Neglected Infections & Gastrointestinal Issues in Patients With Late Vector-Borne Infections

November 30, 2020

Neglected-Infections-and-Gastrointestinal-Issues-in-Patients-with-Late-Persistent-Chronic-Vector-Borne-Infections-T-Mijatovic

Crypto-infections Conference

September 26-27, 2020

NEGLECTED INFECTIONS AND GASTROINTESTINAL ISSUES IN PATIENTS WITH LATE / PERSISTENT / CHRONIC VECTOR-BORNE INFECTIONS

Tatjana Mijatovic, PhD

R.E.D. Labs CSO & Lab Managertmijatovic@redlabs.be * http://www.redlabs.com

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**Comment**

Excellent slide-show.  (Please click on top link)

The slides go through numerous topics including a unique kind of testing, which I’ve highlighted below:

Novel Testing Approaches – Phelix Phage-based Test

  • Bacteriophages could become a diagnostic tool (Patent WO2018083491A1) based on the principle that if there are phages it is because there are living bacteria; hence a phage- based test is a direct proof of an active infection.

  • Phelix Charity together with Leicester University microbiology department have recently developed a Borrelia Phage-based PCR test searching for 3 major Borrelia groups:

    Borrelia burgdorferi sl (including B. burgdorferi ss, B. afzelii, B. garinii, B. spielmanii, etc)

    Borrelia miyamotoi and

    Relapsing fever group (B. recurrentis, B. hermsii, etc).

  • This method is efficiently used to assess both human samples and ticks.

  • Highly sensitive and specific.

  • Do not generate positive signal against other bacterial strains.

  • False positive are ruled out by sequencing.

They found:

  • Among positive ticks, 60% were for B. miyamotoi.
  • Testing on over 2,000 humans (mainly late stage/chronic patients) showed 30% negative results and 70% positive, among which over 60% indicated the presence of specific Borrelia miyamotoi phages.

The authors state:

With respect to the obtained results, a question raised: are we searching for the wrong culprit with Lyme-disease testing?

The slides also go through Tularemia and Yersinia. (Please see link for results). The authors state it’s important to test for these pathogens as they contribute to the overall burden on the immune system.

Then there’s a large section devoted to gastrointestinal issues with a chart showing various symptoms caused by 8 different tick-borne diseases.

Important takeaway:

The number of patients presenting with such symptoms is probably reaching epidemic proportions. Testing for gastrointestinal problems need to be included.

Tests are listed followed by a section on Leaky Gut. The important finding regarding 3 years of testing Leaky Gut was – 63.87% patients had increased levels.

The two greatest findings:

  • Searching for actual bacterial presence using phage-based testing might pacify the debate and controversies on testing choices and late/chronic stage patients. Current Lyme testing will not pick up Borrelia miyamotoi, which may explain why many patients are not being diagnosed.
  • The overall high failure rate of therapies for vector-borne infections, especially in late/persistent/chronic patients, underscores the necessity to fully investigate different concurrent infections (including opportunistic infections) along with resulting gastrointestinal and immune dysregulations.

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