in all parts of the country and world can't be having the same delusion independently).

    In desperation, I even went along with taking dangerous pimozides and with a psychiatrist visit--it would be a relief to "only be nuts" and get some treatment (the psychiatrist said it was apparent to him I had a physical, not a mental problem). I have written my representatives and the CDC.

    Don't know what else to do but endure and pray for all who are suffering this horrible disease--and for that one rare medical person who CARES, who sees this problem as a disease and tries to find some answers.

     
  • At 6/24/2008 3:57 AM, Anonymous eddiewrc said…

    imaginary in your dreams!!!
    open your eyes...

     
  • At 9/28/2008 2:42 PM, Blogger elle said…

    i came down with blastosis hominis 11 months ago. I took many antibiotics that helped, but it didn't kill it all the way. Now they are back with a vengence and live inside my butt, but crawl all over my body inside my nostrils, nowhere is off limits to them. They are eating my skin little by little itching and crawling driving me crazy. The dermatologists are rejecting me and don't want to scrape my skin. The infectious disease dr says there is no such thing as a bug that lives inside intestines and outside of body too. There is and its called blastosis. elle

     

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