Archive for the ‘Lyme’ Category

Plotting the End of Lyme Disease

https://now.tufts.edu/articles/end-lyme-disease

Plotting the End of Lyme Disease

For years, Tufts researchers have been on the cutting edge of investigating and treating the mysterious illness known as Lyme disease. Now, a new initiative seeks to eradicate the disease once and for all.
Two men drag white flags though the undergrowth of a forest, dragging for ticks. Tufts University researchers have made it a goal to eradicate Lyme disease by 2030.
Internationally known Lyme researchers Sam Telford, a Cummings School professor, and Linden Hu, a professor at the School of Medicine, demonstrate how fabric flags are used to collect ticks for studies. Photo: Alonso Nichols
By Michael Blanding
May 6, 2021

As people weary of being cooped up during a pandemic winter look forward to a summer outside, residents across the northeastern United States are once again confronted with a familiar virulent pathogen lurking in the woods and fields. Unlike coronavirus, however, this dangerous microorganism doesn’t float through the air—it enters the body through the bite of a tick.

Lyme disease has been a constant scourge since it was identified five decades ago on the Connecticut coastline, before spreading across the New England and Mid-Atlantic states. Caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi (and its cousin Borrelia mayonii), the disease has long baffled scientists with its strangely stealthy manifestations.

While Lyme can sometimes be diagnosed early from its telltale bullseye-shaped rash, it often goes unnoticed for weeks in a person before it starts leading to complications including arthritis and—in severe cases—attacks on heart and brain tissue. While it can often be resolved with antibiotics, some 10 to 20 percent of patients see infections persist, with fatigue, joint pain, and mental impairment lasting months and even years. Sometimes doctors who treat such long-suffering patients aren’t even able to definitively pinpoint Lyme as the cause. All of those complications make the mission of the new Tufts Lyme Disease Initiative even bolder: “Eliminate Lyme Disease by 2030.”  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Articles like these give me gray hair.

Points to consider:  Isn’t it sad when little has changed in 5 decades?  Hopefully the following comments will explain the ongoing logjam.

  • The touted myth of 10-20% with persistent symptoms is FALSE. It’s more like 60%.
  • The jury’s out on whether it can ‘often be resolved with antibiotics’. I would argue that perhaps some can but nobody’s been studied for any length of time, and relapses will be blamed on something else by mainstream medicine and researchers due to the CDD/IDSA/NIH juggernaut.
  • The ongoing issue is pathogen  persistence. Until this is agreed upon, acknowledged, and acted upon, we are going nowhere.
  • Many of the pedestalized Tufts pioneers are part of The Cabal which has myopically fixated on the acute stage of Lyme, ignoring a large subset of patients, which has caused untold suffering.
  • Researcher Linden Hu has developed a technique to give mice vaccine-infused food which contains a virus, which he insists is safe.  Thankfully the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture is leery.
  • Hu has also proposed putting an antibiotic into mouse food at bait stations. The article admits that the science it’s all based on was done more than a decade ago. This project was also stalled due to fears of antibiotic resistance.
  • Hu and Telford just received nearly 4 MILLION from the NIH to study a more narrow-spectrum antibiotic. Please keep that dollar amount in mind when you read the article.
  • Telford states the most important species carrying borrelia is the white-footed mouse, but even his wife (a researcher) recognizes dogma based on assumptions and notes that shrews, voles, squirrels, chipmunks, and of course birds play a large role.  Further, reptiles are involved.
  • Half-way through it becomes clear they are pushing another Lyme vaccine. Telford was involved with Steer back in the early 1990’s with LYMErix which caused Lyme-like symptoms and was shelved.  Telford appears indifferent to this fact and states it was 80% effective – which is quite reminiscent of the current COVID injections claiming to be 90% effective but are less than 1% effective when absolute risk is taken into account.  There have also been thousands of reports of deaths and severe reactions.
  • Telford has gone on record dismissing concerns between Lyme and US government biowarfare research. Telford also takes every opportunity to correct doctors (using antiquated & biased science) who depart from the CDC/IDSA accepted narrative. This is also being experienced with COVID.  Telford attacks anyone defying the accepted narrative.  He discredited Kris Newby’s book but never actually read it.
    • Interestingly, Telford teaches biosecurity and has written many studies about tularemia, a known bioweapon.
    • Telford wast he director of a bio-level 3 lab in Groton, Massachusetts, that works on dangerous, tick-borne diseases on the government’s select agent list.
    • Telford is funded by the NIH and the military-industrial complex.
  • The article states once Lyme is diagnosed it’s usually treatable with doxycycline in 10-14 days.  FALSE! This myth is also causing untold suffering and needs to be terminated, as well as the FALSE Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS).
  • Hu and Klemen Stole of Wadsworth Institute just obtained over 3 MILLION from NIH to study how genetic mutations affect the body’s ability to develop tolerance for borrelia.  Please also keep this monetary figure in mind while reading the article.
  • While they admit borrelia uses ‘clever tricks’ to skirt the immune system’s defenses (from disarming leukocytes and utilizing rapid antigenic variation, to invading blood vessel walls so it can take root anywhere in the human body) they can not seem to imagine it persisting or relapsing. (A bizarre disconnect) 
  • Tanja Petnicki-Ocwieja, also at Tufts, just obtained $160,000 from Global Lyme Alliance to look into ozone intravenously (note the paltry amount compared to the others which is due to the fact the government funded NIH doesn’t want research on ozone which will interfere with Big Pharma profit).  So far her findings show it calms the immune response.  Once again the issue of persistence crops up because there’s more going on than just an immune response in many patients.
  • The statement is made that Lyme carditis is seen in less than 1% of patients.  This data was most probably taken from the CDC website which is notoriously wrong.  How can you know percentages on anything when the test for it misses anywhere from 70% to 86% of cases?  People are being misdiagnosed at alarming rates. Until they do autopsies on every carditis patient, percentages are a complete guess.
  • While the article states practitioners need to validate suffering patients they essentially state the need to give them an alternate explanation other than Lyme disease for their suffering!   If they only knew how often this horrific advice is followed.
  • And probably the worst part of the article (hard to judge as so much of it is atrocious) is the statement there is no clear treatment for long-term cases.  Unfortunately, this is true due to the fanatical polarization within public health and the research and medical communities who care more about profits than they do about patients.
  • Recent work has shown longer treatment durations were associated with better treatment response; however, this hasn’t even caused a ripple in the research & medical world due to the fact it isn’t a double blinded, placebo controlled, randomized trial – Anthony Fauci’s favorite animal (when it suits his purpose).  
  • Lastly, the article mentions former Tufts Medical Center doctor, Dr. Mark Klempner, now executive vice chancellor of MassBiologics at UMass Medical School, who has developed ‘pre-exposure prophylaxis’ (PrEP), which is supposedly not a vaccine. Klempner not only has ties to biodefense but is behind research that is still being used to keep chronically sick Lyme/MSIDS patients from extended treatment. Klempner recruited Linden Hu. 
Who to believe?  Researchers receiving MILLIONS in grant money or sick patients losing their jobs?
 I’ll stick with the patients thank you.

Category:

Lyme, research, Treatment, vaccines

Abdominal Pain, Ileus & Constipation Due to Lyme Disease

https://danielcameronmd.com/abdominal-pain-constipation-lyme-disease/  Podcast here

ABDOMINAL PAIN, ILEUS AND CONSTIPATION DUE TO LYME DISEASE

doctor examining woman with abdominal pain due to lyme disease

Welcome to another Inside Lyme Podcast. I am your host Dr. Daniel Cameron. In this episode, I will be discussing the case of a 65-year-old woman with abdominal pain, ileus/pseudo-obstruction and constipation due to Lyme disease.

By

Zulfiqar and colleagues first described this case in an article entitled “The many manifestations of a single disease: neuroborreliosis,” published in the Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives.¹

A 65-year-old woman on hormonal therapy for estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer presented to the Emergency Department with sudden seventh nerve palsy, commonly referred to as Bell’s palsy.

One week prior, she began having burning back pain radiating to the abdomen, which had grown worse and over the past several months had suffered from constipation.

Stroke, herpes virus or Lyme disease?

The woman was admitted to the hospital for a suspected stroke. However, there was no evidence of a stroke by brain CT or MRI.

Doctors also suspected she had a herpes zoster infection and prescribed valacyclovir, an anti-viral medication.

The patient worked frequently in her backyard and was exposed to wooded areas. She also recalled having a rash on her stomach 11 days before being admitted to the hospital.

“Lyme serum antibody (IgG and IgM) was positive with confirmatory Western blot resulting in multiband reactivity,” the authors write. Spinal tap test results were also positive for Lyme disease.

The woman was diagnosed with neuroborreliosis, or Lyme disease and treated with oral doxycycline.

However, while hospitalized the patient developed diffuse abdominal pain, abdominal distension, and worsening constipation.

An abdominal x-ray showed mild ileus. “CT abdomen with contrast was done which suggested constipation without obstruction or ‘significant’ ileus,” the authors explain. A colonoscopy was also normal.

The woman was also diagnosed with Syndrome of Inappropriate Anti-diuretic Hormones (SIADH) based on a sodium of 129 and typical urine findings.

Abdominal pain, gastrointestinal problems in Lyme disease

The authors highlight several studies demonstrating a range of gastrointestinal problems, including abdominal pain, associated with Lyme disease.

“There have been many case reports in the past highlighting the atypical presentation of Lyme disease including, but not limited to pseudo-obstruction, constipation, back pain radiating to abdomen (radiculoneuritis) known as Bannwarth Syndrome as a manifestation of autonomic dysfunction related to neuroborreliosis,” the authors explain.

This patient also suffered from anorexia with a loss of 14 pounds. One study found that 23% of 314 patients with early Lyme disease suffered from anorexia.

Meanwhile, Shamim et al. reported two cases of patients who presented with severe constipation and hyponatremia in addition to other features of Lyme disease.

Lyme neuroborreliosis has also been reported as “the culprit of chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction” in other studies, the authors explain. “The patients can develop worsening constipation and obstipation as diagnosis and treatment is delayed, leading to diffuse bowel dilation in the absence of mechanical obstruction.”

Lastly, “There have been a few case reports of SIADH associated with neuroborreliosis,” writes Zulfiqar.

Authors’ Conclusion: Lyme disease should be suspected in patients who are from Lyme endemic areas and present with abdominal pain, constipation and SIADH with or without cranial nerve palsy.

The following questions are addressed in this podcast episode:  

  1. Why was a stroke initially considered?
  2. Why was herpes zoster suspected?
  3. What are the causes of 7th nerve palsy?
  4. What is SIADH?
  5. What is ileus?
  6. What is Bannwarth Syndrome?
  7. How are GI issues related to autonomic dysfunction?
    Thanks for listening to another Inside Lyme Podcast. You can read more about these cases in my show notes and on my website @DanielCameronMD.com. As always, it is your likes, comments, reviews, and shares that help spread the word about Lyme disease. Until next time on Inside Lyme.

Please remember that the advice given is general and not intended as specific advice to any particular patient. If you require specific advice, then please seek that advice from an experienced professional.

Inside Lyme Podcast Series

This Inside Lyme case series will be discussed on my Facebook page and made available on podcast and YouTube.  As always, it is your likes, comments, and shares that help spread the word about this series and our work. If you can, please leave a review on iTunes or wherever else you get your podcasts.

References:
  1. Zulfiqar S, Qureshi A, Dande R, Puri C, Persaud K, Awasthi S. The many manifestations of a single disease: neuroborreliosis. J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect. Jan 26 2021;11(1):56-59. doi:10.1080/20009666.2020.1831746

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Category:

Gut Health, Lyme, research

Cataract Resident Advocates For Individuals Struggling With Lyme Disease

https://www.monroecountyherald.com/news/cataract-resident-advocates-individuals-struggling-lyme-disease

Cataract resident advocates for individuals struggling with Lyme disease

06/01/2021 
Alicia Cashman
Nicole Vik, Staff Writer

Cataract resident Alicia Cashman, a Lyme disease patient, advocate and leader with Madison Lyme Support Group, is passionate about the cause as she herself has been fighting the battle for over a decade after a tiny tick changed her and her husband’s lives.

Most people don’t know that a tick can contain many pathogens. Cashman prefers the term MSIDS, or Multi Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome, over Lyme Disease as it is almost always far more than just borrelia, the causative agent of Lyme disease.

“Due to the synergistic effects of these pathogens, treatment is often far more complex and longer than the CDC’s treatment guidelines of 21 days of doxycycline and that particular mono therapy rarely works unless you catch it early,” she said. “We saw neither tick nor rash and less than 30 percent do, but we tested positively on the Extended Western Blot from Igenex Labs in California, which is one of the few labs that uses a far more sensitive testing.”

As stated earlier, Lyme disease is caused by bacteria called Borrelia. There are 100 different strains of Borrelia in the United States and 300 worldwide. Current CDC testing only tests for one strain, according to Cashman. (See link for article)

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**Comment**

I’m thankful the staff writer didn’t shy away from the polarization in the medical community, research bias, conflicts of interest, or the fact this is probably sexually transmitted.

We need the truth if we ever expect to move forward.

I never know what the outcome of these interviews will be, but I’m happy with this one.  Good, honest information with very practical advice.

For more:

Category:

Activism, Lyme

Lyme Carditis 2021 Update

https://lymediseaseassociation.org/blogs/lda-guest-blogs/adrian-baranchuk-md-guest-blog/

Adrian Baranchuk, MD, Guest Blog – Lyme Carditis 2021 Update

LDA Guest Blogger

Adrian_Baranchuk_Photo_2020

Adrian Baranchuk MD, FACC, FRCPC, FCCS, FSIAC is Professor of Medicine at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is Editor-in-chief, Journal of Electrocardiology; Vice President, International Society of Holter and Non-Invasive Electrocardiology (ISHNE); Secretary, Interamerican Society of Cardiology (SIAC); Co-Director, ECG University; Past President, International Society of Electrocardiology (ISE); and Director, NET-Heart Project (Neglected Tropical Diseases and other Infectious Diseases affecting the Heart).

Lyme Carditis: Update 2021. An Evasive Diagnosis in the Time of COVID-19

Adrian Baranchuk MD, FACC, FRCPC, FCCS, FSIAC; Chang (Nancy) Wang MSc (c), MD
Department of Medicine, Kingston Health Science Center, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Lyme disease (LD) is a tick-borne bacterial infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi. Lyme carditis (LC) is an early-disseminated manifestation of LD, most commonly manifesting as a complete “shut-down” of the electrical system (high-degree atrioventricular block (AVB)) that can evolve rapidly over minutes, hours, or days producing severe symptoms like fainting, palpitations, shortness of breath, extreme dizziness, or sudden death (1-2).

Other cardiovascular manifestations include alterations of the “motor” of the heart (sinus node disease) (3), a disorganization of the cardiac rhythm that increases the risk of stroke (atrial fibrillation) (2), lesion in the distal cables of the heart (bundle branch blocks) (4), and different degrees of inflammation of the layers of the cardiac walls (myocarditis, pericarditis, and endocarditis) (2). Some of these manifestations could be so severe that a total dysfunction of the cardiac function occurs in a matter of hours, and the patient may die even if admitted to the best ICU in the world.

The initial symptoms of LD can be mistaken by other common infections or allergic reactions. Delayed diagnosis is one of the most important risk factors to serious LD presentations including LC in all its forms. The good news is that prompt diagnosis and appropriate antibiotic therapy links to a much better prognosis. In addition, we now know that when appropriately treated with antibiotics according to guidelines (2); there is no evidence of residual disease in the heart (5).

Most conduction abnormalities caused by LC resolve with appropriate antibiotic therapy (2).

The current COVID-19 pandemic is posing a new challenge in the diagnosis of LD. There are lots of overlapping symptoms such as: fever, malaise, generalized pain, lack of energy, etc. During these times, one would advise on ruling out COVID-19 first before embarking on any other test. However, what could we recommend in terms of confirming or ruling out LD, specifically during these challenging times?

Learning how to recognize the many presentations of LD from a clinical point of view has been published several times. It is especially important to ask about outdoor activities, history of tick bites, tick removal and dermatological rashes (remember that the classic “bull eye” is only present in about 40% of cases). Extensive dermatologic examination may be necessary. Residence in an endemic region for LD is essential for risk stratification, as these recommendations should be encouraged in all ED and family doctor offices in areas of high prevalence.

Once the diagnosis is suspected, specific interrogation should be directed to cardiovascular symptoms such as: dizziness, palpitations, fainting or near fainting, chest pain and shortness of breath. If the patient recognizes any of these symptoms, along with any other factors suggesting LD, a 12-lead ECG (the simple and unexpensive electrocardiogram) should be performed (2). Any evidence of electrical disturbance should prompt admission in hospital for a course of IV antibiotics while waiting the results of serological tests.

On the other hand, in patients presenting with unexpected high-degree AV block, clinical suspicion for LC can be assessed using the validated risk score called SILC (Suspicious Index in Lyme carditis) (6) where the acronym COSTAR(Constitutional symptoms, Outdoor activities/endemic region, Sex male, Tick bite, Age > 50, Rash) may help in determining the risk of presenting early disseminated LC.

In summary, use your clinical tools to suspect LD in the context of COVID-19 pandemic, order serological tests when appropriate, and remember to check for cardiovascular complications with a history, physical, and ECG. If evidence of LC, admit the patient to hospital with continuous cardiac monitoring and appropriate IV antibiotics. Decision for permanent pacemaker implantation should wait until completion of antibiotics as heart block in LC is often reversible. Most patients maintain normal rhythm on long-term follow-up. Avoiding unnecessary implants is crucial as most of these patients are young and active individuals.

References
1. Wan D, Blakely C, Branscombe P, Suarez-Fuster L, Glover B, Baranchuk A. Lyme Carditis and High-degree Atrioventricular Block. Am J Cardiol 2018; 26(5): 233-239
2. Yeung C, Baranchuk A. Diagnosis and Treatment of Lyme Carditis. J Am Coll Cardiol 2019; 73(6): 717-726
3. Gazendam N, Yeung C, Baranchuk A. Lyme carditis presenting as sick sinus syndrome. J Electrocardiol 2020; 59: 65-67
4. Maxwell N, Dryer M, Baranchuk A, Vinocur M. Phase 4 Block of the Right Bundle Branch Suggesting His-Purkinje System Involvement in Lyme Carditis. HeartRhythm Case Reports. 2020; 7(2): 112-116
5. Wang C, Baranchuk A. Long-term evolution of patients treated for early disseminated Lyme carditis. Third prize at the ICE 2021 (International Congress on Electrocardiology)
6. Besant G, Wan D, Yeung C, Blakely C, Branscombe P, Suarez-Fuster L, Redfearn D, Simpson C, Abdollah H, Glover B, Baranchuk A. Suspicious Index in Lyme Carditis (SILC): Systematic Review and Proposed New Risk Score. Clin Cardiol 2018; 41(12):1611-1616

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Category:

Heart Issues, Lyme

CDC Lying Again. Tuttle Drops the Mic

https://www.change.org/p/the-us-senate-calling-for-a-congressional-investigation-of-the-cdc-idsa-and-aldf/u/29105701?

The US Centers for Disease Control is lying to the public about Lyme disease!

MAY 24, 2021 — 

As promised from the previous petition update, the following is a critique of Dr. Grace Marx’s, PowerPoint presentation which clearly shows that our public health officials are lying to us. You can voice your opinion and send her an email:  lwx1@cdc.gov

Dr. Marx contact info: (photo is from this link)

https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/IDWeek/ajaxcalls/AccountInfo.asp?efp=Q0NRVktHSkw2ODg2&userShareID=36678593&rnd=0.8305856

———- Original Message ———-

From: CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net>
To: “lwx1@cdc.gov” <lwx1@cdc.gov>, “coca@cdc.gov” <coca@cdc.gov>
Cc: All members of the NH Lyme Disease Study Commission,”governorsununu@nh.gov” governorsununu@nh.gov
Date: 05/22/2021 2:16 PM
Subject: Re: Lyme Disease Updates and New Educational Tools for Clinicians

Dr. Marx,

As anticipated, the Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA) Webinar failed to mention the ten important facts I pointed out in my email dated May 15th five days prior to your presentation.

After reviewing the slides of your presentation at the following link, I found additional areas of concern:

Lyme Disease Updates and New Educational Tools for Clinicians
https://emergency.cdc.gov/coca/ppt/2021/052021_Lyme_Disease_Slides.pdf?fbclid=IwAR05dtD4eswvd_8WLpBQkp_1j-A2iME1WRdWJmcGTaxehWdIZN5FC2KcpAA

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Page# 11

Transmission occurs:

  • After an infected tick has been attached for at least 24hrs
  • Most transmission occurs after 36 hours
Carl Tuttle’s comments:  Rapid transmission has been reported in under 4hrs  [1, 2, 3, 4]

Page# 15

95% of reported Lyme disease cases are from 15 states and D.C.

Carl Tuttle’s comments:  Quest diagnostics is reporting positive Lyme tests in all fifty states. [5]

Page# 21

  • A single dose of doxycycline can lower the risk of Lyme disease
Carl Tuttle’s comments:  Single dose Doxycycline after tick bite as prophylaxis against Lyme disease failed 80% of the time in the mouse model so why would this be recommended in humans? [6]

Page# 25

  • Most tick bites do NOT transmit disease, so antimicrobial PEP is not routinely recommended.
Carl Tuttle’s comments:   77% of the ticks tested in the town of Litchfield, NH were carrying tick-borne disease as reported by a 2009 UMass Tick Study [7] so assuming that disease will not be transmitted is like playing Russian roulette with the public’s health. Front line clinicians in this Lyme endemic region who are witnessing the devastation first hand will offer the patient thirty days of minocycline after a tick bite.

Page# 32

  • The LYMERix vaccine was available between 1998 and 2002
  • Safe and effective
  • Pulled from the market in 2002
Carl Tuttle’s comments:  The LYMErix vaccine was pulled due to adverse reactions [8]and class action lawsuit:

VACCINES AN-D RELATED BIOLOGICAL PRODUSTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Advisory Committee Meeting: l/31/01
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sodqs3pdeeesktf/Sheller%20Lymerix.pdf?dl=0

Below is communication with the attorney who handled the LYMErix lawsuit.

“The people who have contacted us were, prior to vaccination with LYMErix, healthy, active and energetic. Indeed, the very reason they sought the LYMErix vaccine was their desire to preserve their healthy, active lifestyle. However, what they experienced was a dramatic degradation of their health and quality of life. As will be described below, these previously healthy individuals are now afflicted with painful, at times debilitating arthritic symptoms, including joint pain and swelling, as well as extremely severe Lyme-disease-like symptoms which have persisted to this day.”  -Stephen A. Sheller, Esq

Page# 37

Typical Lyme Disease Manifestations

  • Three months or more; Arthritis [Late stage]
Carl Tuttle’s comments:  What stage of Lyme disease results in disability; patients in wheelchairs?  You can become horribly disabled or die [9] from Lyme disease and routinely denied Social Security Disability Compensation and yet the public knows nothing about this stage of disease.

Page# 38

  • Erythema migrans (bulls-eye rash) 70%
Carl Tuttle’s comments:  The State of Maine DOH reported incidence of rash less than 50% as mentioned in my previous email.

Page# 45

  • Blacklegged ticks may also transmit pathogens that cause:
    Anaplasmosis
    Babesiosis
    Ehrlichiosis
    Borrelia miyamotoi disease
    Borrelia mayonii (Lyme disease)
    Powassan virus disease
Carl Tuttle’s comments:  Why isn’t the CDC recommending a “tick panel” to check for all of these pathogens?

Page# 48

  • CDC recommends diagnostic tests for Lyme disease that have been evaluated and cleared by the FDA. Two-step serologic tests are the only FDA-cleared test for Lyme disease.
Carl Tuttle’s comments:  Why after nearly forty years since the discovery of Lyme do we not have an accurate test to detect Lyme in all stages of disease???

Page# 49

  • Two-Step Lyme Disease Serologic Testing
  • A NEGATIVE Elisa means NEGATIVE
Carl Tuttle’s comments:  The more sensitive Western blot is only ordered after a positive Elisa lab result and it is used to rule out a FALSE POSITIVE Elisa.

When a NEGATIVE Elisa is found the Western blot is never ordered to rule out a FALSE NEGATIVE. So basically a NEGATIVE Elisa is 100% reliable whereas a POSITIVE Elisa is never reliable. How can this test be reliable in one instance and not another? Physicians are not allowed to order the Western Blot after a NEGATIVE Elisa and this practice is criminal. The system of using the Elisa as first line testing is completely flawed.

“If false results are to be feared, it is the false negative result which holds the greatest peril for the patient.” – Dr. Allan MacDonald

Page# 51

Western blot for Lyme Disease

  • Positive test requires at least 2 out of 3 [IgM] bands
  • Positive test requires at least 5 out of 10 [IgG] bands
Carl Tuttle’s comments:  Interpretation of the Western immunoblot is an area of significant confusion. Strict criteria were created in 1994 for surveillance of Lyme disease and only those patients who met this strict case definition were reported to the CDC. So if you did not meet those criteria your Western blot stated NEGATIVE.

Under the Infectious Conditions for Public Health Surveillance page, the Centers for Disease Control updated its Lyme Case Definition  in 2011 stating the following:

“This surveillance case definition was developed for national reporting of Lyme disease; it is not intended to be used in clinical diagnosis”

Physicians who treat Lyme disease exclusively recognize that it is not necessary to have five positive Western blot IgG bands or two IgM bands in order to diagnose Lyme disease. Those guidelines were strictly developed for surveillance purposes only.

Page# 59

Test Sensitivity by Manifestation of Lyme Disease

  • Early Localized (bulls-eye rash) -POOR
  • Early Disseminated -VERY GOOD
  • Late Disseminated -EXCELLENT
Carl Tuttle’s comments: Serology for Lyme disease is no better than a coin toss [10, 11] and is responsible for unimaginable pain and suffering.

2010 Complaint Letter to Jose T. Montero, MD, Director NH DHHS
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3pfjav6mtj50hkd/2010%20Letter%20Jose%20T.%20Montero%2C%20MD%2C%20Director.pdf?dl=0

Page# 63

Each stage of disease can be treated effectively with antibiotics.

Carl Tuttle’s comments:  There are hundreds of references to failed treatment of the one-size-fits-all IDSA Lyme treatment guideline [12,13] so why does the CDC continue to refuse to recognize this problem leaving hundreds of thousands (if not millions worldwide) in a debilitated state?

Treatment Delays Increase Risk of Persistent Illness in Lyme Disease (Johns Hopkins)
https://www.hopkinslyme.org/news/treatment-delays-increase-risk-of-persistent-illness-in-lyme-disease/

Page# 66

Treatment for Neurologic Lyme Disease

  • 2-3 weeks duration in all cases
Carl Tuttle’s comments:  I have never met any Lyme patient horribly disabled from neurologic Lyme disease who returned to baseline health with 2-3 weeks of antibiotics.

One high profile case comes to mind:

NEWS: Former patient who testified as a child about Lyme disease recalls encounter with Sen. Ted Kennedy
https://www.lymedisease.org/186/

Evan White testified from his wheelchair in 1993 at Senator Ted Kennedy’s Hearing, Washington DC

Excerpt:

“No one could hear or feel the moment of that child and not be moved,” Kennedy explained to the [Boston] Globe at the time. Anyone who wasn’t moved, he said, “hasn’t got a heart.”

Based on the summary below it appears that it took years of antibiotics, not weeks to treat Evan’s disability. Had he not met Dr. Joseph Burrascano, Evan would have been a burden on the Social Security program today through “therapeutic nihilism.”
 
Late Neurologic Lyme Is Reversible: Evan White

Post by CaliforniaLyme » Wed 31 Oct 2007 16:46

https://www.lymeneteurope.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=147

Page# 72

Lyme Disease Treatment Considerations

  • Pregnant or breastfeeding patients:
    • doxycycline in pregnant or breastfeeding woman has not been thoroughly studied
Carl Tuttle’s comments:  Where is the section on congenital transmission of Lyme disease which has been identified dating back to 1985? [14]

Page# 74

Post Treatment Consideration

  • Most patients with Lyme disease recover completely within WEEKS to MONTHS after a course of antibiotic treatment.
Carl Tuttle’s comments: This statement has been propagated by the CDC for over thirty years while the horribly disabled continue to go unrecognized .

Page# 74

Post Treatment Considerations

  • About 1 in 20 treated patients may experience symptoms more than six months after treatment.
Carl Tuttle’s comments:  Once again that number was pulled out of a hat and propagated by the CDC for over thirty years while researchers at Johns Hopkins found 35% of acute Lyme disease patients who were treated with the IDSA’s short course of antibiotics were found to meet the case definition of “Post Lyme Disease Syndrome” at six months:
 

Post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome symptomatology and the impact on life functioning: is there something here?
http://www.lymemd.org/pdf/aucott_et_al_qol_research.pdf

Page# 75

Post Treatment Considerations

  • Additional prolonged antibiotics have not been shown to improve long-term outcomes
  • long-term antibiotic therapy has the potential to cause serious side-effects…
  • More than two courses of antibiotics have NOT been recommended for the treatment of Lyme disease.
Carl Tuttle’s comments:  The Klempner NIH antibiotic trials were cut short at three months. Evan White would still be in a wheelchair today or deceased if his treatment ended after only three months.

Two Controlled Trials of Antibiotic Treatment in Patients with Persistent Symptoms and a History of Lyme Disease
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200107123450202#article_references#t=references

Second comment: Doxycycline for Acne has been prescribed long term for decades but when Lyme is involved, suddenly we have a double standard.

____________________________

Dr. Marx,

It would appear that you are not a front-line treating physician for Lyme disease. The majority of our public health officials have never treated the late-stage Lyme patient and therefor have no practical experience whatsoever while propagating the disinformation as I have pointed out.

It is blatantly obvious that the CDC is now grooming its younger generation of Medical Epidemiologists in the practice of suppressing the truth, facts and scientific references in order to maintain the illusion that our public health officials have everything under control.

Carl Tuttle
Hudson, NH

Cc: All members of the NH Lyme Study Commission
Governor Chris Sununu

REFERENCES (Please read them!)

1. Clinical evidence for rapid transmission of Lyme disease following a tick bite

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0732889311004159?via%3Dihub

2. B. Patmas, MA, Remora, C. Disseminated Lyme Disease After Short-Duration Tick Bite. JSTD 1994; 1:77-78

https://www.lymedisease.org/hard-science-on-lyme-ticks-can-transmit-infection-the-first-day/

3. Lyme borreliosis: a review of data on transmission time after tick attachment

Michael J Cook
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278789/

The claims that removal of ticks within 24 hours or 48 hours of attachment will effectively prevent LB are not supported by the published data, and the minimum tick attachment time for transmission of LB in humans has never been established.

4. Regarding Tick Attachment Times –

https://history.nih.gov/display/history/Burgdorfer%2C+Willy+1986

there are about 5 to 10 percent of infected ticks that have a generalized infection, including salivary glands and saliva at the time of attachment. In such cases, transmission of spirochetes would and does occur immediately at time of attachment.” —Willy Burgdorfer

5. LYME SCI: Lyme has been found in all 50 states and is on the rise

https://www.lymedisease.org/lymesci-lyme-all-states/#:~:text=Quest%20Diagnostics%20has%20released%20its,cases%20continues%20to%20rise%20nationwide

6. A sustained-release formulation of doxycycline hyclate (Atridox) prevents simultaneous infection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Borrelia burgdorferi transmitted by tick bite
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jc0h9g9arjhc8l1/Zeidner%202008.pdf?dl=0

7. Correlation between Tick Density and Pathogen Endemicity, New Hampshire
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/15/4/08-0940_article

8. LymeRix Vaccine Victim’s Stories
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ikfgocui4hk7h9/LymeRix%20Victims.pdf?dl=0

9.  Deaths From Lyme Disease Compiled by: John D. Scott, Research Scientist 17 April 2018
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/eo794dx7zspc1ln/Ld%20deaths.doc?dl=0

10. Two-Year Evaluation of Borrelia burgdorferi Culture and Supplemental Tests for Definitive Diagnosis of Lyme Disease
 
Peggy Coulter , 1   Clara Lema , 1   Diane Flayhart , 1   Amy S. Linhardt , 1   John N. Aucott , 2   Paul G. Auwaerter , 2 and   J. Stephen Dumler  1, *

Published 2005

Comparisons with qualitative clinical assessments

“Overall, initial serologic tests agreed with possible or probable clinical Lyme disease diagnosis in only 50% (40/80) of cases.” [COIN TOSS]

11. Commercial test kits for detection of Lyme borreliosis: a meta-analysis of test accuracy
 
Michael J Cook   1 ,   Basant K Puri   2

Sensitivity for each test technology varied from 62.4% for Western blot kits, and 62.3% for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay tests, to 53.9% for synthetic C6 peptide ELISA tests and 53.7% when the two-tier methodology was used.  [COIN TOSS]

12. 700 articles LYME EvidenceofPersistence-V2
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n09sk90eo6xz7ua/700%20articles%20LYME%20EvidenceofPersistence-V2.pdf?dl=0

13. Lyme borreliosis: diagnosis and management

https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1041/rr-1

14. Congenital Transmission of Lyme
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xlju8w25phkypy0/Congenital%20Transmission%20of%20Lyme.pdf?dl=0

_______________________

**Comment**

A picture is worth 1,000 words:

child-300x274

This is what an “insignificant” tick bite looks like and why all of this matters.

Category:

Activism, Lyme