Archive for the ‘Lyme’ Category

New Brunswick Pharmacists Can Now Access Funds to Treat “High-Risk” Tick Bites

https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/news/news_release.2023.10.0498.html

Pharmacists now able to treat another common ailment

03 October 2023

FREDERICTON (GNB) – The provincial government is adding to the list of common ailments that pharmacists are publicly funded to treat, as part of an effort to give New Brunswickers better access to care. Starting today, pharmacists are funded to treat conjunctivitis, sometimes referred to as “pink eye.” This follows an announcement in May that residents could access publicly funded care from participating pharmacies for the following conditions: contact allergic dermatitis; cold sores; mild to moderate eczema; gastroesophageal reflux disease; impetigo; Lyme disease prevention after a high-risk tick bite; and mild acne. The Department of Health estimates 1,100 patients visited a walk-in clinic for conjunctivitis in the past year. “We know that many families are affected by conjunctivitis, and they need to see someone for relief,” said Health Minister Bruce Fitch. “To ensure that New Brunswickers can see the right care provider for the right service at the right time, we are working with our highly skilled pharmacists, who care for people in their communities, to make it easier to access these needed services.” Pharmacists in Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan are already able to treat conjunctivitis. New Brunswick pharmacists are now able to assess and prescribe for 12 common ailments and services to divert patient traffic from emergency rooms, walk-in clinics or other primary care providers. More information about publicly funded services that pharmacists can offer is available online. People are advised to ask their local pharmacist which services are available, as it is not mandatory for every pharmacist to treat all minor ailments. While the cost of the consultation for certain ailments is covered, patients are still responsible for the cost of prescribed medications, as well as any fees for injections provided by pharmacy professionals. 

______________

**Comment**

IMO this press release opens a big can of worms.

What is a high-risk tick bite?

Similarly to the mythology that there is some sort of “grace period” for tick bites, every tick bite I’m aware of has the potential to be highly risky in that you could become infected with one or more pathogens that could drop you to your knees in agony and deplete you of all your money and joy.  

The fact they are listing Lyme disease, pink eye, eczema, impetigo and gastric reflux in the same sentence shows this is still not being taken seriously.  

The article admits that Lyme disease is a “common” ailment, but gives far more weight to pink eye!

These pharmacists are not receiving any education, just money – which means they will not be informed about what they are doing.  While the press release doesn’t state what this “treatment” looks like, I’m going to venture a guess that they will prescribe one or two pills of doxycycline, which research has shown to be ineffective in preventing Lyme disease. 

In short: more garbage in, more garbage out.

COVID has given pharmacists more power in that they are now allowed to give “vaccines.”  Pharmacists are not doctors and do not have a patient’s medical history in front of them.  Nothing replaces one on one interaction between a patient and a doctor where a doctor is privy to a patient’s history.

This “Lyme treatment” bandaid will do little to relieve patient suffering.

For more:

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks, Treatment

What Might Sudden Cardiac Death Due To Lyme Disease Look Like?

https://danielcameronmd.com/autopsy-study-reviews-cases-due-to-sudden-cardiac-death-from-lyme-disease/

WHAT MIGHT SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH DUE TO LYME DISEASE LOOK LIKE?

What might sudden cardiac death due to Lyme disease look like?

“Although rare, sudden cardiac death caused by Lyme disease might be an under-recognized entity,” according to researchers who describe their findings from an autopsy study on 5 case patients who died from sudden cardiac death and were found post mortem to have Lyme carditis. The cases are discussed in an article entitled Cardiac Tropism of Borrelia burgdorferi: An Autopsy Study of Sudden Cardiac Death Associated with Lyme Carditis, published in The American Journal of Pathology.

By 

Fatal Lyme carditis is rarely identified. In reviewing five post mortem cases, Muehlenbach and colleagues found that Lyme disease was not suspected for one patient who complained of episodic shortness of breath, while the second patient tested negative for Lyme disease. Two other patients did not seek medical care. Details regarding the fifth patient were not released.

Ultimately, two case patients were diagnosed during unexplained-death investigations at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Lyme disease was suspected in two of the other cases by cardiac pathology at a tissue bank transplant service. Muehlenbachs and colleagues reassure the readers that cardiac tissue was not transplanted. [1]

Autopsies reveal several findings

Spirochetes were present in the heart on all 5 cases. When using immunohistochemistry (IHC), spirochetes were found “within the myocardial interstitial infiltrates, in the subendocardium, and occasionally in pericardial tissue in association with lymphohistiocytic infiltrates.” Muehlenbachs adds, “Rare spirochetes were seen in the leptomeninges of two cases by immunohistochemistry.”

All 5 cases lived in Lyme-endemic areas. Patients resided in counties with a high or moderate incidence of Lyme disease including, New York, New Hampshire (with recent travel to Connecticut), Massachusetts and Indiana.

All 5 cases reportedly engaged in outdoor activities. “Two patients had known exposure to ticks, and one patient reported a recent bite.”

None of the 5 cases met the CDC surveillance case definition for Lyme carditis. This definition includes: recurrent, brief attacks (weeks or months) of objective joint swelling in one or several joints; lymphocytic meningitis; cranial neuritis; radiculoneuropathy; encephalomyelitis; acute onset of high-grade (2nd-degree or 3rd-degree) atrioventricular conduction defects, and myocarditis.

Only 1 of the 5 cases underwent serologic screening for Lyme disease and the results were negative.

All 5 cases were symptomatic prior to their death. “A prodrome was reported for each of the patients that included the following: non-specific viral-like illness, malaise, shortness of breath, and anxiety,” according to Muehlenbachs. “One of these patients also had joint and muscle pain, and the other two patients had joint pain for an unknown duration.”

“No dermatologic lesion was documented or reported for any of the patients, although one patient was evaluated in an emergency department 1 month before death for an arm lesion diagnosed as a possible spider bite from which methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was isolated in culture.”

“Providers should consider Lyme disease in patients who have cardiac symptoms and exposure in an endemic area.” [1]

All 5 cases were seropositive post mortem according to the CDC’s two-tier criteria. “One sample met both IgM and IgG Western Blot (WB) criteria, with two of the three IgM bands and 6 of the 10 IgG bands reactive. The four remaining samples were positive by IgM WB criteria only, although three were nearly IgG positive with 4 of the 10 bands reactive,” states Muehlenbachs.

Underlying cardiac disease may have played a role in 3 of the 5 cases of sudden cardiac deaths associated with Lyme disease, Muehlenbachs points out, since there was significant underlying heart disease present in two patients, and an additional patient had moderate atherosclerosis, discovered at autopsy.

Physiological cardiac stress was considered a potential factor in 2 of the 5 cases. “In the other two patients, who were otherwise healthy, a degree of physiological cardiac stress likely was present: the woman had given birth 6 months previously and the man was a physically active outdoor enthusiast,” according to Muehlenbachs.

These pathologic findings provide insight into the possible cause behind sudden cardiac deaths associated with Lyme disease. “The findings support the proposed disease mechanism of spirochete cardiac tropism during early disease dissemination, the infiltration of cardiac tissue by inflammatory cells, and involvement of the conduction system, which likely mediates sudden cardiac death.” [1]

Is early diagnosis and prompt treatment possible?

“Early diagnosis and prompt treatment for Lyme carditis can be life-saving,” according to Muehlenbachs. “Health care professionals should evaluate all patients with suspected Lyme disease for cardiac signs and symptoms, and obtain an electrocardiogram promptly if carditis is suspected.” Furthermore, “diagnosis is based on clinical suspicion and serologic testing, with the caveat that serology testing may be falsely negative in a patient with recent illness onset.” [1]

Fishe and colleagues describe how early diagnosis and treatment helped save the life of a 15-year-old African-American girl with Lyme carditis. [2] The patient was hospitalized after a 3-day history of intermittent retrosternal and epigastric pain. After treatment was initiated, she developed a heart block. Tests for Lyme disease were positive and she was diagnosed with Lyme disease-associated myocarditis.

The adolescent was empirically started on doxycycline and was concurrently treated with milrinone infusion for afterload reduction and intravenous furosemide for pulmonary edema. Her EKG changed to first-degree heart block by day 2 and resolved completely on hospital day 3.

She recovered and was discharged home on hospital day 7 on oral furosemide, enalapril, and doxycycline, according to Fishe and colleagues.

However, another adolescent was not so fortunate. He died suddenly from undiagnosed Lyme carditis, following complaints of flu-like symptoms. The case is discussed in another All Things Lyme blog, Relying on a Negative Lyme Disease Test Can Prove Deadly.

“In patients with Lyme disease who complain of cardiopulmonary symptoms, clinicians should have a low threshold for obtaining an EKG to evaluate for Lyme carditis,” Fishe points out. Furthermore, clinicians should take note that in “children and adolescents, respiratory and gastrointestinal complaints, with or without chest pain, are the most frequent presenting symptoms.”

References:

  1. Muehlenbachs A, Bollweg BC, Schulz TJ et al. Cardiac Tropism of Borrelia burgdorferi: An Autopsy Study of Sudden Cardiac Death Associated with Lyme Carditis. Am J Pathol, (2016).
  2. Fishe JN, Marchese RF, Callahan JM. Lyme Myocarditis Presenting as Chest Pain in an Adolescent Girl. Pediatr Emerg Care, (2016).

Category:

Heart Issues, Lyme, research, Testing

Jacksonville Lyme Disease Patients Say They Had To Ask a Dozen Times For a Test

Sadly, getting a Lyme test is not always helpful.  Since testing is so abysmal, it misses a vast majority of cases – which can be worse in the long run because when the test comes back negative doctors tell patients they don’t have Lyme, when they very well could be infected with numerous life-altering infections.  Getting to an experienced Lyme literate doctor is your best bet as they use more sensitive tests AND they diagnose clinically based on symptoms, not a test with arbitrary antibody levels.

https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/entertainment/television/programs/gmj/heres-how-to-prevent-getting-lyme-disease-amid-the-start-of-tick-season

Jacksonville Lyme disease patients say they had to ask a dozen times for a test

Researchers at the University of North Florida say official Lyme disease statistics underestimate the number of people with Lyme disease.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Schools may be out for summer break, but we are now in tick season. As your family spends more time in the fresh air, it’s important to know how to avoid the disease-carrying arachnids.

At the University of North Florida, researchers are working to create a more sensitive test for Lyme disease, a disease that is transmitted through ticks. Needing a more sensitive test and getting doctors to give a Lyme disease test in the first place, are just some of the problems people with Lyme disease say they face.

“It was March 3, 2011,” said Melissa Bell. “He came home from school, I know the exact day because it was a traumatic day, saying, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong, I’m falling down at P.E.’ And then an A+ student started having problems with short term memory, C’s, D’s, F’s, started losing the ability to walk.”

Bell’s son was 11 years old when he started showing symptoms of Lyme disease, but no one knew what it was. Bell, who is now the president of the Florida Lyme Disease Association, says it took nearly a year of advocating for her son to get a diagnosis.

“We probably asked for Lyme testing a dozen times,” Bell said. “It shouldn’t be that hard to have children tested for Lyme disease.”  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Sadly, this is the norm in Lymeland.

Important quote:

“If you get a negative Lyme test, it doesn’t prove that you don’t have the infection,” Clark said.

Category:

Lyme, Testing, Ticks

Novel Therapy Destroys Lyme in Lab

https://projectlyme.org/novel-therapy-destroys-lyme-in-lab/

Novel Therapy Destroys Lyme In Lab

Research Identifies New Investigational Therapy Regimen Capable of Irreversibly Damaging Lyme Bacteria in Laboratory Tests

Inspired by research that targets cancer tumors, these new findings in Lyme could also lead to novel R&D strategies for other diseases. This project was partially funded by Project Lyme, in partnership with the Bay Area Lyme Foundation. Learn more about our funded research here.

http://

Dr. Neil Spector Research Project

Nov. 1, 2023

PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif. November 1, 2023 – Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a leading sponsor of Lyme disease research in the US, today announced the development of a potential new drug, HS-291, that targets and destroys Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Chemical Biology, this laboratory study represents a novel paradigm shift for anti-microbial treatment research as it is the first to target and inhibit Borrelia burgdorferi HtpG (high-temperature protein G), a specific type of enzyme within the bacteria that causes Lyme disease— a condition affecting nearly 500,000 new patients annually. The research was conducted at Duke University School of Medicine, with collaboration from the University of North Carolina, Tulane University, and Stanford University, and HS-291 is currently in preclinical stage testing at UC Davis.

“As Lyme disease is currently treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics and there are no targeted treatments, we are particularly excited about this discovery, and hopeful that our novel Lyme disease therapeutic HS-291 will specifically destroy the Lyme bacterium without off-target effects or antibiotic resistance,” said Timothy Haystead, PhD, professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University School of Medicine, Bay Area Lyme Foundation grantee, and co-lead author. “This research has been an incredible opportunity to leverage knowledge from oncology to Lyme disease to design an investigational therapeutic that could one day benefit hundreds of thousands of patients with Lyme.”

This discovery has implications beyond Lyme disease as it demonstrates that using the drug HS-291 to deliver cellular toxins to HtpG, a type of non-essential enzyme that assists the folding or unfolding of large and complex proteins, greatly expands what can be considered druggable within any pathogen and opens a whole new area of infectious disease research.

When activated, HS-291, an inhibitor of HtpG tethered to the photoactive cellular toxin verteporfin, causes discrete protein modifications, which wreaks havoc on the Lyme disease bacterium’s DNA. This impacts multiple processes including nucleoid collapse and cell wall disruptions. A single dose of HS-291, when activated by light, irreversibly damages Borrelia proteins in close proximity of Bb HtpG in vitro.

“Antibiotics used to treat Lyme disease do not always work for all patients, which causes many to suffer for years with extreme symptoms including neurocognitive issues, disabling fatigue and sleep disruption,” said Linda Giampa, executive director of the Bay Area Lyme Foundation. “Bay Area Lyme concentrates on funding innovative research, including projects where knowledge can be deployed from other areas of medicine. We hope that this discovery will inspire others to join us in investing in impactful, translational research to bring relief to patients.”

This research was made possible by a 2020 Bay Area Lyme Foundation grant of more than $2 million to Duke University School of Medicine in honor of Neil Spector, MD, a renowned oncologist who passed away from complications of Lyme disease that had been misdiagnosed for years. He encouraged scientists to take cancer staging techniques and immunotherapy learnings from oncology and apply them to Lyme research. Dr. Spector was the Sandra Coates associate professor in the Duke University Department of Medicine and also served on Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Haystead and Spector joined forces as Spector sought to leverage his knowledge of oncology to help better understand Lyme disease, and Haystead’s research is focused on the use of chemical biology approaches to define novel drug targets focused on the treatment of hypertension, obesity, cancer, inflammatory and infectious disease.

Bay Area Lyme Foundation also funded University of North Carolina collaborator, Matt Redinbo, PhD’s research on HS-291; his lab’s crystallography work was instrumental in the discovery process.

Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s research grant program was made possible by the support from the Fairbairn Family, the Younger Family Fund, and Project Lyme.

For more:

Category:

Lyme, research, Treatment

Not Good: Medscape – New Federal Oversight of Lab Developed Tests

The following information about “FDA approved” tests is a perfect example of corrupt government agencies doing what they do best: monopolize and control disease for their own purposes – usually financial.

They have restricted doctor and patient choice, care, and access in a number of ways, but one way they cling to like a survivor on a raft is testing. Lyme testing has been fraudulent from the get-go and their suppression of other tests is something that should be made into a movie.  In so many ways the CDC and FDA are maniacal evil twins – both doing all within their power to monopolize medicine.

Dr. Sin Hang Lee has sued the CDC for suppressing direct detection tests for Lyme disease, and promoting their own newly patented, unproven metabolomics technology for diagnosis of LD. Current and former CDC representatives receive royalties as a result of working on the approval and promotion/CDC endorsement of a Lyme disease serology test.

Lee has been fighting back with equal tenacity and performed independent research on faulty COVID testing which showed COVID cases will be overstated by a factor of 72%!

Instead of fixing the obvious errors (no positive control sample, no data on false positives, faulty cycle thresholds, and refusal to publish Ct values due to it being “proprietary”,) HHS, FDA, and CDC opted for arbitrary and perpetual diagnosis of COVID.

It’s important the CDC and FDA control testing because then they can completely steer the narrative about any disease – even if the numbers are all based on faulty testing.  They’ve been doing this in Lymeland for over 40 years by

“setting arbitrary level of antibodies to diagnose a disease that has not been amenable to Koch’s postulates seems open to question.  By the same token, ignoring antibody results unless they meet arbitrary levels seems suspect.  The vast majority of patients in this series showed some WB antibody exposure, but many did not meet the arbitrary limits set….in our present state of knowledge, the diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease is a clinical one.  Many of the patients in this series have suffered serious ‘hurts’ when they have been told that they could not have LD because their WB did not meet arbitrary limits.”  ~ Dr. Burton Waisbren  IDSA founder who disagreed with his colleagues.  RIP

https://www.change.org/p/the-us-senate-calling-for-a-congressional-investigation-of-the-cdc-idsa-and-aldf/  Video within link (Approx. 10 Min)

Medscape: New Federal Oversight of Lab Developed Tests

Carl Tuttle

Hudson, NH, United States

NOV 1, 2023 — 

Please see the following inquiry sent to Dr. Paul Auwaerter regarding his commentary (verbal diarrhea) published on Medscape.  He has yet to respond to my serious question. Why not email Dr. Auwaerter and demand a response?

Auwaerter’s image was found on his Hopkins profile page:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/profiles/details/paul-auwaerter

———- Original Message ———-
From: CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net>
To: “pauwaert@jhmi.edu” <pauwaert@jhmi.edu>, “pgauwaerter@gmail.com” <pgauwaerter@gmail.com>
Cc: “aaguilar@webmd.net” <aaguilar@webmd.net>, “DFlapan@Medscape.net” <DFlapan@Medscape.net>, “lkane@medscape.net” <lkane@medscape.net>, “gamiller@medscape.net” <gamiller@medscape.net>, “dolmos@webmd.net” <dolmos@webmd.net>, “sarah.wright@webmd.net” <sarah.wright@webmd.net>, “editor2@webmd.net” <editor2@webmd.net>
Date: 10/25/2023 9:51 AM EDT
Subject: Medscape: New Federal Oversight of Lab Developed Tests

Medscape COMMENTARY
 
New Federal Oversight of Lab Developed Tests
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/997365

Paul G. Auwaerter, MD

Excerpt:

“I often see patients who are concerned they might have Lyme disease, or they’ve been told by other physicians that they have a tickborne or multiple infections. I’ve had patients who claim to have five or six infections: Lyme disease, Babesia, Bartonella, Mycoplasma, or Epstein-Barr virus. They bring LDT results from outside laboratories, which often have a proviso that these tests are only for research or educational purposes. Yet, they purport finding analytes (antibodies or proteins) that suggest the patient has an active infection. These patients may have been treated but are not improving, so they are referred to me.”

Oct 25, 2023

The IDSA Foundation
1300 Wilson Boulevard Suite 300
Arlington, VA 22209
Attn:  Paul Auwaerter, vice chair of the IDSA Foundation

Dear Dr. Auwaerter,

As a member of New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu’s 2020-2021 commission to study diagnostic testing for Lyme disease, I read your commentary with great interest. After a full year of deliberation, study results concluded that the FDA approved two-tier serologic immunoassay for Lyme was not reliable in all stages of disease. (No better than a coin toss)

COMMISSION TO STUDY TESTING FOR LYME AND OTHER TICK-BORNE DISEASES
https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/statstudcomm/committees/default.aspx?id=1515

“A commission to study the role of clinical diagnosis and the limitations of serological diagnostic tests in determining the presence or absence of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases”
 
With that conclusion, serology cannot be used to determine who has or does not have Lyme disease.

“FDA approval” (Federal Oversight) has failed miserably in this example.

The CDC has warned the medical community that “surveillance case definitions” (which include the IgM and IgG Western blot serologic bands) are not to be used for making a clinical diagnosis:

From the CDC website:

Lyme Disease (Borrelia burgdorferi)
2022 Case Definition
https://ndc.services.cdc.gov/case-definitions/lyme-disease-2022/

NOTE: A surveillance case definition is a set of uniform criteria used to define a disease for public health surveillance. Surveillance case definitions enable public health officials to classify and count cases consistently across reporting jurisdictions. Surveillance case definitions are not intended to be used by healthcare providers for making a clinical diagnosis or determining how to meet an individual patient’s health needs.
________________________

Recent announcements:

1. “Standard” Lyme testing once again proves fatal
https://www.lymedisease.org/lyme-testing-proves-fatal/

“Lyme disease helped kill our son. A better test might have saved him.”

2. Sensitivity of Two-Tiered Lyme Disease Serology in Children with an Erythema Migrans Lesion 
https://doi.org/10.1093/jpids/piad073

Abstract

In our prospective cohort of 192 children with a physician-diagnosed erythema migrans (EM) lesion, two-tier Lyme disease serology had higher sensitivity in children with multiple EM lesions (76.8% multiple lesions vs. 38.1% single EM; difference 38.7%, 95% CI 24.8 to 50.4%). The diagnosis of cutaneous Lyme disease should be based on careful physical examination rather than laboratory testing.

3. Jury awards $6.5M to Maine family for wrongful death, negligent misdiagnosis
https://fox23maine.com/news/local/jury-awards-65m-to-maine-family-for-wrongful-death-negligent-misdiagnosis-mercy-hospital-dr-john-henson-peter-smith-lyme-disease-lyme-carditis-physicians

Court records show Dr. Henson diagnosed smith with a skin disorder and a virus, writing “no sign of Lyme Disease.” Smith died of Lyme carditis.

(I understand that serology was NEGATIVE in this case)

Question:

Dr. Auwaerter…  I would like to call attention to the following 2009 tick study conducted here in New Hampshire:

Correlation between Tick Density and Pathogen Endemicity, New Hampshire
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2671416/

The study found deer ticks were carrying multiple pathogens (co-infections) that could be transmitted in a single bite.

What FDA approved Tick-Borne Disease Panel are you recommending so as not to miss any of these infections?

A response to this inquiry is requested
Carl Tuttle
Hudson, NH

Cc: MEDSCAPE EDITORIAL STAFF

Additional reference:

“Seronegativity in Lyme borreliosis and Other Spirochetal Infections” 16 September 2003
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3d6m45jzlhhwalu/Seronegativity.pdf?dl=0

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

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research, Testing