Archive for the ‘research’ Category

Six Days to Support Tick Research in Guam

https://experiment.com/projects/what-risks-do-ticks-confer-to-the-humans-and-animals-of-guam Go here to Support research

About This Project

There is an abundant population of ticks on Guam, which can cause devastating illness in animals. Many animals, with close interactions and overlapping environments with people, can serve as sentinels for human disease. The ticks of Guam are known to host at least eight pathogens, of which three are zoonotic. This is a threat to domestic animals, humans, and wildlife populations on Guam.

Category:

Activism, research, Ticks

Fluorescent Image of Borrelia Living Quite Happily With a Macrophage

Bb.Rt.rt.RAW_2014.11.12_composite_4merge

Fluorescent Image of Borrelia, the Causative Agent of Lyme Disease.

Click on link for picture. Permission granted by Dr. Benjamin L. Clark, University of Minnesota Medical School, Director, Bridges to the Baccalaureate Degree Program, Director, Pathways to Advance Degrees in the Life Sciences, 218-726-6587

Green is the intracellular Borrelia, blue-purple is the nucleus of the macrophage, a type of white blood cell of the immune system that is supposed to engulf and digest pathogens and anything else considered a foreign invader.

The red is a cell surface marker (CD86) known as Cluster of Differentiation 86, a protein expressed on antigen-presenting cells that provides costimulatory signals necessary for T cell activation and survival. It is the ligand for two different proteins on the T cell surface: CD28 and CTLA-4. CD86 works in tandem with CD80 to prime T cells. Co-stimulation is an essential step in the induction of adaptive immune responses.

There are probably 4 or more spirochetes in the phagosome (a vacuole within a phagocyte that contains bacteria or other ingested particles that becomes fused with a lysosome which functions as the digestive system of the cell).

Dr. Clarke’s future work will be to study that internal chamber and how the spirochete potentially thrives.

When it is proven & accepted that Bb infects white blood cells, it will give a potential answer to some late-disseminated Lyme cases as an immune-deficiency syndrome demonstrating why some patients have frequent and prolonged infections and may acquire new allergies as well as Mast Cell issues.

We also need post-mortem studies to demonstrate persistent infection: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/04/13/chronic-lyme-post-mortem-study-needed-to-end-the-lyme-wars/

This is a list of 700 Peer-Reviewed Evidence of Persistence of Lyme:MSIDS copy

For more: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/06/12/bb-microscopy-a-pictures-worth-1000-words-how-bb-evades-the-immune-system/ There is a video in this link showing Bb’s ability to get into and out of the blood stream & lymphatic system quickly demonstrating its ability to go anywhere in the body to colonize.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/09/29/microscopy-of-spirochaete-biofilm/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/09/27/spirochete-culture-microscopy-videos-see-whats-inside-you/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/19/first-study-showing-borrelia-chlamydia-mixed-biofilms-in-infected-human-skin-tissues/

Category:

Lyme, research, Uncategorized

Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding. And It’s Only going to Get Worse

https://elemental.medium.com/lyme-disease-cases-are-exploding-and-its-only-going-to-get-worse-5d3c3a2de5c5

Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding. And It’s Only Going to Get Worse.

Climate change and human sprawl have triggered a pandemic

By Alex Bhattacharji

This story is part of “Tickpocalypse,” a multi-part special report.

Kelly Oggenfuss is walking into the woods. Leading her team of four young researchers through a thicket of slender oak trees, she doles out assignments by letters corresponding to a grid. As early morning light filters through the canopy, Oggenfuss and her colleagues pull on latex gloves then disperse to gather surveillance data.

Please see link for entire article.

__________________________

**Comment**

Glad they mentioned “co-feeding” and the probability they are spreading more pathogens into us more quickly, increasing prevalence.

Glad they state this is a pandemic and the increase of ticks is everywhere making maps a joke. Throw them away. They’ve been used against patients from the get-go.

Although Lyme disease has been around forever, tinkering with it in a lab and making it more pathogenic isn’t a “theory,” it’s what bioweaponization means, and it’s far more than just Lyme. I’d say the experiment has been highly successful.

The Lymerix vaccine was a complete fail: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/01/lyme-vaccine-fail-safety-ignored/ Both dogs and humans have been given Lyme symptoms due to the vaccine. That’s a big deal. Shame on them for underplaying it.

They briefly mention the role of birds but fail once again by bringing the climate into it. Out of one side of their mouth they state ticks are marvelous ecoadaptors and then out of the other side of their mouth they blame the climate. You can’t have it both ways. Please note the DOD, DARPA, & the EPA are funding the supposed “link” between ticks & climate change….that is quite telling. They would rather blame the weather than take responsibility for tweaking ticks in a lab that perhaps gave them the ability to live on stucco & in dirt and be more aggressive….hmmm. Yeah, blame the climate.

Having the EM rash is highly variable from 25%-80%. It should not be used as criteria for entrance into research studies nor as a required sign by doctors for diagnosis as so many do not get it. If you do have it – you have Lyme, but if you don’t, you could still have Lyme.

This article as actually quite a treatise on “Why nothing has been done to fix the Lyme/MSIDS problem.” For more: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/14/canadian-tick-expert-climate-change-is-not-behind-lyme-disease/ Excerpt:

“The authorities have been using tick expansion and climate change to get research dollars. Climate change is a popular topic right now, and that is a great source of funding for related research. However, any research on ticks and climate change is inconclusive––in essence, there is no validity. The long-range, futuristic projections and statistical models are bogus science because blacklegged ticks have already been found in northern Canada. In fact, we documented blacklegged ticks on migratory songbirds in northern Alberta dating back to 1998. Any allocation of government funding for ticks and climate change research is a complete waste of taxpayers’ money. It will not help Lyme disease patients one iota.” John Scott

Ouch.

An independent Canadian researcher who doesn’t have strings attached to his work points out all the marionettes on strings in the research world, who by the way, refuse to even acknowledge his work…..and even advocates are guilty of jumping on a Bandwagon built upon faulty science.

Let us never stoop as low as the enemy who has twisted science to suit their purpose from the beginning.

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

Lastly, please note the TBDWG has taken a supposed new turn and is leaving patients out of the process. Is this really shocking when you read the above issues?

For more on the bioweaponization issue: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/07/19/biological-warfare-experiment-on-american-citizens-results-in-spreading-pandemic/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/07/21/got-15-minutes-the-officially-ignored-link-between-lyme-plum-island/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/12/19/its-1984/Excerpt from interview:

. . .I am a biologist, so that’s where I started working on ticks and mosquitoes—how to produce a lot of them. Drop them out of airplanes. Everything was very hush-hush, very secret. I’m still leery talking about it, because I think they might put me in jail because I’m delivering secrets. [Laughs.] It was a crazy time.

We would run all kinds of distribution tests on where these things go when you release them and what were the factors that would cause the migration. Can we drop them out of airplanes and how do we get the bugs to the enemy? That was the thing we did. – James Oliver

https://www.lymedisease.org/lymepolicywonk-questioning-governments-role-lyme-disease-make-conspiracy-theorist/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/07/27/lyme-biowarfare-4-video-series/

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks, Transmission, Treatment

Fighting Lyme Disease in Maine – Part 2 TV Report

https://www.wabi.tv/content/news/PART-TWO-Fighting-Lyme-Disease-511597151.html TV News Story Here

PART TWO: Fighting Lyme Disease

By Morgan Sturdivant

Posted: Thu 7:18 PM, Jun 20, 2019

ORONO, Maine (WABI) – “Through our lab we’re kind of trying to provide surveillance on tick populations as well as the pathogens that they spread,” says Griffin Dill.

Griffin Dill is doing critical research on ticks at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. He says reported cases of disease from ticks is increasing and so is the population here in Maine.

“It’s a more forested state with the human element mixed in so it’s kind of created the perfect habitat for ticks as well as their wild life hosts.”

He says people don’t have to change their lifestyle, but it is important to take some simple precautions, like treating clothing and gear with repellents, like permethrin which is a highly effective repellent for ticks.

“We want people to be aware of ticks but not afraid. We want people to go outside.”

“I got sick after two tick bites.”

Constance “Happy” Dickey is a founding director of Maine Lyme. Happy and the others behind the organization have made education, support and prevention their mission because they know isolating and costly it can be.

“Everything after the tick bite is more complicated than preventing the tick bite. We need to make prevention second-nature to us.”

There are multiple resources on the Maine Lyme website for prevention and education including what to do if you find a tick attached to your skin. It’s important not to put any soaps, ointments, alcohol or heat on the tick and do not squeeze the body of it. Take note of when the tick was found and mark the bite area. Report any illness or rashes to your doctor. You can even send the tick to the UMaine Tick Lab for testing.

Your pets are susceptible, too.

“”For the most part of if your animal gets sick with it they have a fever. That’s one of the first signs. So same with a human if you feel tired, lethargic, you don’t really feel like moving around, so if you see that, it’s one of the things we start to think of,” says Dr. David Cloutier at the Veazie Veterinary Clinic.,

They can also test and treat for Lyme at the Veazie Veterinary Clinic. Care that comprehensive for people is what those in this fight are hoping for.

“I’ve heard from so many of my constituents.”

Including Senator Susan Collins who has recently introduced the TICK Act.

“It’s evident from the exploding numbers of these illnesses that are borne by ticks that we need to do much more.”

Dill says he meets with a group run by the Maine CDC ona regular basis for a statewide strategy. He says he wants people to know work in being done in the fight against Lyme.

“Hopefully, we make some breakthroughs on potential management strategies for controlling tick population’s as well as the medical side with the potential for new treatments even vaccination.”

__________________

**Comment**

After watching both of these news reports and being in a few of my own, one thing sticks out to me: there’s never reporting on effective treatments.

Why?

Because it’s sticky and the way this is being treated by mainstream medicine, the CDC, and other authorities isn’t working. Period.

It’s easier to do a 2-4 minute sound bite and interview a tick researcher than it is to get to the bottom of this plague which is riddled with conflicts of interest and frankly patient abuse.

Do not let the tick researcher working with the CDC fool you. They are doing nothing. They have changed nothing, and forget about that “Lyme vaccine” which has directly caused Lyme symptoms in dogs and people: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/22/why-we-care-so-strongly-about-a-potential-lyme-vaccine/ (Many more links within this one)

I’m not saying the study of ticks isn’t important but there’s so much more that needs to be done:

Transmission studies: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/05/24/microbiology-professor-im-convinced-lyme-disease-is-transmittable-from-person-to-person/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/02/transmission-of-lyme-disease-lida-mattman-phd/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/07/are-mosquitoes-transmitting-lyme-disease/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/19/33-years-of-documentation-of-maternal-child-transmission-of-lyme-disease-and-congenital-lyme-borreliosis-a-review/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/02/24/pcos-lyme-my-story/

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

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/29/is-the-sky-truly-going-to-fall-for-patients-with-the-untreatable-form-of-lyme-disease/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/13/lyme-disease-treatment/

The recognition and treatment of coinfections: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/05/01/co-infection-of-ticks-the-rule-rather-than-the-exception/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/30/study-shows-lyme-msids-patients-infected-with-many-pathogens-and-explains-why-we-are-so-sick/

The recognition and treatment of the pleomorphism of borrelia: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/12/14/closing-in-on-the-8/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/05/ability-of-stationary-phase-persister-biofilm-microcolonies-of-borrelia-burgdorferi-to-cause-more-severe-disease/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/24/three-antibiotic-cocktail-clears-persister-lyme-bacteria-in-mouse-study/

More accurate testing: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/15/news-release-on-57-1-million-lyme-disease-lawsuit-filed-against-cdc/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/12/13/suppression-of-microscopy-for-lyme-diagnostics-professor-laane/

Science on chronic/persistent symptoms: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/04/13/chronic-lyme-post-mortem-study-needed-to-end-the-lyme-wars/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/25/medical-stalemate-what-causes-continuing-symptoms-after-lyme-treatment/

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research, Ticks

Emerging Babesia sp. Similar to Babesia Motasi in 1st Human Case & Ticks in Korea (Asian Long-horned & Haemaphysalis Flava)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31179860

2019;8(1):869-878. doi: 10.1080/22221751.2019.1622997.

Detection and characterization of an emerging type of Babesia sp. similar to Babesia motasi for the first case of human babesiosis and ticks in Korea.

Hong SH¹, Kim SY¹, Song BG¹, Rho JR¹, Cho CR², Kim CN³, Um TH², Kwak YG⁴, Cho SH¹, Lee SE¹.

Abstract

Babesiosis is a tick-transmitted intraerythrocytic zoonosis. In Korea, the first mortalities were reported in 2005 due to Babesia sp. detection in sheep; herein we report epidemiological and genetic characteristics of a second case of babesiosis. Microscopic analysis of patient blood revealed polymorphic merozoites. To detect Babesia spp., PCR was performed using Babesia specific primers for β-tubulin, 18S rDNA, COB, and COX3 gene fragments. 18S rDNA analysis for Babesia sp., showed 98% homology with ovine Babesia sp. and with Babesia infections in Korea in 2005. Moreover, phylogenetic analysis of 18S rDNA, COB, and COX3 revealed close associations with B. motasi. For identifying the infectious agent, Haemaphysalis longicornis (296) and Haemaphysalis flava (301) were collected around the previous residence of the babesiosis patient. Babesia genes were identified in three H. longicornis: one sample was identified as B. microti and two samples were 98% homologous to B. motasi.

Our study is the first direct confirmation of the infectious agent for human babesiosis. This case most likely resulted from tick bites from ticks near the patient house of the babesiosis patient. H. longicornis has been implicated as a vector of B. microti and other Babesia sp. infections.

_______________

**Comment**

Everyone’s been waiting with bated breath on what the Asian Long-horned tick is transmitting. We know it’s transmitting numerous pathogens in Asia but has yet to be found to transmit pathogens here in the U.S., although the tick itself is spreading geographically like wildfire. This is the tick that clones itself and drains cattle of its blood. https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/12/asian-tick-found-in-new-jersey-can-kill-cattle-by-draining-them-of-blood/

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/vbz.2018.2298 This article shows the ticks and transmittable diseases in South Korea.

The full-length article tells the unfortunate story of an elderly men’s death 36 hours after hospitalization due to an emerging type of Babesia due to a tick bite.

A blood sample was obtained from the jugular vein in the patient that presented with dizziness and general weakness.

No microorganisms were isolated from the blood culture.

Microscopy revealed the following:

Upon light microscopic examination, variable intraerythrocytic parasites as ring forms, pear-shaped forms, paired pyriforms, pleomorphic ring forms, and multiple-infected parasites and clusters of extracellular rings were detected in Giemsa-stained blood smears. The percentage of parasitaemia was 1.8% (Figure 1). Maltese cross forms comprising four masses in an erythrocyte that are often described as a characteristic of B. microti infection were not detected in most blood smears (Figure 1).

Please note that the patient would have failed a simple blood test and even microscopy revealed atypical findings as well as the fact parasitemia was less than 2%.

Yet, 2% was enough to kill a man.

Tick collections were performed by dividing the area around the patient’s residence and the findings were:

A total of 597 ticks were collected around the patient’s residence, including 296 H. longicornis (186 adult, 41 nymphs, and 68 larvae) and 301 Haemaphysalis flava (1 adult and 300 larvae) (Table 2). Among these, 94% of the ticks were collected in both the front yard of patient’s residence (442 ticks) and associated hill III (124 ticks). Based on the results of the amplification of Babesia genes in each tick, 2 (0.3%) were positive for 18S rDNA of Babesia species, 1 (0.2%) for COB and COX3, and 1 (0.2%) for β-tubulin gene of B. microti. While the nymph of H. longicornis yielded a positive result for only 18S rDNA, one female tick of H. longicornis yielded positive results for 18S rDNA, COB, and COX3 gene fragments. Also, one female tick of H. longicornis only yielded positive results for β-tubulin gene of B. microti (Table 3).

Please note two things: the high amount of ticks found right in his yard and the low incidence of infected ticks – yet, it only took one to kill him.

The Discussion section reveals some interesting things:

Previously, seven different Babesia spp., B. microti, B. divergens, B. bovis, B. canis, B. duncani, B. venatorium, and a novel Babesia sp. similar to ovine babesias were reported to cause human babesiosis...Human babesiosis (KCDC-1) in 2017 was the second case identified in Korea and the sequence of Babesia sp. was very closely related to that of KO1 and Liaoning, China. These large Babesia are clearly distinct from other agents of human babesiosis based on their shape and phylogeny. These results suggest that the causative agent in their case of babesiosis is a novel large Babesia parasite infecting humans and may be highly fatal….

the identified Babesia parasites (in the patient) might be B. motasi, and this is the first study to detect B. motasi in human babesiosis and H. longicornis in Korea.