Wikipedia credibility in question after conflicting information for Morgellons disease appears between regional platforms. Recently, Wikipedia France updated its article about Morgellons on their page which curates facts concerning the rare skin condition. This left Wikipedia USA in an embarrassing situation as the same evidence is strangely absent on its page about Morgellons Disease.
We reported two years ago about the information being included on the France Wikipedia page regarding Morgellons, however since that time new information has appeared. Below we present excerpts from the Wikipedia article, translated, in order, and within their respective categories. Please visit the page yourself, however, to see the entire article in context. You can utilize Google Translate, or Edge Browser Translator to read the text in English.
Positive diagnosis
The previous clinical picture is heterogeneous, but it may correspond to the category of “parasitic delirium”.
The few authors convinced of the existence of a somatic origin to Morgellons (neither delusional disorder ,nor fake disorder and others…) reject the conclusions of the Pearson report (2012) of the CDC. Their criticism is based on the fact that the study did not include the appropriate study subjects, and that it cannot exclude an unidentified or undecoated physiological cause.2. They therefore propose a new case definition for the subjects to be studied: chronic skin lesions of spontaneous appearance (it is the lesions that cause scratching, and not scratching or extraction attempts that cause the lesions), type of ulcerations, and where we find (distinctive criterion) white, black or colored filaments included under the skin or piercing through it. These filaments require, to be visible, a magnification x502.
According to M Middelveen, these filaments are composed of organic proteins, mainly keratin and collagen abnormally produced from keratinocytes and fibroblasts of the skin epithelium. It would be equivalents of very fine hair or hair. In view of a statistically frequent association with a diagnosis of chronic Lyme, the author hypothesizes that borrelia (intracellular bacteria) penetrating fibroblasts could induce this production2.
Skeptics highlight the fact that the elements found are very diverse, inert (such as textile fibers, fragments of nail polish …) or organic (hair, plant or insect debris …) by fortuitous or voluntary deposits14,27,30. The association with a chronic form of Lyme disease is all the less convincing because its biological diagnosis is itself controversial.
Medical approach
The possible existence of an association with a borrelia infection remains under discussion: for a very large majority, Morgellons are only a variant of psychogenic disease, or an unexplained collective syndrome, some believe that there could exist, among Morgellons, a real subgroup, of dermatosis or pruritus, of infectious neurological origin (chronic infection with borrelia or more generally with spirochetes)20,45.
Morgellons – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The way Morgellons is blanketly presented in the United States may account for why so many patients endure undue stigma and rejection.
Clearly, between the two pages it seem the audience in France is going to have more information than those in the United States. This is obviously misinformative to the American audience and may be a legitimate conspiracy worth reviewing more closely.
