Archive for the ‘research’ Category

Co-infections Among COVID-19 Patients: The Need for Combination Therapy With Non-Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Agents?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1684118220301274

Co-infections among patients with COVID-19: The need for combination therapy with non-anti-SARS-CoV-2 agents?

Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Abstract

Co-infection has been reported in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome, but there is limited knowledge on co-infection among patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The prevalence of co-infection was variable among COVID-19 patients in different studies, however, it could be up to 50% among non-survivors. Co-pathogens included bacteria, such as

  • Streptococcus pneumoniae
  • Staphylococcus aureus
  • Klebsiella pneumoniae
  • Mycoplasma pneumoniae
  • Chlamydia pneumonia
  • Legionella pneumophila
  • Acinetobacter baumannii
  • Candida species
  • Aspergillus flavus
  • viruses such as influenza, coronavirus, rhinovirus/enterovirus, parainfluenza, metapneumovirus, influenza B virus, and human immunodeficiency virus

Influenza A was one of the most common co-infective viruses, which may have caused initial false-negative results of real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Laboratory and imaging findings alone cannot help distinguish co-infection from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Newly developed syndromic multiplex panels that incorporate SARS-CoV-2 may facilitate the early detection of co-infection among COVID-19 patients. By contrast, clinicians cannot rule out SARS-CoV-2 infection by ruling in other respiratory pathogens through old syndromic multiplex panels at this stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, clinicians must have a high index of suspicion for coinfection among COVID-19 patients. Clinicians can neither rule out other co-infections caused by respiratory pathogens by diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 infection nor rule out COVID-19 by detection of non-SARS-CoV-2 respiratory pathogens.

After recognizing the possible pathogens causing co-infection among COVID-19 patients, appropriate antimicrobial agents can be recommended.

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**Comment**

This would explain why COVID-19 does not resemble a simple virus, just as Lyme disease doesn’t present identically from individual to individual. Lyme/MSIDS is also best treated with combination therapy; however, most regular practitioners follow the antiquated and unscientific CDC treatment guidelines which haven’t worked for over 40 years (which in a nutshell is 21 days of doxycycline for all despite body weight and coinfections).

With each day there seems to be more and more similarities to Lyme/MSIDS in that cases are complex and individual. Medicine needs to acknowledge and embrace this complexity:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/04/26/cdc-playbook-learning-from-lyme/

This also explains why things like antibiotics and anti-parasitics work.  The pathogen list did not include tick-borne pathogens but should, as undoubtedly many of these people could very well have undiagnosed infections that COVID-19, much like vaccines, can reactivate latent infections: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/12/02/scottish-doctor-gives-insight-on-lyme-msids/

Category:

Candida, Mycoplasma, research, Treatment, Viruses

Borrelia Miyamotoi Infection in a Highly Endemic Area of Lyme Disease

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7260789/

Published online 2020 May 30. doi: 10.1186/s12941-020-00364-0
PMCID: PMC7260789
PMID: 32473652

Presence of Borrelia miyamotoi infection in a highly endemic area of Lyme disease

Luis A. Marcos,corresponding author1,2 Kalie Smith,1 Kelsey Reardon,1 Fredric Weinbaum,3 and Eric D. Spitzer4

Abstract

A series of cases in the Northeast of the US during 2013–2015 described a new Borrelia species, Borrelia miyamotoi, which is transmitted by the same tick species that transmits Lyme disease and causes a relapsing fever-like illness. The geographic expansion of B. miyamotoi in the US also extends to other Lyme endemic areas such as the Midwestern US. Co-infections with other tick borne diseases (TBD) may contribute to the severity of the disease. On Long Island, NY, 3–5% of ticks are infected by B. miyamotoi, but little is known about the frequency of B. miyamotoi infections in humans in this particular region. The aim of this study was to perform a chart review in all patients diagnosed with B. miyamotoi infection in Stony Brook Medicine (SBM) system to describe the clinical and epidemiological features of B. miyamotoi infection in Suffolk County, NY. In a 5 year time period (2013–2017), a total of 28 cases were positive for either IgG EIA (n = 19) or PCR (n = 9).

All 9 PCR-positive cases (median age: 67; range: 22–90 years) had clinical findings suggestive of acute or relapsing infection.

All these patients were thought to have a TBD, prompting the healthcare provider to order the TBD panel which includes a B. miyamotoi PCR test.

In conclusion, B. miyamotoi infection should be considered in the differential diagnosis for flu-like syndromes during the summer after a deer tick bite and to prevent labeling a case with Lyme disease.

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**Comment**

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/09/04/borrelia-miyamotoi-in-immunocompetent-patient/

Dr. Cameron states:  “Until now, there have been no treatment guidelines for B. miyamotoi and regimes have been empirically based on the treatment for Lyme disease. ‘The antimicrobial susceptibility of B. miyamotoi has not yet been elucidated, due to difficulties with cultivation of B. miyamotoi spirochetes in vitro,’ according to Koetsveld.  http://danielcameronmd.com/best-antibiotics-treat-borrelia-miyamotoi/  The study authors demonstrated that B. miyamotoi is susceptible to doxycycline, azithromycin, and ceftriaxone but resistant to amoxicillin in vitro. The next step would be to show whether these drugs work in patients.”

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/category/borrelia-miyamotoi-relapsing-fever-group/http://danielcameronmd.com/dont-count-on-a-relapsing-fever-to-diagnose-borrelia-miyamotoi/
“You might assume a patient infected with Borrelia miyamotoi, a relapsing fever spirochete, to present with a relapsing fever. However, your assumption would be wrong 48 out of 50 times, according to a case series published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. [1] The authors found that only 2 out of 50 patients infected with the relapsing spirochete B. miyamotoi actually presented with a relapsing fever. [1]….The individuals exhibited symptoms similar to those found in other tick-borne illnesses.
The majority presented with headaches, myalgias, arthralgias, and malaise/fatigue. ‘More than 50% were suspected of having sepsis, and 24% required hospitalization,’ states Molloy. [1]…..’Serologic testing using the rGlpQ EIA seems insensitive in diagnosing acute BMD infection given that it was positive for IgG or IgM in only 16% of the case patient samples at the time of clinical presentation,’ states Molloy. The rGlpQ was positive after the fact in 86% of the patients during convalescence. [1]….Elevated liver enzyme levels, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia were common in 75%, 60% and 51% respectively.
‘Borrelia miyamotoi disease may be clinically similar to or be confused with human anaplasmosis,’ according to Molloy….B. miyamotoi has emerged as a leading cause of hard tick-transmitted infections but lacks a clear diagnostic criteria. According to Molloy, “Infection with B. miyamotoi is the fifth recognized Ixodes-transmitted infection in the northeastern United States and should be part of the differential diagnosis of febrile patientsfrom areas where deer tick–transmitted infections are endemic.’”

Category:

Borrelia Miyamotoi (Relapsing Fever Group), Lyme, research

Mystery Complicates Lyme Disease Treatment

https://triblive.com/opinion/corey-may-mystery-complicates-lyme-disease-treatment/

Corey May: Mystery complicates Lyme disease treatment

COREY MAY

On Sept. 22, 2015, I received a kidney transplant at Allegheny General Hospital. Ever since, I have done everything within my power to be grateful for and reverent to my new kidney, which has served me well — until now. It is under attack.

Even with total clothing cover, I got bit by a nymph deer tick, the size of a pinhead. Today, Lyme disease had turned my health upside down. This is only partially because of the antibiotic resistance to the coinfections of bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites that ticks carry; it is also because of the lack of doctors in the Pittsburgh area qualified to treat the complications. (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Important quote:

Even in Pittsburgh, one of the greatest medical cities in the world, you are left alone to figure out a myriad infection like Lyme disease.

The main reason for the lack of qualified doctors is because the same CDC in charge of the current COVID-19 health fiasco is ALSO in charge of setting up Lyme/MSIDS treatment guidelines which doctors follow.  They use antiquated and biased science which has harmed thousands upon thousands of patients.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/01/13/lyme-science-owned-by-good-ol-boys/

Also, due to this ‘iron curtain,’ doctors who depart from the controlled narrative are sought out and persecuted:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2012/03/04/dr-hoffmann-updated/  This has happened in nearly every state in the U.S. as well as worldwide.

Yet, these same authorities are locking down the entire United States over COVID-19. Ponder this for a moment.

This stone wall has gone on unabated for over 40 years.  Lyme/MSIDS is a true pandemic that is not going away, yet authorities haven’t changed their tune. Research continues to focus on the acute stage of Lyme and completely denies chronic infection, which new research has estimated to be 63% of all who get infected:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/06/12/formidable-evidence-for-sexual-transmission-of-lyme-disease-first-study-to-document-aca-rashes-in-canadian-patients/

Another study shows the chronically infected to be between 40-60% of all patients:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/25/medical-stalemate-what-causes-continuing-symptoms-after-lyme-treatment/

Yet, these authorities, who have been around as long as the disease itself, do asinine studies like this:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/06/14/oral-penicillin-for-lyme-patients-with-em-rash-in-the-u-s/

And this:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/22/why-mainstream-lyme-msids-research-remains-in-the-dark-ages/

They just can’t get over the EM rash, even though research shows it’s appearance is highly variable and clearance of the rash does not mean the systemic infection has been cleared:

Rashes-larger-blog-4

Scott’s study puts that percentage even lower at 9-39%, hardly a symptom to base ALL research upon. If you have the rash, you HAVE Lyme, but if you don’t have the rash you may STILL have Lyme.

Until authorities change their fixed ideas of this disease patients will suffer – just like the one in this article. 

Category:

Lyme, research

New Research Shows Majority May Already Have Resistance to COVID-19

https://off-guardian.org/2020/06/12/study-80-of-people-naturally-resistant-to-coronavirus/

STUDIES: 60% of people naturally RESISTANT to SARS-COV2 New research suggests majority of people may already have resistance based on previous infections

OffG

June 12, 2020

A new study has found that Sars-Cov-2, the virus linked to Covid19, maybe five times more widespread than previously thought, and therefore five times less deadly.

The research, conducted by a team of scientists at the University Hospital in Zurich, is titled: “Systemic and mucosal antibody secretion specific to SARS-CoV-2 during mild versus severe COVID-19”, and found that Sars-Cov-2-specific antibodies only appear in the most severe cases, or about 1 out of 5.

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**Comment**

Important quote:

Importantly, we detected SARS-CoV-2-reactive CD4+ T cells in ∼40%–60% of unexposed individuals, suggesting cross-reactive T cell recognition between circulating “common cold” coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2.

The important take-away is that there is a close relationship between coronaviruses which are harmless to most but unfortunately can be severe, especially those with comorbidities.

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/04/06/wheres-the-evidence-supporting-the-drastic-measures-against-covid-19/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/04/28/er-doctors-go-over-covid-19-statistics-why-are-we-in-lockdown-also-a-lesson-on-immunity/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/06/06/lockdown-lunacy-the-thinking-persons-guide/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/06/10/infectivity-of-asymptomatic-sars-cov-2-carriers-is-weak/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/04/19/swedish-epidemiologist-lockdowns-are-not-evidence-based/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/06/03/testing-for-covid-19-neither-necessary-nor-effective-covid-19-on-its-way-out/

 

 

Category:

research, Testing, Viruses

Oral Penicillin For Lyme Patients With EM Rash in the U.S.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32473319/?

. 2020 Apr 28;97(4):115071.

doi: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2020.115071.Online ahead of print.

Evaluation of the Role of Oral Penicillin for Treating Lyme Disease Patients With Erythema Migrans in the United States

Gary P Wormser 1, Franc Strle 2
Affiliations

Abstract

Clinical trials of oral penicillin preparations in the United States for treating Lyme disease patients with erythema migrans are limited to 2 studies. The results of these studies demonstrated a less than optimal outcome of this treatment. However, there were serious methodologic concerns in both studies precluding the interpretation that phenoxymethylpenicillin specifically should be regarded as ineffective. Therefore, additional clinical trials should be conducted in the United States with close attention to the dose and duration of treatment that have been used very successfully in Europe.

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**Comment**

I got news for you: there are serous methodologic concerns with most studies on Lyme – particularly regarding treatment. To hear it from the very people in charge of those studies is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.

The next all important question is why are they even attempting to treat the rash?  The rash is just an outward sign of a inner systemic infection and just because you eliminate the rash doesn’t mean the inner systemic infection is gone.  So, no, we don’t need more research on this.  What we need is research on how to clear the infection once and for all.  Please note Wormser and Strle are behind this continuing focus on the rash and the acute phase of Lyme.

Move on gentlemen, this is a waste of money and time, and doesn’t help patients one iota.  

Category:

Lyme, research, Treatment