Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Morgellons Disease Has Science-Fictional Effects
Morgellons is characterized by red, blue or black filaments that emerge from skin lesions. The sufferer also feels itching and crawling sensations below the skin.
Morgellons was first named by Mary Leitao, a Pittsburg biologist who took the name from a centuries-old medical paper describing what may be a related illness.
(From Morgellon's disease in situ)
Dermatologists are skeptical; they see it as a form of delusional parasitosis and note that it can be associated with schizophrenia, obsessive behavior, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety disorders.
The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has contacted Kaiser Permanente Northern California to investigate the problem. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology will also participate. The study will take at least 12 months to complete.
"The cause of this condition is unknown," said Dr. Michele Pearson, principal investigator with the CDC. "Those who suffer from this condition, as well as their families and physicians, have questions, and we want to help them find meaningful answers."
Last year, the CDC received about 1,200 inquiries about the disease from both patients and physicians. At present, the CDC refers to Morgellons as "unexplained dermopathy."
Here's a short video of some of the problems associated with Morgellon's Syndrome, with some close-ups of the disease presentation.
(From Morgellon's syndrome)
When I first read about this, I immediately thought about a purely science-fictional problem; intelligent lymphocytes taking over a person's body in Greg Bear's classic Blood Music:
In the dark, just as he was on the edge of sleep, his back began to crawl. He scratched abstractedly, then sat up in bed with a whispered curse...He turned and looked at himself in the bathroom mirror... His chest was splotchy and red from scratching and rubbing. He rotated and peered over his shoulder at his back.
From shoulder to shoulder, and criss-crossing down his spine, faint pale lines just beneath the surface of his skin drew a crazy and unwelcome road map...
Read more at CDC To Launch Study on Unexplained Illness - CDC press release and Study seeks clues on skin-crawling Morgellons syndrome.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 1/17/2008)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 5 )
Related News Stories - (" Medical ")
Heart Patches Grown In The Lab Repair Hearts
I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
Pixel Watch 'Loss of Pulse Detection' And Philip K. Dick
'He carried on his person a triggering mechanism sensitive to his heartbeat.' - Philip K. Dick, 1965.
ErythroMer Artificial Blood
'My chemists are all working on the preparation of the artificial blood.' - Dr. David H. Keller, M.D.
MouthPad Supports Head And Tongue Tracking
'The operation that had transformed half his body... had located the control switchboard in his teeth.'- Alfred Bester, 1956.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
Anthropic's Claude AI Creates Legal Citation From Whole Cloth
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
'About time you got here,' the astronaut said.
'They Erased My Memory' Says Ariana Grande
'...using a neutralizing electronic impulse.'
Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?'
Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
Robot Hand Creeps Along, Separate From It's Owner
'The crawling... object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...'
Korean Exoskeleton Suit F1 Helps You Put It On
'Better late than never.'
Have AI Researchers Given Up On 'Bio-Babies'?
'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
Bunker Busters and Bore-Pellets
'The first revelation of the new Soviet bore-pellets.'
'Spikeless' Brand Swizzle Stick Detects Spiked Drinks
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
