By Alessandra Martinez
Published: April 11, 2017, 6:07 pm Updated: April 11, 2017, 6:51 pm
UMass Amherst’s Tick Testing Lab is researching where most ticks are and why they carry disease.
According to microbiology Professor, Dr. Stephen Rich,
“We’re finding pathogens that we didn’t know – well, we knew they were there, we just didn’t know how abundant they were. We find in some cases that people are getting sick from getting exposed to those, so we write those up in case studies and medical journals, for example.”
Send all ticks dead or alive to: Laboratory of Medical Zoology
Visit their Tick Report website for more information. For specific questions, contact:
(413) 545-1057 info@tickreport.com
Lorraine Johnson, JD, MBA, CEO of LymeDisease.org, presents results from MyLymeData in San Ramon, CA, on April 8, 2017. MyLymeData uses big data research tools which allow patients to quickly and privately pool their data to determine which treatments work best. For more information, go to www.LymeDisease.org.
This informative talk has some telling graphs.
At 5:12 Johnson explains a graph which shows the disproportionate amount of money going toward Lyme Disase research versus other diseases. Only 3 small clinical trials on the treatment of chronic Lyme disease were funded by the NIH – the most recent was 15 years ago. Fifty one percent of infectious disease trials are funded by industry – but industry isn’t interested in Lyme Disease.
At 10:36 using standard government questions used by the CDC and the NIH, she then explains another graph showing that those suffering with chronicLyme disease have a worse quality of life than those with MS, Fibromyalgia, and even congestive heart failure. This finding is in agreement with two other studies.
22:38 A graph shows that according to the survey about half were on antibiotics and about half were on alternative therapies. The most popular and successful alternative treatment was herbal protocols. Interestingly, 331 people did stem cells treatments but only 3% found them to be effective. Sixty-nine percent stated that rife was not effective or they were unsure.
Thousands are taking the MyLymedata surveys giving important data that we can take to legislators to drive change.
Please enroll today. The only way things are going to change is if WE do it. Everyone is needed.
Published on Jul 14, 2016
Dr. Tom Mather and Dr. Ed Breitschwerdt on the growing risks of tick and flea exposure from “Healthy Body, Healthy Minds” with special thanks to ITV productions.
Bartonella is a formidable coinfection for many Lyme/MSIDS patients. Symptoms are largely associated with where blood flow is compromised:
Skin rashes (stretch-mark-like), cysts, heartburn, abdominal pain, chest pain, gastritis, duodentis, mesenteric adenitis, psychological issues (anxiety, anger, suicidal thoughts, depression, irritability), pain in the soles of the feet, skin tags and red papules, endocarditis, acute encephalopathy, seizures, visual and auditory hallucinations, ocular floaters, fatigue, partial paralysis, laryngitis, severe confusion, difficulty swallowing, muscle weakness, and vasculitis that occurs anywhere in the body which can destroy blood vessels. For a longer list of symptoms see: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2011/09/25/the-bartonella-checklist-copyrighted-2011-james-schaller-md-version-11/
Since it exists in very low amounts in human blood, blood tests are unreliable. It also has a long division time between 22-24 hours and requires a special growth environment. There is a Triple Draw through Galaxy which collects blood over 8 days to maximize the test, stating a 90% reduction in false negatives.
http://townsendletter.com/July2015/bartonellosis0715_3.html Vectors include fleas and flea feces, biting flies such as sand flies and horn flies, the human body louse, mosquitoes, mites, and ticks; through bites and scratches of reservoir hosts; and potentially from needles and syringes in the drug addicted. Needle stick transmission to veterinarians has been reported. There is documentation that cats have received it through blood transfusion.
Bartonella infection in southern Finnish moose was 90.6% (inside the deer ked zone), while northern Finnish moose was 55.9% (outside the deer ked zone). At least two species of bartonellae were identified. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26967131/
An oft quoted dogma currently exists that states you can not get infected with Lyme or the various coinfections that typically come with it if you get the tick off within a window of 24-48 hours.
FALSE!
Transmission Time:
A study done on mice showed that at 24 hours every tick had transmitted borrelia to the mice; however, animal studies have proven that transmission can occur in under 16 hours and it occurs frequently in under 24 hours
No human studies have been done
No studies have determined the minimum time it takes for transmission Source
A 2018 study by Eisen et al. found the risk of infection increases:
10% after a tick has been attached for 48 hours
50% after 63 – 67 hours
70% by 72 hours
90% for a complete feed
Partially fed ticks and spirochetes in the salivary glands
There’s also the issue of partially fed ticks transmitting more quickly:
http://iai.asm.org/content/61/6/2396.full.pdf Ticks can spontaneously detach – and the authors of this study found that they did so 15% of the time in mice. They also state that about a tenth of questing nymphs appear distended with partially fed sub-adult ticks being common. If you are the tick’s second meal, it stands to reason transmission would be quicker
Several studies have shown that the Powassan virus can be transmitted within 15 minutes of tick attachment
Anaplasmosis and Borrelia miyamotoi can be transmitted within the first 24 hours of attachment, explains
Partially fed Amblyomma aureolatum (Gulf Coast ticks) have been shown to transmit Rickettsia rickettsii in as little as 10 minutes
Transmission with more than one pathogen is associated with more severe illness and renders antibiotics less effective. Tick Borne Viruses can be transmitted in minutes.
In the following video microbiologist Holly Ahern explains how the 24-48 window myth has been inappropriately used and is keeping people from getting diagnosed and treated.
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.wordpress.com/2016/12/07/igenex-presentation/? Bob Giguere of IGeneX states a case of a little girl who went outside to play about 8:30a.m. and came inside at 10:30 with an attached tick above her right eye. By 2 o’clock, she had developed the facial palsy. At the hospital she was told it couldn’t be Lyme as the tick hadn’t been attached long enough. They offered a neuro-consult…..
By 4pm she couldn’t walk or talk.
A Lyme literate doctor trained by ILADS met the family in his office on a Saturday, gave her an intramuscular injection of antibiotics and within 2 hours the palsy was gone. He continued her treatment for approximately 4 weeks.
One thing we can all agree upon is the probability of infection increases the longer the tick is attached, but to keep people from life-saving drugs that could keep them from a life-time of misery due transmission dogma is unjustifiable.
Independent Researcher, Highcliffe, Department of Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College London, London, UK
Abstract: In this study, Bayes’ theorem was used to determine the probability of a patient having Lyme disease (LD), given a positive test result obtained using commercial test kits in clinically diagnosed patients. In addition, an algorithm was developed to extend the theorem to the two-tier test methodology. Using a disease prevalence of 5%–75% in samples sent for testing by clinicians, evaluated with a C6 peptide enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the probability of infection given a positive test ranged from 26.4% when the disease was present in 5% of referrals to 95.3% when disease was present in 75%. When applied in the case of a C6 ELISA followed by a Western blot, the algorithm developed for the two-tier test demonstrated an improvement with the probability of disease given a positive test ranging between 67.2% and 96.6%. Using an algorithm to determine false-positive results, the C6 ELISA generated 73.6% false positives with 5% prevalence and 4.7% false positives with 75% prevalence. Corresponding data for a group of test kits used to diagnose HIV generated false-positive rates from 5.4% down to 0.1% indicating that the LD tests produce up to 46 times more false positives. False-negative test results can also influence patient treatment and outcomes. The probability of a false-negative test for LD with a single test for early-stage disease was high at 66.8%, increasing to 74.9% for two-tier testing. With the least sensitive HIV test used in the two-stage test, the false-negative rate was 1.3%, indicating that the LD test generates ~60 times as many false-negative results. For late-stage LD, the two-tier test generated 16.7% false negatives compared with 0.095% false negatives generated by a two-step HIV test, which is over a 170-fold difference. Using clinically representative LD test sensitivities, the two-tier test generated over 500 times more false-negative results than two-stage HIV testing.
