Madison Area Lyme Support Group

As a follow-up to my previous update regarding my letter-to-the-editor of SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE, the editor refuses to publish my eLetter.

Previous update:

Symptoms after Lyme disease: What’s past is prologue (Adriana Marques, M.D.)
https://www.change.org/p/the-us-senate-calling-for-a-congressional-investigation-of-the-cdc-idsa-and-aldf/u/33044899

I have sent multiple inquiries to Editor Dr. Orla Smith with evidence of antibiotic resistance that has been suppressed/concealed by those who have colluded to deny chronic Lyme disease and here is just one of those letters for your review…

Photo of Marques was found on the following NIH site:
https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/adriana-marques-md

———- Original Message ———-
From: CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net>
To: Orla Smith <osmith@aaas.org>
Cc: Courtney Malo <cmalo@aaas.org>, “cope_assistant@publicationethics.org” <cope_assistant@publicationethics.org>, Melissa Norton <mnorton@aaas.org>, Catherine Charneski <ccharneski@aaas.org>, Brandon Berry <bberry@aaas.org>, Dorothy Hallberg <dhallberg@aaas.org>, Daniela Neuhofer <dneuhofer@aaas.org>, Molly Ogle <mogle@aaas.org>, “marybethpf@aol.com” <marybethpf@aol.com>, “aaron@sirillp.com” <aaron@sirillp.com>
Date: 01/12/2025 8:58 AM EST
Subject: Re: Symptoms after Lyme disease: What’s past is prologue

Dr Smith,

For additional evidence of antibiotic resistance, please see the following letter addressed to Dr. Raymond Dattwyler who owns 24 patents for Lyme disease that include diagnostic testing and vaccines both live bacteria and oral.

Guideline signatory Raymond Dattwyler endorses the categorical assertion that chronic Lyme disease does not exist yet his patent for novel chimeric nucleic acids and protein antigens which could serve as a basis for a vaccine or for improved immunodiagnostic reagents for Lyme disease, issuing almost contemporaneously with the 2006 IDSA Lyme Disease Guidelines seems to say exactly the opposite:

“Currently, Lyme Disease is treated with a range of antibiotics, e.g. tetracycline, penicillin and cephalosporins. However, such treatment is not always successful in clearing the infection. Treatment is often delayed due to improper diagnosis with the deleterious effect that the infection proceeds to a chronic condition, where treatment with antibiotics is often not useful. One of the factors contributing to delayed treatment is the lack of effective diagnostic tools.” (Dattwyler, et.al. United States Patent 7,179,448)

Letter to Dattwyler: (It should be noted there was no response)

Important Note!: My letter to Dattwylwyler includes a 1995 study from Stony Brook Lyme clinic. I understand the patient received thirteen spinal taps, multiple courses of IV and oral meds, and relapsed after each one, proven by CSF antigens and/or PCR. The only way this patient (said to be a physician) remained in remission was to keep her on open ended clarithromycin which she was taking for 22 months by the time of publication.

———- Original Message ———-
From: CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net>
To: “Raymond_Dattwyler@nymc.edu” <Raymond_Dattwyler@nymc.edu>
Cc: “npjvaccines@nature.com” <npjvaccines@nature.com>, “abarrett@utmb.edu” <abarrett@utmb.edu>, “R.W.Titball@exeter.ac.uk” <R.W.Titball@exeter.ac.uk>, “mgomesso@uthsc.edu” <mgomesso@uthsc.edu>
Date: 01/06/2023 2:46 PM EST
Subject: The year that shaped the outcome of the OspA vaccine for human Lyme disease

npj Vaccines Jan 2022

The year that shaped the outcome of the OspA vaccine for human Lyme disease
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-022-00429-5
Raymond J. Dattwyler & Maria Gomes-Solecki

Department of Microbiology and Immunology

New York Medical College

Valhalla, NY

Raymond J. Dattwyler, Corresponding Author

Dear Dr. Dattwyler,

I read your manuscript with great interest as you call attention to a treatment-resistant Lyme arthritis with “no evidence of DNA” found in the joints of patients after antibiotic treatment.

For some strange reason however, I could not find the following 1995 publication within your paper identifying treatment-resistant neuroborreliosis:

European Neurology 1995

Seronegative Chronic Relapsing Neuroborreliosis
https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/117104

Lawrence C., Lipton R.B., Lowy F.D., Coyle P.K.d

Abstract

We report an unusual patient with evidence of Borrelia burgdorferi infection who experienced repeated neurologic relapses despite aggressive antibiotic therapy. Each course of therapy was associated with a Jarisch-Herxheimer-like reaction. Although the patient never had detectable free antibodies to B. burgdorferi in serum or spinal fluid, the CSF was positive on multiple occasions for complexed anti-B. burgdorferi antibodies, B. burgdorferi nucleic acids and free antigen.

In fact, Dr. Dattwyler there seems to be a great deal of “treatment-resistant” evidence published in multiple journals over the past three decades:

Peer Reviewed Evidence of Persistence of Lyme Disease Spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi and Tick-Borne Diseases (700 References)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n09sk90eo6xz7ua/700%20articles%20LYME%20EvidenceofPersistence-V2.pdf?dl=0

So that brings me to the reason for this email…

Question:

Does a chronic relapsing seronegative disease fit the vaccine model? If not, would that, in and of itself, be the hidden reason for denying chronic (treatment-resistant) Lyme disease for almost three decades?  In other words, patent royalties and pharmaceutical profits over lifesaving care?

A response to this inquiry is requested.

Carl Tuttle
Hudson, NH

Cc: Alan D.T. Barrett, PhD Editor-in-Chief

Rick Titball, PhD, DSc, Deputy Editor

Letter to the Editor of the BMJ published June 2020
https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1041/rr-1

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