Canadian TV Series About Lyme Disease – “Bitten”

November 24, 2020

https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/w5/promising-treatment-brings-new-hope-for-patients-with-chronic-lyme-disease-  News videos here

Promising treatment brings new hope for patients with chronic Lyme disease

Shelley AyresW5 Producer
Published Friday, November 20, 2020 
W5: Bitten, part one
W5’s Molly Thomas speaks to a Canadian Lyme disease patient who had to struggle for years just to get a diagnosis.
W5: Bitten, part two
There are more ticks in Canada than ever before, but is the country’s health care system prepared to deal with more Lyme disease cases?
Woman’s life is derailed by Lyme disease
Nikki Kent had to go through a battery of tests and years of uncertainty before she was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease.
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**Comment**
Informative Canadian news series on Lyme disease.
The series looks at a number of Canadian Lyme patients that have had trouble obtaining diagnosis and treatment in Canada, necessitating they travel thousands of miles to the United States.
The series points out the:
There is a myth still being perpetrated in the medical community on the effectiveness of 1 or 2 doses of doxycycline:

Daniel J. Cameron, MD MPH, states there has only been one study (Nadelman et al) on the effectiveness of 1 pill of doxycycline and only found a reduction in the number of erythema migraines (EM) rashes compared to the placebo group.  According to him, the IDSA 1 pill of doxy approach started in 2006 despite the fact that three previous prophylactic antibiotic trials for a tick bite had failed.

Only one study in 2001 tested this hypothesis at one hospital in New York.

For the study, the bullseye rash was the diagnostic criteria to determine if doxy prevented LD. The study actually showed that people bitten by nymphs were more likely to develop a bullseye rash and therefore diagnosed with LD in comparison with those bitten by an adult tick. None of those bitten by adult ticks developed a bullseye rash.

The Bullseye is a poor indicator of LD.

Only 50% with LD got any kind of rash and only 9% developed a bullseye.

Two pills used at the time of tick bite by a nymph prevented people from getting the bullseye – so they were not diagnosed as having LDand were excluded from the study.

So, will 2 pills of doxy prevent Lyme?

No.

So much for evidence based medicine.
The article in the top link then goes onto discuss Dr. Tim Cook who has had success using disulfiram/Antabuse.  He quotes:
“OK, now this is exciting,” he said. “Disulfram (DSF) is a breakthrough because it is one of only two or three medications that are known to specifically target the slow-growth phase of Lyme that regular antibiotics do not eradicate.”
“What has surprised me is how patients improve with very little of it. Prior to DSF, the conventional combinations of antibiotics would make most patients feel quite a bit better, but they would often say that their ‘brain fog’ and fatigue never quite went away. These two symptoms are often completely and rapidly resolved with DSF,” Dr. Cook said.

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research, Ticks, Treatment

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