If it weren't so tragic, it could be the story line in a
Stephen King novel. Each day, the National Pediculosis Association
(NPA) is contacted by individuals describing the torment and
horror of oozing skin lesions, sensations of bugs biting and
crawling under their skin and doctors who diagnose it as nothing
more than a delusion.
Needham, MA (PRWEB) May 19, 2005 -- If it weren't so tragic, it
could be the story line in a Stephen King novel. Each day the
National Pediculosis Association (NPA) is contacted by individuals
describing the torment and horror of oozing skin lesions,
sensations of bugs biting and crawling under their skin and
doctors who diagnose it as nothing more than a delusion.
In a 1994 Ladies Home Journal article about children who suffered
seizures after being exposed to Lindane, a treatment for lice and
scabies, the NPA provided a toll free number to launch the first
national reporting registry for lice and scabies outbreaks,
product failure, and adverse reactions to treatments. Adverse
reaction reports to the NPA registry about Lindane led to the FDA
giving Lindane a black box and its strongest warning. The NPA
registry available at www.headlice.org
also provided the earliest reports of head lice having developed
resistance to the most widely used pediculicides.
However, almost as soon as the NPA's registry was launched,
reports of a bizarre health problem began to surface. Individuals
reported biting and crawling sensations -- symptoms for which they
could find no explanation and assumed were related to lice and
scabies. But such symptoms were inconsistent with lice or scabies,
signaling a very different problem.
The compelling nature of the reports prompted the NPA to contact
the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)in 1995 and on numerous
occasions thereafter. Deborah Z. Altschuler, NPA's president says
the CDC as an agency has not shared the NPA's concern.
Unable to find any studies where such a population had their skin
assessed in a single site clinical setting, the NPA in 2000
conducted its own clinical research in conjunction with the
Oklahoma State Department of Health. The research identified
Collembola (also known as springtail) in 18 of the 20
participants. According to Stephen Hopkin, author of The Biology
of Springtails, Collembola are among the most widespread and
abundant terrestrial arthropods. Collembola can be large enough to
be seen on the backside of a leaf, but also minute enough to
require the use of a microscope. The majority of them feed on
fungal hyphae or decaying plant material, but they can also feast
off of each other. Known mainly as soil-dwellers, they can swarm
and aggregate in the millions. Referred to as decomposers, their
primary function is to break down organic matter.
The report on the NPA research was published in the Journal of the
New York Entomological Society in the spring of 2004. (http://www.headlice.org/news/2004/delusory.htm)
The report spoke to the challenges of the trailblazing research
and demonstrated how easy it had been for these minute arthropods
to remain overlooked by the medical community for over a century
and also by the entomologists who had not utilized the NPA's
approach. Entomologists have thought it impossible for Collembola
to colonize humans, although they've acknowledged them as first of
the decomposers to appear on human corpses. The research provides
evidence of tremendous numbers of these organisms concealed, if
not disguised, in their own aggregations. Yet the CDC maintains
the position that Collembola cannot be human parasites and
therefore they are of no medical importance. While the presence of
Collembola in human skin continues to be met with skepticism by
some collembologists; the relationship of Collembola to humans is
an area of research the NPA maintains has not been adequately
explored. Where's Dr. House when you need him?
It was in the late 1800’s that people with the sensation of bugs
in their skin were first classified as having a delusional
illness, a diagnosis still accepted although now challenged by the
NPA’s research. Many physicians have never heard of Collembola
– let alone expect to find them in humans.
Dermatologists and entomologists appear comfortable diagnosing
Delusional Parasitosis (DOP)on the basis of the reported biting
and crawling and without consultation with a psychiatric
specialist. Some physicians will attempt therapeutic trials with
pediculicides, scabicides, fungicides and mega doses of
antibiotics, using treatment failure as a basis for a delusory
diagnosis.
Individuals can often pinpoint a time and place when they first
noticed the feeling of being bitten. A young mother in New York
said the first time she felt the skin problem was in the middle of
the night while sleeping in a hotel. Others first noticed symptoms
after taking in a stray animal. Many have had water or sewage
problems in their homes. A number of nurses reporting these
symptoms remember caring for a patient who had a shaven head or
was covered with skin sores. Reports also come in from individuals
who have moved into new homes built on land previously used for
agriculture or cattle grazing. Others, and most worrisome, report
symptoms after being exposed to someone with this condition.
Michelle of Canada states: “I’ve watched my father go from a
happy, balanced, reasonably healthy individual to the brink of
suicide because of this condition. He had to quit working at a
good job and is teetering on financial ruin. He has been treated
so cruelly and inhumanely from so called ‘care-givers’, that
if I hadn’t seen it for myself, I probably wouldn’t have
believed it. This disease is destroying people’s lives. There is
no help, not even basic curiosity, from the majority of the
medical community. New diseases, bacteria, virus strains pop up
all the time, so why is this situation so outlandish to the
doctors? It’s time for the medical community to stand up and
acknowledge this disease, and start doing their jobs.”
A nurse from the state of Washington says that both she and her
ten year old suffer with this condition and came down with it at
the same time. “I’m outraged that my human rights have not
been taken into consideration because my complaint of having
parasites did not fit into the medical community’s way of
thinking. This in turn caused my family to abandon me as
‘crazy’. I have not been allowed to see my five beautiful
grandchildren for 2 ½ years now.”
The NPA reports advances in its image research technique since the
original digital imaging work was done in 2000. However,
interpretation of slides and digital images still requires skill
and experience. Without it people are left misdiagnosed, misguided
and with secondary complications from the arsenal of chemicals and
pesticides they feel forced to use in desperation. To date, the
NPA reports that Collembola in human skin appear impervious to
treatment.
Whether a crisis of delusional illness or Collembola, the longer
it takes for the medical community and the Centers for Disease
Control to take this seriously, the more widespread and well
established it appears to become.
The National Pediculosis Association is a 501 (c)3 nonprofit
organization serving the public since 1983. It's website is www.headlice.org.
Contact:
Jane Cotter
781-449-6487
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NATIONAL PEDICULOSIS ASSOCIATION
