Archive for the ‘research’ Category

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

Steere, A. C. et al. (2016). Lyme borreliosis. Nature Reviews. Disease Primers, 2, 16090. doi:10.1038/nrdp.2016.90 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27976670

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

Folate & You: Perfect Together

https://kellybroganmd.com/folate-perfect-together/

Folate and you: Perfect Together

By

Methylation also helps you clear toxins such as hormones from chemicals, and rogue neurotransmitters that can cause seizures, anxiety, rage, and insomnia.

If you are extremely sensitive to medicine you probably have a methylation problem.  Cohen also states that while some of this stems from genetics, there are other reasons for it such as a lack of the following vitamins:

  • Zinc
  • B2/riboflavin
  • Magnesium
  • B6/pyridoxine
  • B12/methylcobalamin
  • Folate (from food or folinic acid)

1) Poor diet, poor probiotic status, digestive issues, medications, medical conditions like Crohn’s or Celiac, and other genetic traits may cause any or all of these nutrient deficiencies.

2) Xenobiotics – which are chemicals found in our air, water, food, home, work, schools, parks, beds, cosmetics and more.

3) Taking medications that are drug muggers that deplete you of the nutrients in #1 above. Some of the worst offenders (in terms of stealing your methylation nutrients) are methotrexate, metformin, antacids, acid blockers, proton pump inhibitors, corticosteroids, estrogen-containing drugs and nitrous oxide.

4) Drinking alcohol will pretty much shut down your methylation and wipe out your glutathione stores.

5) Green coffee bean extract is incredibly high in catechols and those use up your methylation pathway nutrients fast!

7) If you have Lyme disease, and many people do whether they know it or not, the Borrelia burgdorferi germ uses up all your magnesium (this supplement is a unique and highly absorbable form) to make biofilms and hide. Low mag reduces your ability to methylate. As an aside, this explains why some ‘Lymies’ have bad reactions during antibiotic treatment. Those drugs kill the organism but then your body is faced with poison such as ‘dead bug parts’ as well as ammonia which spikes when Borrelia dies off. Point is, you can’t remove easily the toxins from your body and it backs up in your system (by christopher at www.dresshead.com). If this is you, then use really low doses if you have to take antibiotics, until you’ve opened up your methylation (and other detoxification) pathways.

8) If you take nutrients that deplete methyl groups (like high dose niacin, or the prescription version of that called Slo-Niacin and Niaspan).

9) Heavy metals (think mercury in your diet, or your teeth) or lead in your bloodstream, cadmium if you smoke, high copper, arsenic, etc.

10) High levels of acetylaldehyde, this is a potent neurotoxin released by Candida, and also a by-product of drinking alcohol (even red wine). Don’t drink if you’re a poor methylator. Most of you know who you are, meaning you are a lightweight when it comes to alcohol. Yep, it is likely you are a poor methylator. I will share more about the Candida toxin known as “acetylaldehyde” shortly.

12) Anxiety or a lot of stress. I’m not sure why, but a pessimist or “I can’t do it” kind of outlook seems to make things worse. I think it has to do with your belief systems and how they impact your genes. In my summary, I’ll give you some links to an author and lecturer that has clues on how to change your outlook. (Dr. Bruce Lipton).

Please see Cohen’s article for options if you suspect a methylation defect:  https://suzycohen.com/articles/methylation-problems/

 

 

 

 

Category:

Psychological Aspects, research, Supplements

Medical Police State Cuts Off Research Funding From Scientist Who Found That Vaccines Cause Autism

**UPDATE June, 2022**

‘I Never Had a Single Unvaccinated Patient with Autism’ — Dr. Ben Tapper

https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-04-11-medical-police-state-cuts-off-research-funding-from-scientist-vaccines.html

Medical police state cuts off research funding from scientist who found that vaccines cause autism

Thursday, April 11, 2019 by:

Image: Medical police state cuts off research funding from scientist who found that vaccines cause autism

(Natural News) When it comes to the Religion of Vaccination, there’s one area of research that’s completely off-limits, and it encompasses looking into vaccine safety and effectiveness independently, and with an open mind. The reason for this, of course, is that every time a scientist dares to do this, he or she typically discovers that vaccines aren’t nearly as safe or effective as the medical police state claims – which instantly makes said scientist a target of the medical establishment, which has no qualms about doing almost anything in order to silence the truth.

One recent and prominent example of this type of medical tyranny involves Professor Chris Exley of Keele University in the United Kingdom, whose focused research into aluminum toxicity led him to conclude that childhood vaccines, many of which contain neurotoxic aluminum, can, in fact, cause autism – a discovery that, if you’ve been following independent vaccine science for any considerable period of time, is inherently “controversial” and a recipe for trouble.

Like Dr. Andrew Wakefield before him, Prof. Exley merely reported his findings in the interest of public health, as any good scientist would do. And in the process, he’s made himself enemy number one of the Vaccine Mafia, which is now trying to destroy his career and life by barring him from raising any further funding for his research endeavors.

In essence, Prof. Exley has officially blown the lid off the highly-destructive nature of aluminum in vaccines, indicating that this common chemical adjuvant has the potential to cause “severe and disabling” autism in children who are injected with it. And for violating the medical establishment’s never-to-be-challenged doctrine of “all vaccines are safe and effective,” Prof. Exley is now having to endure the ire of the priests and priestesses of the Cult of Vaccination, which are now out for blood.

Support Prof. Exley’s GoFundMe to help bring the truth about vaccines and autism to as many people as possible

Prof. Exley was one of the underwriters for an eye-opening 2017 study published in EBioMedicine, a journal associated with The Lancet, which found that underarm cosmetic products – mainly antiperspirant deodorants that contain aluminum – increase users’ risk of developing breast cancer.

He’s also studied other areas of aluminum toxicity similarly unrelated to vaccines – though vaccines eventually became a natural next-step for his particular area of focus. And rather than censor the progressive course of his research endeavors, Prof. Exley stuck true to science – and for doing this, he’s now paying a big price.

The good news, though, is that many people are on Prof. Exley’s side, and are working hard to get him funding from other sources. Some of his most ardently faithful followers have actually set up a GoFundMe page to help raise financial support for his continued research endeavors.

In light of the medical establishment’s continued betrayal of not only his work but also science at large, it’s up to everyday folks who care about truth to step up to the plate to make sure that parents know the truth – and more importantly, to ensure that as many children as possible are protected against toxic injections that could cause them lifelong harm.

“We’ve seen this drama unfold many times,” comments Age of Autism about this latest saga.

“A well respected doctor or researcher begins to ask questions about vaccine safety as a result of the science he or she conducts, and his career is adversely affected … [Prof. Exley’s] funding is dwindling and he needs our help.”

Also, be sure to check out the book How to End the Autism Epidemic by J.B. Handley.

Sources for this article include:

TheTimes.co.uk

ScienceDirect.com

AgeOfAutism.com

JBHandleyBlog.com

__________________

**Comment**

The following graph pretty much says it all:

Neil+Miller

The following information taken from the Organic Lifestyle magazine shows the censorship happening on anyone who departs from the accepted narrative that touts vaccines are safe:  https://www.organiclifestylemagazine.com/doctor-asks-fda-to-reconsider-safe-levels-of-aluminum-gets-censored-and-suspended-on-medium 

Dr. James Lyons-Weiler’s published a study, Reconsideration of the immunotherapeutic pediatric safe dose levels of aluminum, that says the recognized safe aluminum levels in vaccines are based on immune efficacy and ignore body weight. James says that several critical mistakes have been made in the consideration of pediatric dosing of aluminum and that safety inferences of vaccine doses of aluminum have relied solely on dietary (ingested, not injected) exposure studies of adult mice and rats.

On Day 1 of life, infants receive 17 times more aluminum than would be allowed if doses were adjusted per body weight.

The FDA states that 850 mcg of aluminum is safe for an adult. With his research, James found that a series of errors led to the guidelines that state 850 mcg of aluminum is safe for an adult.

The first serious problem (Problem #1) is that a provisionally tolerable weekly limit assumed to be safe was, by a series of errors and bad assumptions, transformed into a daily limit that appeared to be backed by studies. The studies used were not up to date, and the FDA’s determination used spurious estimates to transform safety information from dietary studies of adult mice into injected safe limits in human infants. These errors were made, in part, in the pediatric limit consideration by the FDA, who used outdated information not consistent with other organizations like World Health Organization.

To add to the confusion, the 1 mg/kg/week was also then changed to 2 mg/kg/week. The ATDSR used information from one study, assumed 1 mg/kg/week, adjusted using arbitrary functions that are without a doubt as good as a bad guess.

The provenance of these errors is reviewed further below, and in our newly published study.”

We came across this study last week on Medium. It has since been deleted, along with Jame’s account. We checked on web.archive.org to see if the page had been preserved; it had not. We searched Google, but it’s gone from search results, but we did find the article republished by James on LinkedIn.

This Open Letter originally appeared on Medium.com. Due to their censorship, it is ported here.= JLW. It is based on peer-reviewed studies.” – Dear FDA: Please Reconsider “Safe” Levels of Aluminum…

We also noticed that Jame’s Medium account has been suspended. And Bing is a little slower to eliminate the search results. If you want, click here to see their Cached version while it’s still available, but you can also read the full article republished on LinkedIn.

Related: Doctors Against Vaccines – Hear From Those Who Have Done the Research

Articles on aluminum in vaccines:  https://vactruth.com/?s=safe+levels+of+aluminum

For a great site on all things vaccine related.  There is a list of scientific articles: https://vaccinepapers.org

Category:

Activism, Autism, research, vaccines

Lyme Disease & Neurological Changes in Children

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lyme-disease-neurological-changes-children-somer-delsignore/

Lyme Disease and Neurological Changes in Children

Clinically we find a multitude of neuro-psychological symptoms that present with children afflicted with tick-borne illnesses. Many of those symptoms did not exist prior to  exposure.  The number of children with anxiety disorders, OCD, mood dysregulation, ADHD, bipolar disorder, gender dysphoria and others are prominent and included in the working diagnosis and treatment plan of Lyme and other tick bhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/somerdelsignorekidslyme/orne diseases.

There are countless studies linking neuro-psychological impairments with Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses many of which suggest a larger percentage of children are affected.

A review of literature reveals studies by Brian Fallon and others that link Lyme disease to neurological and psychological ailments. New onset depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and other mental illnesses were postulated to be the result of a Lyme disease exposure. Fallon outlined several supportive strands of evidence throughout his research. He noted the incidence of mental illness is greater in those with Lyme disease versus other medical conditions. These psychiatric conditions were new onset and did not exist prior to contracting Lyme disease. Lastly, these mental illnesses improved after administering courses of antibiotic therapy. 

So what is thought to contribute to the psychological changes? Further evaluation thru single photon emission tomography or SPECT scans as it’s known revealed that those with

“Lyme disease typically have multifocal areas of decreased perfusion in the cortex and subcortical white matter” Fallon et al. 1997.

Cortical and subcortical perfusion is studied extensively with PTSD patients. The pattern of poor perfusion is similar to those who also suffer from a tick-borne illness. A result of poor perfusion can lead to  breakdown of the neural pathways  that provide an interconnectedness between all regions of the brain. Specifically, the subcortical regions play a significant role in emotional regulation. This is where your fight or flight response stems via control of Dopamine and other neurotransmitters.  Your cortical regions control sensory, motor and visual response. In the presence of Lyme disease, which has an affinity for the neurological system, inflammation occurs contributing to this poor perfusion state. It’s plausible to suggest neurological and psychological changes as it relates to tick-borne illness.

Studies directed specifically at the pediatric population were conducted by Rosalie Greenberg, a pediatric and adolescent psychiatrist. Although small, Dr. Greenberg studied 14 children diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She noted

  • 6 had mycoplasma
  • 3 had B. Burgdorferi the bacteria that causes Lyme disease
  • 10 had Babesia
  • 4  had Bartonella
  • ALL had tick borne diseases
  • Out of the 14 only 1 described typical joint pain associated with Lyme disease

Bransfield and others discuss links for autism spectrum disorder development in children as evident by the spirochete that causes Lyme can be passed from an infected mother to her unborn child. This can lead to neurological ailments as well as significant immune dysfunction. Supportive evidence showed upwards of 30% of those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder had a positive blood test for Borrelia Burgdorferi, the spirochete that causes Lyme Disease. I’ll certainly delve into autism and links to infection in the coming weeks as I’m fascinated!

Children present differently. Perhaps it is the vulnerable blood brain barrier or naïve immune system that contributes. We know in children the brain continues to develop until they reach their early 20’s.  Studies looking closer at the link between childrens’ neurological status and tick-borne illness speculates around 70% to present with onset of headaches, fatigue, mood disturbance, irritability and acute outbursts where symptoms did not previously exist. Anecdotally, I too have witnessed these accounts.

Let’s postulate, just for fun, out of the 4 million children currently diagnosed with mental illness at least 30% or more of those have a tick-borne illness. That’s roughly 1.2 million children whom could be cured of their mental illness by merely treating the infection with courses of antibiotics and/or natural remedies.

This certainly would present a fundamental paradigm shift within the mental healthcare community but isn’t it worth it? Shouldn’t we all Think Differently about mental illness?

The take home message here for parents. If your child (or you) present with sudden onset of neurological changes, mood swings, ADD/ADHD, sleep disturbances, motor or vocal tics, fasciculations, unfounded anxieties and fears, rage, impulsivity, concentration issues, dyslexia, regression with milestones etc, seek out an evaluation for tick-borne illnesses.

Should your primary care provider refuse to perform the test or argue otherwise….find someone else!

Recent Tick-Task Force initiatives, passed by NY state legislators and championed by Senator Sue Serino, secured 1 million dollars to fund research that allow better understanding of the link between Lyme, tick-borne diseases and mental health issues. These funds will also help support preventative actions as well as raise awareness. It’s solid movement in the right direction. This recent legislation would direct the Office of Mental Hygiene and Department of Health to conduct these studies. Fingers crossed for the follow thru! You can find more information about critical legislation passed recently in the NY senate and full description of the tick-borne illness initiatives by visiting serino.nysenate.gov.

__________________

**Comment**

More and more coming out daily on how pathogens are implicated in brain diseases and mental disorders.  This article should be shared widely as there are multitudes of children being misdiagnosed with mental illness that could be cured by treating the underlying infection(s).

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/07/missing-links-connect-the-dots-between-lyme-mental-health/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/26/lyme-its-known-involvement-in-mental-health/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/08/misdiagnosed-how-children-with-treatable-medical-issues-are-mistakenly-labeled-as-mentally-ill/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/03/treat-the-infection-psychiatric-symptoms-get-better/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/10/18/psychiatric-lymemsids/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/09/19/three-things-for-parents-to-watch-for-regarding-tbis/

One prominent Wisconsin Lyme doctor states that 80% of his Autistic and PANS patients have Lyme/MSIDS.  Please share widely.

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Psychological Aspects, research, Ticks, Treatment

African Tick Found on Untraveled U.K. Horse

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30876825

2019 Apr;10(3):704-708. doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2019.03.003. Epub 2019 Mar 9.

Hyalomma rufipes on an untraveled horse: Is this the first evidence of Hyalomma nymphs successfully moulting in the United Kingdom?

Hansford KM1, Carter D2, Gillingham EL3, Hernandez-Triana LM4, Chamberlain J5, Cull B6, McGinley L6, Paul Phipps L4, Medlock JM7.

Abstract

During September 2018, a tick was submitted to Public Health England’s Tick Surveillance Scheme for identification. The tick was sent from a veterinarian who removed it from a horse in Dorset, England, with no history of overseas travel. The tick was identified as a male Hyalomma rufipes using morphological and molecular methods and then tested for a range of tick-borne pathogens including;

  • Alkhurma virus
  • Anaplasma
  • Babesia
  • Bhanja virus
  • Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic fever virus
  • Rickettsia
  • Theileria

The tick tested positive for Rickettsia aeschlimannii, a spotted fever group rickettsia linked to a number of human cases in Africa and Europe.

This is the first time H. rufipes has been reported in the United Kingdom (UK), and the lack of travel by the horse (or any in-contact horses) suggests that this could also be the first evidence of successful moulting of a Hyalomma nymph in the UK. It is postulated that the tick was imported into the UK on a migratory bird as an engorged nymph which was able to complete its moult to the adult stage and find a host.

This highlights that passive tick surveillance remains an important method for the detection of unusual species that may present a threat to public health in the UK. Horses are important hosts of Hyalomma sp. adults in their native range, therefore, further surveillance studies should be conducted to check horses for ticks in the months following spring bird migration; when imported nymphs may have had time to drop off their avian host and moult to adults. The potential human and animal health risks of such events occurring more regularly are discussed.

_________________________

A ProMED-mail post

A tick capable of carrying a host of killer illnesses has been found in the UK for the very 1st time, health officials have revealed.

The _Hyalomma rufipes_ tick – a small blood-sucking arachnid – is usually confined to Africa, Asia and parts of southern Europe. But Public Health England [PHE] has now revealed one of the ticks, 10 times larger than others, was discovered in Dorset last year [2018]. The creature itself wasn’t found to be carrying the deadly Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHF).

The disturbing find, which could ‘present a threat to public health in the UK’, has been documented in the journal Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases.

A vet at The Barn Equine Surgery in Wimborne removed the tick from a horse last September [2018]. They then sent it to PHE’s tick surveillance team. Writing in the journal, the PHE team said: ‘This is the first time _Hyalomma rufipes_ has been reported in the United Kingdom. ‘The lack of travel by the horse – or any in-contact horses – suggests that this could also be the 1st evidence of successful moulting of a _Hyalomma_ nymph in the UK.’

The team of researchers who found the tick was led by Kayleigh Hansford, of PHE’s medical entomology and zoonoses ecology group.

Writing in the journal, they said it is suspected the tick hitched a ride on a migratory bird before landing in the UK. Neither the infested horse, nor other horses in the stable had travelled anywhere and no further ticks were detected on any of the horses. It is thought the tick travelled on a swallow because they are known to nest in the stables of horses and migrate from Africa to the UK for summer.

The UK climate, known to be getting warmer, is thought to be a major limiting factor for the survival of _Hyalomma rufipes_. However, the unusually warm weather experienced during the summer of 2018 may have been a factor for helping it moult – become an adult.

Currently, the ticks are found in Greece, Northern China, Russia, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Egypt, Yemen and Oman.

The World Health Organization last year [2018] named CCHF as one of 10 pathogens that pose the most ‘urgent’ threat to humanity.

Figures show the virus – most often spread through tick bites – kills around 40% of humans that it strikes. The horrific illness is said to manifest ‘abruptly’, with initial symptoms including fever, backache, headache, dizziness and sore eyes.

[Byline: Stephen Matthews]

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Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall

[Not mentioned in detail in the above report, the PHE team, using morphological and molecular methods, then tested for a range of tick-borne pathogens including: Alkhurma virus, Anaplasma, Babesia, Bhanja virus, Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic fever virus, Rickettsia and Theileria. The tick tested positive for _Rickettsia aeschlimannii_, a spotted fever group rickettsia linked to a number of human cases in Africa and Europe.

The critical question is if this is a single tick transported into Dorset, or represents one tick of a local breeding population. Transportation of a single tick by a migrating bird is a reasonable possibility. Immature (nymph) _Hyalomma_ usually feed on birds, rodents, and hares. Nymphs are often transported from one place to another by migrating birds. For example, a migrating bird carrying a CCH virus-infected _Hyalomma marginatum_ nymph can introduce the virus into new localities and infect humans and domestic livestock (Larry S.Roberts, 2009). Continued surveillance in the area where the single tick was found, as well as generally in the UK over the spring and summer months, would be prudent.

 

Category:

Anaplasmosis, Babesia, research, Rickettsia, Testing, Ticks, Viruses