Archive for the ‘Lyme’ Category

‘Horror’ Summer of Blood-sucking Ticks That Can ‘Cripple and Blind You’ On its Way

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/horror-summer-blood-sucking-ticks-14235057

‘Horror’ summer of blood-sucking ticks that can ‘cripple and blind you’ on its way

A five-year-old boy from Llandudno, in Wales, has already caught Lyme disease and the Health Protection Agency say case numbers are soaring

By Jim Hardy & Libby McBride

4 APR 2019

If a bug latches on to a human it can pass on a germ which can cause blindness, paralysis and meningitis (Image: WESSEX NEWS AGENCY)

Britain could be in for a record-breaking “horror” summer of blood-sucking ticks which can cripple people and even make them blind.

Following a mild winter and with the balmy weather this spring, fears are growing that the insects could have survived their hibernation in vast numbers and could be ready to breed and multiply.

The ticks spread Lyme disease with their saliva as they gorge on people’s blood – but it’s incredibly early in the year for an outbreak.

If a bug latches on to a human it can pass on a germ which can cause blindness, paralysis and meningitis .

The nightmare vampire-like mites, which feast on flesh, have already left a five-year-old boy suffering from Lyme disease .

Doctors are monitoring William Bargate who was bitten twice within five days by two separate ticks after playing at a Conwy Council owned park in Llandudno, Wales.

Three days after the initial tick bite on March 22 – which is understood to have been attached to William’s head for up to 36 hours – he began to suffer flu-like symptoms including tiredness, muscle pain, headachesand a fever.

Open-air lovers are warned that sex in the grass could have consequences (Image: WESSEX NEWS AGENCY)

His mother Adelle Bargate, 37, took him to see a doctor but says that as he did not have the visible circular rash associated with the disease it was thought he had just contracted a viral infection.

But days later, William was taken to see the doctor for a second time after being bitten again.

As well as being unable to move his neck, he had also developed severe and worsened flu-like symptoms.

The disease most commonly affects the skin, joints, the heart and the nervous system and is generally treated with antibiotics but some patients claim the symptoms can continue after treatment.

William Bargate, 5, was bitten by two ticks (Image: Daily Post/Adelle Bargate)

“On the second visit, the doctor acknowledged the potential infection and gave him 10 days worth of antibiotics” Ms Bargate said.

“But his symptoms were worsening and I was really concerned so I took him to A&E in Bangor on Saturday.

“They took him straight to the children’s ward where he was immediately sent for blood tests and that’s when they said they were treating it as Lyme disease.

“It’s really difficult to get a positive test of Lyme disease so as a precaution to his nasty symptoms he is now on a three week course of antibiotics.”

William was discharged from hospital on Sunday with three weeks worth of antibiotics, and his mum was told he will need to go for further tests this week to monitor the suspected disease.

A tick gorged with blood (Image: WESSEX NEWS AGENCY)

Mum Adelle continued:

“I’ve lived on the Orme for more than 16 years and I never had ticks pulled off me as a child, it only seems to have become a bigger problem over the last two years.

“I don’t think it’s being taken seriously enough in the area, I feel as though I am the only person who is making a noise about the number of them around here.

“Nobody seems to be doing anything about it and I’m worried more children will become sick because of them.

“Every time my children play outside I have to strip them and check them for ticks.”

Her son’s illness comes after she also found a tick on her eight-year-old daughter Briony’s head in June last year, which she suspects had been there for around two days.

He was prescribed antibiotics (Image: Daily Post/Adelle Bargate)

It was the second tick she had found on her daughter in a week.

At the time, a number of families also reported finding the tiny blood sucking insects attached to their child’s skin after they were playing in and around the same park.

Public Health Wales declined to comment due to patient confidentiality.

Now it’s feared that billions of the blood-sucking bugs which can send you blind or cripple you for life are ready to creep across the country.

How to avoid getting bitten by ticks

  • Stick to paths – Try not to stray from paths and avoid overhanging vegetation unless
    necessary. Ticks do not jump or fly so sticking to clear areas without tall
    grass or shrubs will decrease the chances of being bitten. If in an area
    where there is no footpath, try and avoid tall grass or shady areas that are
    surrounded by shrubs.
  • Light Clothing – When in areas of woodland remained covered, wear long sleeve tops and full-length trousers. Protect areas such as the back of the knees, armpits
    and the groin area. Opt for light coloured clothing in order to easily
    identify any ticks present that may become attached.
  • Footwear – Wellies are not only reserved for rainy days and are perfect when in high risk areas, as you can tuck trousers into the wellie boots. Tucking trousers
    into socks is also a great defence mechanism if wellies are not an option.
  • Regular checks – Ticks are very small and hard to identify when not paying attention. Check regularly whilst outside and also when home in order to remove any feeding ticks. The longer a tick is left attached the harder it is to remove.
  • Right tools – Avoid any home remedies to try and remove ticks such as covering the
    affected area of the body in Vaseline or nail varnish or even burning them
    off. Instead, use a tick removal tool, which are sold in outdoor shops and some
    supermarkets and pharmacies. This will help avoid aggravating the tick and
    lower the risk of secondary infection. When removed, use an antiseptic wipe
    and be aware of any symptoms of Lyme disease

They love to lurk in lush long grass and woodland glades, so couples getting frisky in the fresh air face getting bitten.

The Health Protection Agency says there are 2,000 cases of Lyme disease every year in the UK, but the number is soaring.

TV Question of Sport star Matt Dawson, the former England rugby international, needed heart surgery after he was bitten by a tick in a London park in 2015 and Lyme Disease spread through his body.

Matt Dawson on This Morning
Matt was bitten by a tick while walking in a park in 2016 (Image: Rex)

According to The Big Tick Project – a nationwide research survey in collaboration with Bristol University that looks at the number of ticks on dogs – the numbers are on the increase for several reasons.

“Many factors may have contributed to the increase in tick numbers across the UK” they said.

“Changing weather patterns mean prolonged periods where conditions are favourable for tick survival, particularly wetter summers and warmer winters.

“A lack of awareness amongst pet owners, leading to inadequate treatment and prevention may also play a significant role in contributing to problems for dogs.

“However, despite the growth of tick populations across the country, only 12 per cent of people are actually concerned by the risk posed by ticks.

“More worryingly, 47 per cent of pet owners were not aware that they too are at risk of infection from tick-borne diseases.”

Last summer mum Emily Porter warned parents to be on their guard after she spotted this tick embedded in her three-year-old son’s scalp after their trip to Lyme Park in Disley, Manchester.

The mum-of-two, from Marple,believes she was lucky to spot the tick so soon and managed to get it out with a tick remover.

She said at the time “I saw it whilst washing his hair. It stood out against the blond.

“I probably wouldn’t have spotted it in my other son’s hair and I only knew what it was as I am on high alert as we have a dog who has had them.

“Someone else would have probably thought it was a scab or a bit of dirt as they are so tiny at first.”

In a statement at the time, a spokesperson for National Trust-owned Lyme Park advised visitors to wear long trousers and check themselves afterwards to reduce the risk of infection.

The first symptom when someone is bitten by an infected tick is a red circular ‘bullseye’ skin rash which may subside after a week or two.

A high temperature, muscle and joint pain may then follow.

Most infections are not serious but in extreme cases it can cause paralysis, encephalitis and meningitis.

It is caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, found in the digestive system of deer, pheasants and mice.

____________________

For more on prevention:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/12/tick-prevention-2019/

Please know, the number of folks getting the “classic” bullseye EM rash is much smaller than is being touted:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/21/lyme-disease-dont-wait-for-blood-tests-where-patients-have-bullseye-rash/  Read comments at end of article as well.

This whole weather issue is a bunch of bunk. Independent Canadian researcher, John Scott, as proven tick proliferation and therefore the spread of disease has absolutely NADDA to do with the weather:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/13/study-shows-lyme-not-propelled-by-climate-change/

It’s the birds

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/07/ticks-on-the-move-due-to-migrating-birds-and-photoperiod-not-climate-change/

And, according to a UW Madison PhD in Climatology, there’s only ONE climate change computer model even slightly close to the truth and it shows the least amount of “change.”  He also claims the debate over climate change is infused with political games played to create policy.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/17/uw-madison-phd-in-ecological-climatology-climate-change-computer-models-fudged-except-russian-model/

Lyme/MSIDS is hardly the only issue with a political motivation behind it

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks

Why Blood Tests Don’t Always Work For Chronic Lyme Disease

Slightly edited for length.  Comments follow.

https://www.bca-clinic.de/en/blood-tests-dont-work-chronic-lyme-disease/

Why Blood Tests Don’t Always Work For Chronic Lyme Disease

10. December 2018 in BCA-clinic

As most doctors and patients know, Lyme disease is a tricky thing to diagnose conclusively. Chances are that many patients didn’t just walk into a doctor’s office and get diagnosed with the disorder; they more than likely went through a number of different diagnoses before their doctors settled on Lyme. Unfortunately, there are many cases that don’t even make it to a successful diagnosis. This is due to combined problems of doctors not being fully literate when it comes to Lyme, compounded by the fact that many Lyme symptoms mimic the symptoms of other degenerative diseases, such as MS and fibromyalgia. As a result, many cases go undetected and misdiagnosed by medical professionals, to the extent that the cases of Lyme reported across any given year are expected to be drastically underestimated. A method does exist for the definitive detection of Lyme, but unfortunately these blood tests don’t always work for chronic Lyme disease.

The test is often relied upon by doctors as a foolproof diagnostic device. It’s known as the ELISpot, and measures the amount of borrelia bacteria present in the patient’s system on a cellular level, which is the key bacteria that produces Lyme. However, while this may sound good in theory, its effectiveness gets called into question when you consider the effects of chronic Lyme disease. The bacteria are certainly a big part of it at the start, in what’s known as the acute phase. Early-stage symptoms consist of flu-like symptoms and a distinctive rash known as a bullseye rash, which forms in about 50% of cases. At this point, the borrelia bacteria is very present in the system, and the symptoms are caused by the body attempting to mount some defence against the foreign invasion.

The ELISPot diagnostic method detects borrelia bacteria present in a patient’s system on a cellular level during the stages of acute Lyme disease.

A round of antibiotics will usually stop the infection in its tracks if it’s caught early and identified correctly as Lyme. However, if the infection is given a chance to further infect the system, then the results can be devastating for patients. It is not that hard for the infection to develop to its full-blown chronic stage, as once the flu-like symptoms and rash subside, the Lyme infection can lay dormant for weeks, months or even years, making it easy for the patient to write off their bout of illness as a simple case of the flu. When it inevitably does reemerge, it presents with a completely different set of symptoms than the primary iteration. This is because the bacteria have had a chance to become fully entrenched in the body, and the immune system has gone into overdrive. Many of the symptoms associated with chronic Lyme disease, including joint pain and constant fatigue, are a result of an overactive immune system, which perpetuates inflammation responses all over the body.

Once the specific effect of chronic Lyme disease is understood, it becomes easy to see why the ELISpot blood test doesn’t always return a positive result, even if the patient is suffering from Lyme. The test only registers the presence of the borrelia bacteria, and does not take inflammation into account. Each case of Lyme is different, and dependent on the patient’s reaction to the initial infection. Therefore, if the patient is suffering more from the infection effects, then the ELISpot will likely come back positive, and treatment can begin. If, however, the level of bacteria is low but the level of inflammation is high, the ELISpot might well come back negative, leading doctors to assume there’s no trace of Lyme, resulting in misdiagnosis and further debilitation for the patient down the road.

If the level of bacteria in a blood sample is low but the level of inflammation is high, the ELISpot might well come back with a false-negative, often resulting in misdiagnosis.

Diagnosing chronic Lyme disease correctly is absolutely key to treating it effectively. The inflammation symptoms are important for both patients and doctors alike to understand, as they hold the key to a proper diagnostic plan and subsequent treatment path. It should also be noted that blood tests can fail if initiated too early in the disease’s lifecycle, as the disease hasn’t had a chance to fully register in the body’s system yet. The CDC cautions that test results can be misrepresented in the first four to six weeks after infection, making it tough for doctors to diagnose the flu-like symptoms as Lyme in the absence of a specific test. In the acute stages of the infection, the bullseye rash is the single best indicator we have; if that’s present, there’s little doubt the patient has Lyme, and treatment can begin right away.

The latter stages of Lyme are where things get complicated. Luckily, there are plenty of doctors out there who are fully Lyme-literate, and can get their patients the treatment they need. Although the nuances of this debilitating disease are tricky to navigate, with the right information, tests and doctors alike to understand, as they hold the key to a proper diagnostic plan and subsequent treatment path.

Although the nuances of this debilitating disease are tricky to navigate, with the right information, tests and treatments, we can effectively fight back against it.

__________________

**Comment**

The title of this should be, “Why Blood Tests Hardly Ever Work for Chronic Lyme Disease.”

There is NO foolproof diagnostic device or test for this, but there IS a validated questionnaire that doctors should be utilizing:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/09/05/empirical-validation-of-the-horowitz-questionnaire-for-suspected-lyme-disease/

Questionnaire here:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/symptomlist.pdf  Print & fill this out, and take to your doctor.  Educate them about this.

Diagnosis for Lyme/MSIDS has always been and continues to be a clinical diagnosis.  Period.

I remember a conversation I had with Dr. Hoffman, probably the most experienced LLMD in all of Wisconsin, who treated this before it had a name.  He told me that the sickest patients NEVER test positive.  Chew on that one for a while.

The EM rash IS diagnostic for Lyme and treatment should be given, but please know the percentages used on people getting the rash are falsely skewed, with far less getting it than is touted:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/22/why-mainstream-lyme-msids-research-remains-in-the-dark-ages/.  In fact the percentages range from 25%-80% –

Hardly a sure thing

Testing the blood for borrelia has been proven to be abysmal – pretty much at every stage.  The window is so small that only a handful of those infected are getting positives, despite the CDC worrying about false negatives.  Trust me, there’s few false negatives. As Dr. McDonald aptly states:

“If false results are to be feared, it is the false negative result which holds the greatest peril for the patient.” –Alan McDonald, Pathologist

If you study the organism for 1 minute, it’s clear that it is a stealth organism that shape-shifts to avoid the immune system. It also doesn’t hang out in the blood for long. It prefers the brain, spine, synovial fluid, and your organs – places that are hard for treatment to reach, your immune system to access and certainly for blood testing to pick up.

While there is inflammation, the jury’s still out on what is causing what, with plenty of scientific evidence (700 peer-reviewed articles) to show persistent/active infection – not just inflammation:  https://www.ilads.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/CLDList-ILADS.pdf

So the fact that blood testing won’t pick up an infection is not solely due to everyone having an inflammatory response. It can also include the fact there is ACTIVE/PERSISTENT infection that is buried in the body far away from the blood.

For a great read on Lyme testing:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/09/12/lyme-testing-problems-solutions/

And then there’s the issue of coinfections, all requiring different testing – ALL of it just as poor.

Lastly, all of this points to something quite sinister. Why have authorities controlled testing for Lyme and insisted on using blood serology when it is so abysmal?  Going down that rabbit hole reveals an entire ugly, dark saga of fraud & collusion, with patents on testing & vaccines owned by the very authorities making all the rules. ConflictReport (A lengthy expose on all the dirty deeds done dirt cheap)

There is a current lawsuit due to the suppression of microscopy (direct testing) which is far more accurate: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/15/news-release-on-57-1-million-lyme-disease-lawsuit-filed-against-cdc/

This article also reveals how Lida Mattman’s Gold Standard Culture Method has disappeared thanks to this concerted suppression on microscopy.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/02/transmission-of-lyme-disease-lida-mattman-phd/

Things desperately need to change in Lyme-land.

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing, Treatment

5 For Good: Fundraiser Supports Efforts to Combat Lyme Disease As Teen Fights Illness

https://www.wcvb.com/article/5-for-good-fundraiser-supports-efforts-to-combat-lyme-disease-as-local-teen-fights-illness/27030040  News Video in Link With Transcript

5 for Good: Fundraiser supports efforts to combat Lyme disease as local teen fights illness

Ride Out Lyme benefits Dean Center for Tick Borne Illness, patients, research
Erika Tarantal

WELLESLEY, Mass. —Wellesley Middle School student Siena Cohen described first meeting her figure skating teammate, Emily Sparks.

“I honestly looked up to her,” Cohen said. “She was such an amazing skater. She was really nice and really welcoming to everybody.”

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme

Lyme Disease & Corruption in Our Healthcare System

https://livingwithlyme.us/episode-65-lyme-disease-and-corruption-in-our-healthcare-system/

Episode 65: Lyme Disease and Corruption in Our Healthcare System

April 11, 2019

Cindy Kennedy, FNP, is joined by Jenna Luché-Thayer, who discusses Lyme disease and corruption in the healthcare system.Jenna is a uniquely qualified expert on the vital issues of transparency and accountability, human rights and the political representation of marginalized groups. She has over 30 years of policy and grassroots experience in 42 countries, representing all regions throughout the world, and over 75 publications.

She was the first woman to hold critical Senior advisory posts in both United Nations and U.S. government, has dedicated years combatting gender-based violence, trafficking and gender-based inequities.

Jenna established the Ad Hoc Committee for Health Equity in ICD11 Borreliosis Codes, an international, professional and all voluntary group that successful added many codes to signify Lyme borreliosis complications to the globally utilized ICD11.

Her awards include: International Woman’s Day Award for Exemplary Dedication and Contributions to Improving the Political and Legal Status of Women, Highest Ranking Technical Area in Accomplishment, Innovation and Comparative Advantage for United Nations Capital Development Fund, the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society Power of Lyme Award 2018. She is the Founder of the Global Network on Institutional Discrimination, a nonprofit that helps institutions remedy entrenched practices of discrimination and cruelty toward vulnerable groups.

_______________________

For more: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/11/14/thayer-interview-commentary-on-tick-borne-disease-working-group/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/25/the-shortfalls-of-h-r-220-national-lyme-and-tick-borne-diseases-control-and-accountability-act-of-2019-the-devil-is-in-the-details/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/12/19/will-the-idsa-dare-to-give-lyme-patients-coal-for-christmas/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/16/corruption-in-the-lyme-caucus/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/14/corruption-human-rights-violations-against-lyme-doctors-scientists-and-parents-now-on-united-nations-record/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/13/1st-officially-recognized-report-on-violations-of-lyme-patients-human-rights-is-released-updating-borreliosis-diagnostic-codes/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/19/ad-hoc-committees-historical-improvement-in-the-icd-codes-for-lyme/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/02/recognition-of-lyme-borreliosis-in-11th-international-classification-of-diseases/

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme

CEO of Galaxy Diagnostics: ‘Important Research is Emerging That Implicates a Range of Fastidious, Low-level Infections in Complex Immunological Disease processes’

https://www.galaxydx.com/galaxys-president-amanda-elam-reflects-on-decade/

Amanda Elam, President and CEO of Galaxy Diagnostics, Reflects on the Past 10 Years

Amanda-headshot-298x300

Amanda Elam, President & CEO of Galaxy Diagnostics


Ten years ago, I joined the Galaxy Diagnostics founding team to make the BAPGM testingtechnology and Bartonella ePCR™ available for clinical and research use in both animal and human medicine.

After over a decade in research on entrepreneurship and innovation and multiple start-up experiences, I was excited to organize and launch a high-technology company in healthcare.

Healthcare is a complicated industry and marketplace with multiple layers of highly bureaucratic regulatory structures and multiple stakeholders, including patients, practitioners, government and third-party regulators, professional societies, medical boards, guideline writers, researchers, insurance providers, health IT providers, patient advocates, and more. Consequently, resistance to change is strong in healthcare and medicine.

As an experienced entrepreneur and a completely nerdy organizational sociologist, I was thrilled with the opportunity to work with my co-founders on this new, innovative start-up. While the lessons in entrepreneurship and medical innovation, to date, have been hard won, the positive impact on patient outcomes has been thrilling.

So, what did I learn?

Commercialization of New Tests is Hard

The hardest lesson I have learned as a Galaxy leader these last 10 years is how unbelievably difficult it is to commercialize a new medical technology. For diagnostic labs, there are four main challenges to commercializing new tests:

  1. Laboratory regulations change continuously, which dramatically increases the costs of doing business and introduces a lot of uncertainty into the odds of maintaining a sustainable business model.
  2. Medical guidelines lag behind new discoveries and raise the accepted standards for clinical evidence.
  3. Pricing standards and insurance reimbursements do not support an early-stage business model, but are instead based on high volumes of established medical tests run by very large companies.
  4. Access to patient samples and funding for clinical validation are both limited, especially in areas of new discovery and small patient populations.

Wait, wait—there’s more.

Investors will fund commercialization activities that lead quickly to revenue but are reluctant to fund the clinical research required to translate clinical tools into the marketplace. New labs are left with the enormous task of raising grant funding or bootstrapping the research studies needed for commercialization. Many never bother.

This reality places a tremendous burden on conscientious founders to make personal and financial sacrifices to commercialize new technologies “the right way” (with research and publication). In the case of emerging medical discoveries, like those surrounding tick-borne disease, founders are responsible for building markets for new technologies through healthcare provider education, often amid the highly contested terrain of expert medical opinion and patient advocacy.

Thank goodness for the NIH SBIR program, our local North Carolina Biotechnology Center, our corporate partners at Bayer Healthcare, IDEXX, the One Health Commission, our research collaborators, and our early stage investors. It is through these relationships that we have been able to cobble together the resources required to move our science, technology, and commercial offerings forward to the direct benefit of patients.

Disease vs. Infection

The most surprising lesson that I have learned from my Galaxy experience is that, from a clinical standpoint, disease and infection are two different things. A person can be infected with a pathogen, but that does not mean s/he will get sick, even if there is a disease associated with that pathogen. In other words, you can be infected, or more precisely “colonized,” with a pathogen and not show symptoms. These types of infections are sometimes referred to as subclinical or latent.

Biology is complex. Our bodies are made up of billions of microbes; some are beneficial, some are pathogenic, and others are opportunistic (only a problem under the certain conditions). In the world of infectious disease, disease is caused primarily by the host’s response to the infection (i.e., immune response). And, despite all the significant advances in medicine over the past century, we still don’t actually know what causes many well-known diseases.

In fact, scientists are still making discoveries about how the body works, including recent discoveries suggesting that blood is not sterile (especially not in sick people and animals), that a lymphatic vasculature provides a pathway between the bloodstream and the central nervous system, and most recently showing vascular structures in bone.

In the field of emerging infectious disease, important research is emerging that implicates a range of fastidious, low-level infections in complex immunological disease processes, including Bartonella species, Borrelia species, and other vector-borne infections. Concepts like stealth infection and the pathobiome are helpful as researchers try to sort out these questions, but progress is very slow and hampered by the lack of research funding for chronic infectious disease. To complicate things further, our bodies are complex biological systems with only a few ways to express disorder and disease, leaving our doctors with the challenging task of figuring out which of a long list of potential causal and complicating factors could be involved.

Science Cannot Prove Everything

In my well-considered opinion, the most surprising assumption dominating medicine today is that doctors should only practice what science has proven. Unfortunately, people and animals will get sick with diseases that we may not know about at all. While much of the controversy related to the role of infection in chronic disease could be addressed by research on chronic disease, not every clinical question can be answered even by the most rigorous research designs (e.g., prospective, controlled experimental designs), especially where new discoveries are concerned.

Disease is an organic process. Simply defining a sample population can be challenging in diagnostics research. How do you design a study to determine the clinical utility of a new test if the symptoms are non-specific and potentially caused by myriad factors, or if they only appear in some people with the disease? In the case of bartonellosis, most studies have focused on patients with suspected cat scratch disease (e.g., persistent swollen lymph nodes and contact with cats). However, persistent swollen lymph nodes can be caused by other infections and by blood cancers. Research from NCSU and other Bartonella research teams around the world further suggest that atypical presentations of cat scratch disease (Bartonella henselae infection) are much more common than previously recognized.

We see similar issues in research on borreliosis. For instance, most diagnostic studies have focused on individuals with a bullseye rash, when only 50% or fewer of acute infections present with this nebulous clinical sign. Study methodologies and subsequent findings are limited when new diagnostics are tested only on patient groups with specific symptoms and compared with prior diagnostic methods.

Clinical utility demands better research designs that include patients with typical and atypical signs as well as healthy controls.

One Health and a New Frontier of Medicine

In my opinion, we are now on the verge of a whole new frontier of medicine — the infectious etiology of chronic disease. This area of medical discovery is a central point of interest in the global One Health movement, which includes researchers around the world focusing on the intersection of human, animal, and environmental health.

To better address the challenges of substantiating new medical discoveries and translating new diagnostic and therapeutic tools into clinical practice, we have to work together to identify disease risks and to educate medical practitioners, patients, disease advocates, public health authorities, and the general public on the emerging science.

As a sometime patient myself, I want my doctor to have the access to the latest research and diagnostic tools, not just medical guidelines based on decades-old science. We all have to recognize the complexity of chronic illnesses and be open to understanding the role that multiple factors, from immune function to infection, potentially play in each individual case of chronic illness. We also have to recognize that due to our complex biology, current technical limitations, and highly competitive funding priorities, science cannot answer every clinical question today.

Yet doctors still seek to provide individualized care and patients still want the best that science and medicine can offer to solve their problems today. Somehow, some way, we have to find the means to provide patients with the best possible care today while moving new medical discoveries forward in a landscape that is very inhospitable to medical innovation and clinical translation.

References

Bhattacharyya, M. et al. (2017). The conserved phylogeny of blood microbiome. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 109, 404-408. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2017.02.001 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28216014

Potgieter, M. et al. (2015). The dormant blood microbiome in chronic, inflammatory diseases. FEMS Microbiology Reviews, 39(4), 567-591. doi:10.1093/femsre/fuv013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25940667

Davenport, A. C. et al. (2013). Phylogenetic diversity of bacteria isolated from sick dogs using the BAPGM enrichment culture platform. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 27(4), 854-861. doi:10.1111/jvim.12094 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23647339

Raper, D. et al. (2016). How do meningeal lymphatic vessels drain the CNS? Trends in Neurosciences, 39(9), 581-586. doi:10.106/j.tins.2016.07.001 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27460561

Louveau, A. et al. (2015). Structural and functional features of central nervous system lymphatic vessels. Nature, 523(7560), 337-341. doi:10.1038/nature14432 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26030524

Ben-Tekaya, H. et al. (2013). Bartonella and Brucella – Weapons and strategies for stealth attack. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine, 3(8), a010231. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a010231 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3721268/

Vayssier-Taussat, M. et al. (2015). Emerging horizons for tick-borne pathogens: From the ‘one pathogen-one disease’ vision to the pathobiome paradigm. Future Microbiology, 10(12), 2033-2043. doi:10.2217/fmb.15.114 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4944395/

Cochran, G. M. et al. (2000). Infectious causation of disease: An evolutionary perspective. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 43(3), 406-448. doi:10.1353/pbm.2000.0016 http://muse.jhu.edu/article/25974

Nelson, C. A. et al. (2018). Cat scratch disease: U.S. clinicians’ experience and knowledge. Zoonoses and Public Health, 65(1), 67-73. doi:10.1111/zph.12368 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28707827

Breitschwerdt, E. B. (2017). Bartonellosis, One Health and all creatures great and small. Veterinary Dermatology, 28(1), 96-e21. doi:10.1111/vde.12413 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28133871

Regier, Y. et al. (2016). Bartonella spp. – A chance to establish One Health concepts in veterinary and human medicine. Parasites & Vectors, 9(1), 261. doi:10.1186/s13071-016-1546-x https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27161111

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Garg, K. et al. (2018). Evaluating polymicrobial immune responses in patients suffering from tick-borne diseases. Scientific Reports, 8, 15932. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-34393-9 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6206025/

O’Connor, S. M. et al. (2006). Emerging infectious determinants of chronic diseases. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 12(7), 1051-1057. doi:10.32-1/eid1207.060037 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16836820

North Carolina State University. (2012). 7th international conference on Bartonella as animal and human pathogens. Retrieved from the NC State YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZImyyRzi70

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Bartonella, Lyme, research