In the photo: Fibers isolated from wounds. This and further photos provided by Professor Mikhail Andreichin
A poorly researched disease is developing in Ukraine. It was first discovered in Ternopil. Physicians cannot determine the nature of the disease
“It feels like the whole body, under the skin, is entwined with one worm. He bites like a dog. So hard that my eyes pop out. Life turns to hell. I want to either go crazy, or die so as not to feel it,”- this is how a 38-year-old woman from the Ternopil region, who was diagnosed with Morgelons disease, describes her feelings.
Over the past four years, 26 patients have been diagnosed. A single center where they study it operates in Ternopil - the research is carried out by the doctors of the Ternopil Medical University - Professors Mikhail Andreychin, Vladimir Bigunyak and Associate Professor Vasily Demyanenko. It is suspected that in reality there are many more patients.
“The problem is that many doctors simply do not know about this disease. At the same time, it has already acquired an epidemic spread in the world - at the end of last year, about 12 thousand cases were registered, mainly in the southern states of the United States - California, Texas, Florida,”Mikhail Andreychin told Gazeta.ua.
The Morgelons' disease in Ternopil was discovered by accident.
“During a round in the hospital, I saw abscesses in one patient's arms,” said Mikhail Andreichin. The woman said that she had worms under her skin. The doctors made it clear that the patient had mental disorders, but I invited her to the office. It turned out that she had been ill for six years already - at first the skin began to itch, then suppuration appeared, it seemed that something was moving under the skin,”says the doctor.
Doctors did not know the cause of the disease, they began to study these cases in detail, when another patient with similar symptoms turned to Professor Bigunyak.
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“I asked the patient if he could show those worms that bother her. She left the office and a few minutes later brought in dark brown fibers on paper. She took them out of the abscess. I showed this to the specialists of our sanitary and epidemiological station, transferred the samples to the specialized department of parasitology in Kharkov. Nobody could tell what it was. In the end, we undertook to browse the Internet for foreign scientific works, and, based on typical symptoms of the disease, we came to the conclusion that it was Morgelons disease,”continues Mikhail Andreichin.
Ternopil doctors have learned to diagnose the disease. However, it is not possible to determine the nature of the disease. World science suggests that the cause of the disease is genetically modified organisms, uncontrolled scientific research in the field of nanotechnology or military development.
“One way or another, I am inclined to believe that the causative agent is a certain type of fungi. Perhaps it was formed in the process of mutation caused by environmental shifts,”the professor notes.
The pest fungus, penetrating into the human body, begins to multiply, forming fibers under the skin. They grow, trying to break through the skin, it seems to patients that something is moving there.
“The itching and pain are so unbearable that patients try to get rid of them by any means. One patient said that he cauterized abscesses with a hot iron, another with iron heated on a fire. They were assured that for some time in these places the unpleasant sensations disappeared. But then they appeared in other areas."
Those affected by Morgelon's disease are mostly middle-aged people - 30-50 years old, but they do not have similar lifestyles. Among the patients are truckers, entrepreneurs, technical workers, a doctor and a nurse.
“The fungus spreads poorly. Of the thousands of people who receive its dose, only a few are sick. In other cases, the body's defenses defeat the pathogen. Why some people get sick and not others - it is difficult to say yet”.
Antifungal, anti-inflammatory and detoxification drugs are used for treatment.
“The last two patients were discharged from us healthy. However, it is difficult to say whether the disease will return to them again. Most of the patients are already driven to poverty by the disease and cannot afford treatment - it costs about a thousand hryvnias per month. One woman whom we examined did not even want to go to the hospital due to lack of money - she went to work in Italy. The state does not allocate funding for research and treatment of this disease,”the doctor concluded.
After treatment, patients heal ulcers, but white spots or keloid scars remain on the skin, which do not go away over time. Therefore, patients have to go to a plastic surgeon.
It is worth noting that the disease got its name from the name of the French family, whose members first saw similar symptoms. A note about this was published in the 17th century. However, given the fact that in the next three hundred years after this, similar cases were not described, modern scientists are inclined to believe that the case has no relation to the disease that is now diagnosed.