Wednesday's ABC broadcast on mysterious diseases included descriptions of people believing they had bugs in their skin. The skin symptoms may not be as mysterious as they think. Research on this problem have been published over the decades and as recently as June 2004 in the Journal of the New York Entomological Society.
By TIFFANY PAKKALA
July 5 2006; The Gainesville Sun
Needham, MA (PRWEB) August 10, 2006 -- While sufferers and entomologists alike understandably prefer not to believe that a 6 legged critter could be accountable for symptoms of itching, crawling and biting, reports of Collembola infesting humans have been made by a variety of qualified scientists and reported to the literature again and again. http://collembolareferences.blogspot.com/
Wednesday's ABC broadcast on mysterious diseases included descriptions of people believing they had bugs in their skin but failed to mention anything about published research and the fact that the skin symptoms may not be as mysterious as they think.
Collembola, also known as springtails or snow fleas, are described in the authoritative "Biology of Springtails" by Hopkin as among the most widespread and abundant terrestrial arthropods on earth.
Collembola are referred to as the earliest fossil proof of insect life on the planet. Why should people care? Collembola are being found in human hair and skin. Infestations appear to be communicable from particular environmental conditions or from one person to another, and there is no known cure once a person is infested.
A Pennsylvania woman acquired symptoms after a hyperinfestation of springtails occurred in her home following a landscapers application of mulch to plantings around the foundation of her home.
A Texas man actually had Collembola identified from skin samples he delivered to the entomologist. The same entomologist insisted it would be impossible for them to cause such symptoms even though reports of this had been published by his peers on numerous occasions.
A recently found 1955 report to the medical literature, apparently lost through the years is but another example of documented evidence on the ability of Collembola to infest or colonize humans.
http://www.headlice.org/news/2005/august/tiny_bugs_wreak_havoc.htm
In 2004, the National Pediculosis Association reported Collembola in skin scrapings collected from 18 of 20 research participants in its study published in the Journal of the New York Entomological Society at http://www.headlice.org/news/2004/delusory.htm.
Some Collembola experts disagreed with the NPA's research findings, insisting that it was impossible for Collembola to live in human skin.
Others assert that there is more of a scientific basis for Collembola in humans than the entomologist and physician's overwhelming acceptance of a psychiatric explanation (Delusions of Parasitosis) for people's sensations of biting, stinging and crawling in their skin.
"The NPA had the article translated from Swedish and the first English translation of the Bryk report is now available on the NPA website, www.headlice.org/swedish, with the permission of the Swedish medical journal Lakartidningen.
