Archive for the ‘Bartonella’ Category

A Child Can No Longer Walk. Before COVID, There Was Lyme Disease Denial

https://rescue.substack.com/p/a-child-can-no-longer-walk-before

A Child Can No Longer Walk. Before Covid, There Was Lyme Disease Denial.

Lyme disease left her paralyzed at 11. Now 19, the girl blessed by the Pope is suing doctors who refused to treat.

MARY BETH PFEIFFER
APR 29, 2023
Julia Bruzzese, now 19, whose Lyme disease went undiagnosed and untreated for nearly two years, causing paraplegia at age 11. A medical malpractice lawsuit has been filed in New York City on her behalf.

This is a story of medical ignorance: How an infection was allowed to fester even when safe, generic drugs could have stopped it.

No, this is not about covid-19. This is a story of Lyme disease.

Before a pandemic came along, Lyme disease was among the most controversial and, in late stages, abysmally treated infection in medicine.

As covid wanes, the tick-borne illness is still all those things. That is why a nineteen-year-old woman, who represents chronic Lyme sufferers worldwide, is suing a dozen doctors, a pediatric practice, and three hospitals in New York City for medical malpractice.

If anybody can change the image and practice of Lyme disease, it is Julia Rose Bruzzese of Brooklyn, the girl in a wheelchair who met the Pope on an airport tarmac at the age of twelve in hope of a miracle. Maybe, just maybe, she will get it.

First, her odyssey.  (See link for article)

SUMMARY:

  • Julia had a glaring EM rash the doctors simply ignored.
  • This error of ignorance was repeated over two more years and she was accused of making it all up.
  • When her dad suggested it might be tick-borne illness he was treated like he was using profanity.
  • Julia’s lawsuit contends that the continued refusal of doctors and hospitals resulted in her life in a wheelchair and she is seeking judgement and financial damages that would be fair, adequate and just.
  • Her father has fought battles for Julia before when attempting a medical insurance appeal.
  • Author of the article, Mary Beth Pfeiffer, has interviewed scores of others with similar stories of Lyme ruin and denial.
  • Due to this medical controversy another group of doctors has formed the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) which faults the IDSA for using low-quality and flawed evidence behind their entire paradigm.
    • This group still insists upon using a 30 year old diagnostic test that is wrong some 40% of the time with early infection and anywhere from 70–86% in late infection.  Yet this test is followed like the Rosetta Stone.
    • This group also recommends longer prophylactic antibiotics after tick bites and initial infection, and retreatment for persisting symptoms.  Due to this approach, Julia finally felt her feet for the first time in months.
  • Julia experienced extremely abusive situations by doctors throughout this journey including gas-lighting, taking away her wheelchair to see if she would get up to use the bathroom, poking prods into her lifeless legs when she slept, waking up to a large group of doctors looking down on her to observe a supposed case of “conversion disorder,” being dragged along a hospital hallway, and taking all her weight but then dropping her despite her cries of pain.
  • The family has had financial troubles due to this.
  • Julia has faced frightening litany of symptoms that have progressed and worsened over time due to lack of treatment. She has had GBS, POTS, distended bladder, cognitive impairment, vision and hearing difficulties, insomnia, atrophy, migratory joint pain, encephalitis, seizures, severe fatigue, osteopenia, and many other problems.
  • The defendants have denied all claims in the lawsuit, filed in March 2021.
  • Julia made global news when she sought a blessing from the Pope in 2015.
  • Finally able to obtain testing, she now had evidence of 5 infections: Lyme, Babesia, Tularemia, and Bartonella and received treatment which helped but did not cure her long-ignored condition.
  • Julia’s story is now chronicled in a critically acclaimed documentary that is now screening around the country.
  • The ignorance being experienced is largely to a one-size-fits-all medical model which is a huge ongoing problem.
  • While Julia’s lawsuit is a year or more from trial, another trial is coming in May for a “wrongful death” in a young man who had a negative test but ended up dying from Lyme carditis.  A case report in Cardiovascular Pathology journal two years later documented the damage to his heart. There, in color, were corkscrew-shaped Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes, the causative agent of Lyme disease. Similarly to Julia, he was not treated with a round of antibiotics that likely would have spared him.  Journal articles continue to minimize the severity of tick-borne illness by insisting that they are self-limiting conditions.  Therefore, doctors are lazy and apathetic toward a complex illness that has and will kill or maim a good number of patients.
  • A false narrative also continues to insist that people are over diagnosed with Lyme due to supposed false positive tests.
  • Despite stories like this (and thousands more) nothing has changed in Lymeland. 
  • What’s the answer?  Good question.  Pfeiffer thinks maybe big money payouts will help our plight. Recently a Maine lawsuit awarded a family 6.5 million from a hospital and doctor in the Lyme carditis death of a twenty-five-year-old man in 2017.
    • The lawyer who won the case is the same lawyer in Julia’s case as well as in the other Lyme carditis death.  He has yet to earn a dime.  How many lawyers will fight for sick Lyme patients without a living wage?  Food for thought.
  • Like all good dads, Julia’s father is worried for her future, but Julia’s greatest weapon continues to be her optimism.  She is in pre-med, paints, crochets, bakes, and is a make-up artist.

Category:

Activism, Babesia, Bartonella, Lyme, Tularemia

May 3, 2023 Tick Boot Camp Podcast: Eva Sapi, PhD

https://tickbootcamp.com/eva-sapi-geneticist-and-molecular-biologist-at-university-of-new-haven/

April 1, 2023

Eva Sapi, Geneticist And Molecular Biologist At University Of New Haven

Eva Sapi

Tick Boot Camp Podcast
Dr. Michael Snyder was featured on the Tick Boot Camp Podcast:

Launching May 3…

Background
Professor Eva Sapi is a Hungarian-American microbiologist and researcher who has dedicated her career to advancing our understanding of Lyme disease.

Early Life and Career
Born in Hungary, Sapi comes from a family of engineers and scientists. She studied biology at a university in Hungary from 1987 to 1995 and earned her Ph.D. in biology from the same university. She went on to complete postdoctoral work in Germany and Switzerland, where she focused on studying gene regulation in bacteria, and understanding how genes are turned on and off in response to environmental cues.

Early Research
Professor Sapi started her research career studying breast cancer until she was hit with chronic Lyme disease and it paused her life. After finally getting a proper Lyme diagnosis and spending years trying many different pharmaceutical and herbal treatments, Sapi began to feel better and started collecting and studying ticks. She discovered that ticks carry Bartonella and that ticks could carry many different species of bugs that can infect humans, which was not received well by the medical community at the time.

Official Lyme Career Pivot
Next, Professor Eva Sapi joined the University of New Haven in Connecticut as an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology and Environmental Science. She was also appointed as the Director of the Lyme Disease Research Group at the university, where she continued her research on Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.

Popular Work
Sapi is known for her groundbreaking research on the persistence and treatment of Lyme disease. She was the first to discover that Borrelia burgdorferi can form biofilms that protect it from antibiotics and the immune system. Her current research, with James Goldman, a Columbia University professor of pathology and cell biology, centers on a case in which a woman received 16 years of antibiotic therapy and still died from Lyme disease. Their findings – published in Healthcare 2018 – supported her earlier discoveries that Borrelia can form biofilm, a protective layer around itself, making it extremely resistant to antibiotics.

Notable Achievements
Professor Sapi has authored 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers on Lyme disease and trained more than 100 graduate students in Lyme disease research. She is a sought-after speaker and presenter and has appeared on radio and television programs. Her groundbreaking research has earned her several recognitions, including the research trailblazer award from LymeDisease.org in 2018, and the Courage Award from Lyme Connection of Ridgefield. Her ultimate goal is to identify novel antibacterial agents that are effective in killing all forms of Borrelia.

Recent Breakthroughs
Sapi’s research has also shown that some herbal remedies, such as Stevia, can be effective in treating Lyme disease. Her recent breakthrough, with her students, is in the potential of liquid, whole-leaf Stevia extract in reducing biofilm mass. In a recent study, they found that liquid, whole-leaf Stevia extract is an effective treatment for Lyme biofilm. This finding is significant because Borrelia biofilm is a protective layer around itself, making it extremely resistant to antibiotics.

Lyme and Cancer
Sapi’s research has also found evidence that Borrelia may be present in breast cancer tissues, as well as ovarian and endometrial cancer. She and her students are focusing on Borrelia, examining more than 400 invasive breast cancer tissues. A significant number of samples were positive for Borrelia, suggesting that the bacteria may play a role in breast cancer development and metastasis.

Looking Ahead
Professor Eva Sapi’s work on breast cancer and its link to Lyme disease has opened new avenues for research and has the potential to lead to novel discoveries in the field. The scientific community and the Lyme disease community are fortunate to have such a dedicated and passionate researcher leading the charge in advancing Lyme disease research, including its role in cancer.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts

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Category:

Activism, Bartonella, Cancer, Lyme, research, Ticks

Methylene Blue for Lyme & Bartonella (Also COVID)

https://www.treatlyme.net/guide/methylene-blue-for-lyme-and-bartonella  Video Here

Methylene Blue for Lyme and Bartonella: The Ins and Outs

By Dr. Marty Ross

Methylene Blue for Lyme and Bartonella Persisters

The Ins and Outs of Methylene Blue

Methylene blue is a repurposed drug used to treat persister Lyme (Borrelia) and Bartonella. There is also lab evidence showing it treats growing Bartonella. It likely kills growing Lyme too. While methylene blue may treat growing germs, the main reason to use it in Lyme or Bartonella infectious is to treat persisters.

In this video article, Marty Ross, MD discusses the ins and outs, including risks factors, of using methylene blue. Below the video, you can find sample antibiotic protocols for Lyme and Bartonella that include methylene blue.

Notice-How to Use This Article

Be aware, most of the important information in this article is in the video in the top link

(See link for article and video)

______________

**Comment**

Methylene blue, like DMSO and ozone are more like therapeutic principles than drugs and work for many disease processes including COVID, yet mainstream medicine & media is remarkably silent because these safe, cheap, effective alternatives interfere with their conflicts of interest.  The same can be said for ivermectin and HCQ/zinc, as well as long-term antibiotics for Lyme/MSIDS sufferers who continue to have symptoms.

For more:

For more on Bartonella treatment:

For more on MB for COVID:

  • https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-92481-9  MB displays broad-spectrum virucidal activity in the presence of UV light and inactivates various viruses in blood products prior to transfusions.  It’s validated for treating methemoglobinemia and malaria.  Our findings reveal that methylene blue displays virucidal preventive or therapeutic activity against influenza virus H1N1 and SARS-CoV-2 at low micromolar concentrations and in the absence of UV-activation. We also confirm that MB antiviral activity is based on several mechanisms of action as the extent of genomic RNA degradation is higher in presence of light and after long exposure. Our work supports the interest of testing methylene blue in clinical studies to confirm a preventive and/or therapeutic efficacy against both influenza virus H1N1 and SARS-CoV-2 infections.
  • https://biomedres.us/pdfs/BJSTR.MS.ID.006723.pdfSeven outpatients with confirmed cases of severe COVID-19 received oral MB (the reduced form: 1mg/kg T.I.D. for 2-days, followed by 1mg/kg B.I.D. for the next 12 days) along with standard care. Outpatients recovered completely.  Considering all properties of MB such as anti-viral, antibiotic, anticoagulant, immunomodulatory, antioxidants, anti-hypoxemia, and anti-respiratory; it could be applied as an adjunct therapy along with standard care protocols in the clinical management of COVID-19 outpatients. MB is a cheap and FDA-approved drug for methemoglobinemia.
  • https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220325/Study-finds-methylene-blue-is-a-low-micromolar-inhibitor-of-the-the-SARS-CoV-2-spike-protein-and-ACE2-interaction.aspx  Authors of this study revealed that MeBlu is a low‐micromolar inhibitor of the PPI that suppresses interaction between the S protein of SARS-CoV-2 and its cognate receptor ACE2. The dye was also found to be effective against the Delta variant and to suppress virus replication in Vero E6 cells. Scientists believe that MeBlu could be used as an inexpensive drug for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
  • https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04933864  Since methylene blue can work as a photosensitizer, photodynamic therapy as an antiviral treatment has great potential in the treatment of COVID-19. (The study is ongoing so results are yet to be known)
  • https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34019535/  The addition of MB to the treatment protocols significantly improved SpO2 and respiratory distress in COVID-19 patients, which resulted in decreased hospital stay and mortality.
  • https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2020.600372/full  Screening of our organic dye-based library identified MeBlu as a low-micromolar inhibitor of the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and its cognate receptor ACE2, a PPI that is the first critical step initiating the viral entry of this coronavirus. While MeBlu shows strong polypharmacology and might be a somewhat promiscuous PPI inhibitor, its ability to inhibit this PPI could contribute to the antiviral activity of MeBlu against SARS-CoV-2 even in the absence of light making this inexpensive and widely available drug potentially useful in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 as an oral or inhaled medication.
  • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332221008064  Currently, the treatment of COVID-19 involves use of antiviral and anti-cytokine drugs. However, both the drugs have low efficacy because they cannot inhibit the production of free radicals and cytokines at the same time. Recently, some researchers have reported the use of methylene blue(MB) in COVID-19 management. MB has been used since a long time as a therapeutic agent, and has been approved by the US FDA for the treatment of other diseases. The additional advantage of MB is its low cost. MB is a safe drug when used in the dose of < 2 mg/kg. In this review, the applicability of MB in COVID-19 and its mechanistic aspects have been explored and compiled. The clinical studies have been explained in great detail. Thus, the potential of MB in the management of COVID-19 has been examined.  The results are satisfactory and provide a ray of hope in this direction. Thus, MB can be termed as a “rescue magic bullet” for COVID-19 treatment. However, for MB administration, meticulous consideration of the dosage is necessary to prevent any untoward effects. MB can be administered thrice orally at a dose of 2–3 mg/kg per day for 7–10 days in newly infected COVID-19 patients. However, this needs to be further studied, and finding the optimal dosage should be the objective of clinical study [43]. The use of MB in novel dosage forms like an anti-COVID mouthwash may also be beneficial [77].  **Warning** MB can interact with antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and MAO inhibitors) to cause sever toxicity of serotonin.  It also has been found to interact with with dapsoneto form hydroxylamine, which oxidizes hemoglobin and may cause hemolysis [84]. Also, MB is contraindicated in patients with severe renal insufficiency. The use of MB in patients with G6PD deficiency can be detrimental, as it may cause severe hemolysis [53]. In such cases, the use of vitamin B12 and ascorbic acid has proven to be beneficial [85], [86], [87]. Additionally, concomitant use of NSAIDs may block the bradykinin activity pathways. Thus, NSAIDs may add benefit to MB therapy in COVID-19 [64], [88].

Category:

Bartonella, Lyme, Treatment

When Treating Bartonella Clears Symptoms of Autism, What Next?

https://www.lymedisease.org/when-treating-bartonella-clears-autism/

When treating Bartonella clears symptoms of autism, what next?

By Debbie Kimberg

March 14, 2023

My 16-year-old autistic son’s learning disabilities suddenly resolved after treatment for congenital Bartonella and Lyme infections. (See: After 80% improvement in autism symptoms, he’s going to college.) This turn of events totally shocked our family and left us scrambling to figure out our next steps.

Before beginning treatment for Bartonella, Sammy had a tutor named Annie. This sweet, patient young woman came weekly to our home to help him organize his work and make sure he turned it in.

A few months after starting treatment, Sammy began resisting Annie’s assistance. He’d routinely exclaim, “Mom, I don’t need her help! I’m doing fine by myself!”

At first, I thought his angry behaviors were resurfacing. But then I paid closer attention to his grades and realized that he was right. My son, who had suffered with learning differences and ADHD, could suddenly do his schoolwork with no support from anyone else.

Not only did his ADHD resolve, but his grades in his core classes moved from Cs to As. What a baffling and exciting time for our family!

Learning new words

Concurrently, Sammy began asking me the meaning of all kinds of words. They were words that you would expect a 16-year-old to know, such as tremor, simmer, and immature. With Sammy’s new desire to broaden his vocabulary, we played a word game, though we never called it that.

I deliberately began to speak using larger, more advanced words, coyly embedding the meaning into the sentence to ensure he understood it. Interestingly, he was quick to try to incorporate that same word into conversation to showcase his mastery. He was a sponge! Sammy smiled proudly when he spoke, as he skillfully used a new word in a conversation.

Our vocabulary game reminded me of Forrest Gump running from the school bullies who chased him and how the braces fell off Forrest’s legs and onto the dirt road. It was as if a similar shackle on Sammy’s brain had inhibited his learning. Once it was removed, his ability to learn was remarkable.

Nurturing a new stage in learning

Before, our job as parents had involved helping him get his high school technical diploma (targeted to special education students). Now, we needed to help him catch up on all of the learning he had clearly missed due to this disease and the brain inflammation it caused. Our hope was for him to earn a full high school diploma.

This was uncharted territory.

We believed that a private school would be better equipped to handle his new, unique learning needs. But how could I even begin to explain to a school administrator what had happened, and Sammy’s unusual learning needs?

Although I thought it would be a strange conversation to have, I expected that admissions officers would be supportive and want to work with us. Instead, school after school turned us away, even ones whose mission was to support children with learning differences. Sammy’s diagnosis of autism and his previous IQ and psychological testing didn’t meet the schools’ minimum requirements.

I grew more frustrated as every school that we pursued turned us away. I was at a loss for how to help him.

Then I had an epiphany! A different and potentially better path was needed.

Changing educational gears

Since Sammy was doing well in high school, no longer requiring special education classes and wanting to attend a four-year university, we changed gears. Now, we set our sights on what he needed to learn to take his ACT and be accepted to college. We hoped to leapfrog Sammy to a new level.

This decision turned out to be a great one. A highly regarded college-testing prep school heard what had happened and were eager to help. The owner took an immediate interest in our story and moved Sammy to the top of their long wait list.

Sammy’s ACT tutor was a perfect fit – smart, fun, compassionate—and he loved singing too. Typically, a student would receive private college test prep tutoring for 2-3 months. Sammy received weekly tutoring for 10 months. With the help of this amazing school and its staff, Sammy did well enough on his ACT to gain admission to his first choice of colleges.

The future: rehabilitation from autism

I hope one day that many other families will face the same dilemma of helping their child recover from autism symptoms. With proper screening and treatment for vector-borne infections, our education system will need to redefine its services for these children.

New school programs will be required to help recovering children, a type of rehabilitation, if you will. Much like someone might need intensive occupational therapy to learn to walk again after a car accident, those recovering from autism and brain inflammation will need rehabilitation as well.

Imagine if our country could move away from Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy (ABA – designed to increase social abilities like completing tasks, communicating, and learning new skills). Currently, demand for this therapy is so high that young children must often wait years to learn basic language, coping and hygiene skills. Instead, we could enter a new era in which our children are taught to catch up in their schooling and how to refine more advanced social skills.

Therapists would need to develop new programs and be specially trained to help our recovering autistic children become the adults they were meant to be.

And of course, with proper screening and treatment prior to, or in worst case, during pregnancy, hopefully the rates of autism will see a steady decline.

I look forward to this day with great anticipation. I believe it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when.

What’s needed

There are important steps needed to make this dream a reality:

1) CDC recognition of this important medical cause of autism symptoms,

2) development of effective diagnostic testing and an extensive, flexible set of criteria for a doctor to make a clinical diagnosis of tick-borne diseases,

3) development of effective, reliable and fast-acting treatments for tick-borne diseases.

We need to call on the CDC and government to treat autism as the public health emergency it is. We must screen the 7 million cases of autism to identify those who’ve been impacted by Bartonella and Lyme-related infections. The CDC needs to work more aggressively, beyond the genetic research, to follow the path of a potential infectious cause of symptoms. Bartonella should be at the top of the list.

And of course, infected parents and siblings would need to be screened and treated too.

I say all of this with much love and acceptance to all on the autism spectrum. To our autistic teens and adults, we accept and appreciate who you are. It is okay to acknowledge that you may be sick through no fault of your own. And it’s okay to get treated, so you feel better. It could change your life.

To find a doctor to screen your child for tick-borne diseases, see LymeDisease.org’s Physician Directory or your state’s Lyme Facebook group.

Debbie Kimberg can be contacted through her website.  You can follow her son’s wellness journey on Instagram and TikTok at @hijackedbrains.

Disclaimer: The author is not a doctor. This article is the opinion of the author and is not intended to dispense medical advice. Please seek a doctor’s advice for diagnosis and treatment.

For more:

Category:

Autism, Bartonella, Lyme

Molecular Detection of Bartonellosis

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/29/3/22-1223_article

Bartonella spp. Infections Identified by Molecular Methods, United States

David W. McCormick, Sara L. Rassoulian-Barrett, Daniel R. Hoogestraat, Stephen J. Salipante, Dhruba SenGupta, Elizabeth A. Dietrich, Brad T. Cookson, Grace E. Marx1Comments to Author , and Joshua A. Lieberman1
Author affiliations: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA (D.W. McCormick, E.A. Dietrich, G.E. Marx); University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA (S.L. Rassoulian-Barrett, D.R. Hoogestraat, S.J. Salipante, D. SenGupta, B.T. Cookson, J.A. Lieberman)
March, 2023

Abstract

Molecular methods can enable rapid identification of Bartonella spp. infections, which are difficult to diagnose by using culture or serology. We analyzed clinical test results of PCR that targeted bacterial 16S rRNA hypervariable V1–V2 regions only or in parallel with PCR of Bartonella-specific ribC gene. We identified 430 clinical specimens infected with Bartonella spp. from 420 patients in the United States. Median patient age was 37 (range 1–79) years; 62% were male.

We identified:

  • B. henselae in 77%
  • B. quintana in 13%
  • B. clarridgeiae in 1%
  • B. vinsonii in 1%
  • B. washoensis in 1% of specimens
  • B. quintana was detected in 83% of cardiac specimens
  • B. henselae was detected in 34% of lymph node specimens

We detected novel or uncommon Bartonella spp. in 9 patients. Molecular diagnostic testing can identify Bartonella spp. infections, including uncommon and undescribed species, and might be particularly useful for patients who have culture-negative endocarditis or lymphadenitis.

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Currently, 12 species of Bartonella genus are associated with human infection, but that number is constantly changing. Because Bartonella spp. infections are not nationally notifiable diseases, there is limited knowledge of the epidemiology of this disease in the US.  In my experience it is prolific.

For more:

Category:

Bartonella, research, Testing