BOSTON -- There's a medical mystery in South Boston, where there has been a disconcerting number of cases of a disfiguring auto-immune disease.

NewsCenter 5's Heather Unruh reported that the Department of Public Health is stepping up its effort this week.

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Liz Lombard, 46, is being disfigured by a rare and painful disease that's causing her skin to shrink and tighten -- with no known cause or cure.

"The most noticeable are my hands. Everything gets so tight that your hands or your joints start to close up in a claw-like motion," Lombard said.

She suffers from scleroderma -- a crippling disease which causes the body's immune system to attack her skin and organs.

"I have a lot of difficulty chewing or swallowing. There's involvement in my esophagus. And it sounds kind of crazy, the padding in my feet -- they're all gone," Lombard said.

Scleroderma is rare, but is striking an unusually high number of people in South Boston. There are two cases on the street where Lombard grew up and 26 cases in a community of about 30,000.

"To put that in perspective, according to the literature, we would expect as few as one, and no more than 8 current residents to have this diagnosis, and we have 13. In addition, we have 13 former residents," Massachusetts Department of Health spokeswoman Suzanne Condon said.

That's about four times the expected rate, and no one knows why.

"I tend to feel like it's something environmental," Lombard said.

On Friday, the Department of Public Health is sending a letter to 100 randomly selected South Boston residents, asking them to be part of a study, comparing their history and habits with people like Lombard who have scleroderma.

"This is the kind of information that will help us to sort out all of the pieces of the puzzle and hopefully give some answers to the many individuals who have been affected by this disease," Condon said.

It's not the first round of letters. So far, not enough people have replied.

"I think people are tossing them away. Don't throw them away. This is a state agency that has limited funds. They're not sending you something for no reason. This is important . If you just take the time, you're not just helping your neighborhood, you're helping yourself," Lombard said.