A family from San Antonio in Socorro County is living under a self-imposed quarantine after contracting a skin condition that is becoming epidemic and has many doctors stumped.
The condition is called Morgellons Disease, although it hasn’t been officially accepted as a disease by the medical community. For Rey Ortega Jr., his wife and three daughters, it’s a condition that causes skin-crawling symptoms.
“It’ll get in there and you’ll feel a very sharp [sensation], like a needle prick, and then you’ll feel it crawling under you skin,” says Ortega. The Ortegas have been living an isolated life in their home for 29 days.
The few doctors who are familiar with the condition say it starts with skin lesions, possibly caused by a mutant bacteria, then continues with an infestation of tiny insects called springtails that burrow under the skin. Eventually, a strange, hair-like fiber sprouts out of the skin – only it’s not hair, and scientists don’t know what it is.
“We’re dealing with a new illness which appears to be epidemic, sweeping the country,” says Doctor George Schwartz, a Santa Fe physician. “It appears to be transmissible, but not in a way like you have to worry about smallpox, which is transmissible by air droplets. It seems to be transmissible only by very, very close contact.”
Other doctors have told the Ortegas that they’re crazy. Most people avoid them.
“This is it, we stay here at home,” says Rey Ortega. “Family and friends and people we know and care about us have brought groceries. They’ll drop ‘em off at the end of the road and I’ll go and get in the pickup and go pick ‘em up.”
Doctor Schwartz says there are ways to get rid of the tiny insects and the lesions but the weird fibers are still a mystery.
Link... http://www.kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=stor...at=NMTOPSTORIES
The condition is called Morgellons Disease, although it hasn’t been officially accepted as a disease by the medical community. For Rey Ortega Jr., his wife and three daughters, it’s a condition that causes skin-crawling symptoms.
“It’ll get in there and you’ll feel a very sharp [sensation], like a needle prick, and then you’ll feel it crawling under you skin,” says Ortega. The Ortegas have been living an isolated life in their home for 29 days.
The few doctors who are familiar with the condition say it starts with skin lesions, possibly caused by a mutant bacteria, then continues with an infestation of tiny insects called springtails that burrow under the skin. Eventually, a strange, hair-like fiber sprouts out of the skin – only it’s not hair, and scientists don’t know what it is.
“We’re dealing with a new illness which appears to be epidemic, sweeping the country,” says Doctor George Schwartz, a Santa Fe physician. “It appears to be transmissible, but not in a way like you have to worry about smallpox, which is transmissible by air droplets. It seems to be transmissible only by very, very close contact.”
Other doctors have told the Ortegas that they’re crazy. Most people avoid them.
“This is it, we stay here at home,” says Rey Ortega. “Family and friends and people we know and care about us have brought groceries. They’ll drop ‘em off at the end of the road and I’ll go and get in the pickup and go pick ‘em up.”
Doctor Schwartz says there are ways to get rid of the tiny insects and the lesions but the weird fibers are still a mystery.
Link... http://www.kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=stor...at=NMTOPSTORIES
