More Moregellons Madness from the Source

Press release from the Charles E. Holman Foundation, Feb. 6, 2013.

Evidence Mounting that Morgellons Disease is an Emerging Infectious Illness, Contrary to CDC Report

The latest in a series of scientific investigations of the illness known as Morgellons Disease has been published January 28, 2013 by the prestigious journal F1000 Research.

[Prestigious?  Hardly.  It’s one step above a personal blog.  This open source, online journal invites people to “publish your null/negative and small findings” here.  Apparently, that’s what Sticker and Sapi and some other people did with their latest effort to link an Internet-invented disease (i.e., Morgellons) with Lyme disease.]

“These latest scientific findings supporting an infectious cause of Morgellons disease should put to rest any claims that the lesions of this bizarre skin disease are either self-induced or that people suffering from this illness are delusional,” said Dr. Stricker.

[Because here’s the proof: 4 apparently self-diagnosed women with fibers coming out of their sores happened to test positive for Lyme disease—and other stuff—courtesy of Igenex, which is the preferred lab of every quack and Lyme activist in the Western Hemisphere.  Now these delusional patients can be treated with long-term antibiotics.]

Cindy Casey-Holman, RN, Exec. Dir. of the Charles E Holman Foundation (CEHF) further underscored the significance of these findings by stating, “….These new findings provide solid evidence repudiating the CDC’s flawed attempt to investigate Morgellons disease. “

[Could it be that Stricker, et al. are smarter than the scientists and physicians at CDC?  Unlikely.  This is what the CDC concluded:

To our knowledge, this represents the most comprehensive, and the first population-based, study of persons who have symptoms consistent with the unexplained dermopathy referred to as Morgellons. We were not able to conclude based on this study whether this unexplained dermopathy represents a new condition, as has been proposed by those who use the term Morgellons, or wider recognition of an existing condition such as delusional infestation, with which it shares a number of clinical and epidemiologic features. We found little on biopsy that was treatable, suggesting that the diagnostic yield of skin biopsy, without other supporting clinical evidence, may be low. However, we did find among our study population co-existing conditions for which there are currently available therapies (drug use, somatization). These data should assist clinicians in tailoring their diagnostic and treatment approaches to patients who may be affected. In the absence of an established cause or treatment, patients with this unexplained dermopathy may benefit from receipt of standard therapies for co-existing medical conditions and/or those recommended for similar conditions such delusions infestation.

The preeminent research was funded by the Charles E Holman Foundation (THE CEHF) in their continued commitment to investigate Morgellons disease and to educate the public about this mysterious multisystemic illness.

Competing Interests: “…RBS (Stricker) serves without compensation on the medical advisory panel of the Charles E. Holman Foundation.”

[Well, wasn’t he paid by the Holman Foundation to do research for the Holman Foundation?  Isn’t that a conflict of interest for a member of the Foundation advisory panel to get money from the Foundation he is advising?  Sounds suspicious.  But then so does the research and the researchers.]