Archive for the ‘Testing’ Category

Lyme in Slovak Republic

https://cejph.szu.cz/artkey/cjp-201888-0011_association-of-seroprevalence-and-risk-factors-in-lyme-disease.php

Association of seroprevalence and risk factors in Lyme disease

Andrea Bušová1, Erik Dorko1, Eva Feketeová2, Kvetoslava Rimárová1, Jana Diabelková1, Tímea Rovenská1, Tomáš Csank3

Cent Eur J Public Health 2018, 26(Supplement):S61-S66 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a5274

Objective: The aim of the presented cross-sectional seroepidemiological study was to determine the current presence of antibodies against B. burgdorferi s.l. in the groups of Slovak population, and to identify potential risk factors to Lyme borreliosis.

Methods: A group of 261 adults (patients from the Neurological Clinic with possible symptoms of LB and healthy persons with possible working exposure to tick bite: gardeners and soldiers working in afforested areas) were examined in order to assess the seroprevalence of anti-Borrelia antibodies. Sera were screened by commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The respondents completed questionnaires with general demographic, epidemiological and clinical data.

Results: We detected 17.2% presence of positive IgG and 5.7% presence of positive IgM antibodies in all investigated groups. Our results confirmed that the following risk factors such as age and gender are significantly associated with the presence of positive specific antibodies against investigated disease.

Conclusion: The results of seroprevalence obtained in the present study confirm the possibility of infection with B. burgdorferi among respondents exposed to contact with ticks.

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**Comment**

Imagine the percentages if they used direct microscopy or even the MISDS questionnaire, not serology which misses half of cases:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/12/direct-diagnostic-tests-for-lyme-the-closest-thing-to-an-apology-you-are-ever-going-to-get/

Key quote:  “These serologic tests cannot distinguish active infection, past infection, or reinfection.”

In plain English, these tests don’t show squat.

Please spread the word that Dr. Horowitz’s MSIDS questionnaire has been validated and predicts Lyme much better than serology:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/09/05/empirical-validation-of-the-horowitz-questionnaire-for-suspected-lyme-disease/  The results support the use of the HMQ as a valid, efficient, and low-cost screening tool for medical practitioners to decide if additional testing is warranted to distinguish between Lyme disease and other illnesses.

Here it is.  You can print it off and fill it out yourself:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/symptomlist.pdf

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

There has been an ongoing record of suppression of microscopy for Lyme.  In an interview with now retired professor of microbiology Morten Laane, the facts come rolling out on how he was fired, his lab was closed down, and his published article disappeared without a trace after presenting his findings at a scientific conference on how microscopy showed spirochetes as well as other organisms like Babesia in a number of patients (12).  Laane is far from alone.  Dr. Sin Hang Lee has even filed a $57.1 million lawsuit against the CDC for suppressing direct detection tests, and for employing ‘Lysenkoism,’ a term used for a Russian political campaign using bogus science to suppress true biological and medical sciences and to punish scientists and doctors who don’t follow Party Line (13).

BTW:  The Lyme Good Old Boys aka The Cabal own patents on Lyme serology testing:  https://crymedisease.wordpress.com/2016/02/28/the-conspirators-they-own-the-patents-and-changed-the-testing/

Employees of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control hold patents on Lyme tests:  https://www.google.com/patents/EP2805168A1?cl=en  For nearly four decades now the only FDA approved test for Lyme disease is the indirect two-tiered antibody test.

Dr. Allen Steere filed a patent in 2013 for yet more antibody detection tests for Lyme disease: (Application #20150219646) Compositions and Methods for the Detection of Bacterial Infections Associated with Lyme Disease  https://patents.justia.com/patent/20150219646

Anybody smell a rat yet?

The other issue with this study is the fact they are STILL looking this as a ONE pathogen illness when it’s typically not:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/30/study-shows-lyme-msids-patients-infected-with-many-pathogens-and-explains-why-we-are-so-sick/  Key Quote:  “Our findings recognize that microbial infections in patients suffering from TBDs do not follow the one microbe, one disease Germ Theory as 65% of the TBD patients produce immune responses to various microbes.” 

 

Category:

Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks

First Report of Cat-Scratch Disease Associated With B. clarridgeiae

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC229848/

. 1997 Jul; 35(7): 1813–1818.
PMCID: PMC229848
PMID: 9196200

Bartonella clarridgeiae, a newly recognized zoonotic pathogen causing inoculation papules, fever, and lymphadenopathy (cat scratch disease).

D L Kordick, E J Hilyard, T L Hadfield, K H Wilson, A G Steigerwalt, D J Brenner, and E B Breitschwerdt

 

ABSTRACT

Shortly after adopting a 6-week-old cat, a veterinarian was bitten on the left index finger. Within 3 weeks, he developed headache, fever, and left axillary lymphadenopathy. Initial blood cultures from the cat and veterinarian were sterile. Repeat cultures from the cat grew Bartonella-like organisms with lophotrichous flagella. Sera from the veterinarian were not reactive against Bartonella henselae, B. quintana, or B. elizabethae antigens but were seroreactive (reciprocal titer, 1,024) against the feline isolate. Sequential serum samples from the cat were reactive against antigens of B. henselae (titer, 1,024), B. quintana (titer, 128), and the feline isolate (titer, 2,048). Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of this and six additional feline isolates, including microscopic evaluation, biochemical analysis, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, DNA-DNA hybridization, and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism of the 16S gene, 16S-23S intergenic spacer region, and citrate synthase gene identified the isolates as B. clarridgeiae.

This is the first report of cat scratch disease associated with B. clarridgeiae.

**Comment**

More and more strains of Bart are going to be found to be problematic to humans.

To this day, mainstream research and medicine is NOT factoring Bartonella into Lyme/MSIDS, yet nearly everyone I work with has it.  Research is scant and typically pushing the idea that only immunocompromised people around cats get it.  While this case certainly had cat exposure, many do not:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/23/chest-imaging-of-cat-scratch-disease-in-2-year-old-immunocompetent-baby-with-no-history-of-cat-contact/

To my knowledge there is little to no research showing the combined effect of Lyme and Bartonella.  This is desperately needed as well as the combined effect with Babesia, Mycoplasma, Tularemia, various viruses, and other coinfections.

Current research has shown the polymicrobial nature of this, yet mainstream medicine blindly continues on treating this is a singular pathogen disease when nothing could be further from the truth:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/30/study-shows-lyme-msids-patients-infected-with-many-pathogens-and-explains-why-we-are-so-sick/

Key Quote:  “Our findings recognize that microbial infections in patients suffering from TBDs do not follow the one microbe, one disease Germ Theory as 65% of the TBD patients produce immune responses to various microbes.”

Please see microscopy on Bartonella.  Slides in link:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/27/advanced-imaging-found-bartonella-around-pic-line/  Dr. Ericson has a vested interest in getting down to the bottom of things as her own son is struggling with persistent Bartonellosis.  She is now looking at Bartonella in skin cancer and Gulf War Illness as well as the role of biofilms in chronic Bartonellosis.  Please consider helping her research project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Bartonella, Testing

Ozarks Woman Hopes For Tick-borne Disease Progress With Proposed Federal Legislation

https://www.ky3.com/content/news/Ozarks-woman-hopes-for-tick-borne-disease-progress-with-proposed-federal-legislation-507052841.html

Ozarks woman hopes for tick-borne disease progress with proposed federal legislation

By Linda Simmons |
Posted: Tue 4:19 PM, Mar 12, 2019

 

https://www.ky3.com/templates/2015_Sub_Video_Share?contentObj=507052841“>https://www.ky3.com/templates/2015_Sub_Video_Share?contentObj=507052841  News Video Here

You probably try to protect yourself and your children from ticks and the diseases they carry with insect repellents. But new federal legislation would add resources to the battle against Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates 300,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year in the U.S. The proposed legislation would crate a new national strategy to combat tick-borne diseases.

The bill would create an office of oversight and coordination for tick-borne diseases in the Department of Health and Human Services.
It would expand and enhance research, develop new and better diagnostic tests and seek safe and effective vaccines.

Lori Geurin, who lives near Bolivar, hopes more resources are put toward exploring tick-borne diseases. She started having flu like symptoms and severe fatigue about seven years ago.

“My whole body was in pain, and I couldn’t sleep at all,” says Geurin. “I would have night after night of no sleep at all, and I was teaching and a mom of four children and a wife. And it was just all I could do to get up in the morning and get out of bed.”

A year and a half later, Geurin says she tested positive for Lyme disease in one test from a private company, one from her doctor, plus another tick borne disease called tularemia.

“He said that my symptoms, if I had been to the northeast, that he would diagnose me with Lyme because my symptoms were consistent with Lyme,” says Geurin.

“But because I hadn’t been to the northeast, I didn’t have Lyme disease.”

Her long search for answers is one reason she believes more research is needed on Lyme disease and other tick borne illnesses.

“I’ve read a lot that there isn’t enough funding for Lyme, and there’s so many people out there that I hear from every week have the same symptoms and they’ve been told the same things,” says Geurin.

Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler is one of many co-sponsors to the bill, House Resolution 220. It’s been introduced in the house and referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

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**Comment**

Another patient told they can’t have Lyme because it doesn’t show up on a man-made map. This is 2019, with information coming out on a daily basis on the spread of ticks and tick borne illness, yet doctors STILL have their heads in the sand.

This, right here, is a very real reason why thousands go undiagnosed.

Medical stupidity.

These maps are outdated and do not explain the whole story. Doctors, please use your God-given brains. Do not smugly rely on outdated information.  Be informed.  Do your homework.

Quit looking at maps and start listening to patients!

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/16/ticks-that-carry-lyme-disease-are-spreading-fast/

This tick border thing is a man-made constructed paradigm that has never been accurate, but it’s fit the CDC/NIH/IDSA narrative.  http://steveclarknd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/The-Confounding-Debate-Over-Lyme-Disease-in-the-South-DiscoverMagazine.com_.pdf (go to page 6 and read about Speilman’s maps which are faulty but have ruled like the Iron Curtain, and have been used to keep folks from being diagnosed and treated)

TIME TO PULL THE BLINDERS OFF AND LOOK AT THIS THING AS THE PANDEMIC IT TRULY IS.

There is Lyme in the South:  

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/31/no-lyme-in-the-south-guess-again/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/03/02/hold-the-press-arkansas-has-lyme/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/10/25/hope-for-southerners/

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing, Ticks, Tularemia

Disseminated Bartonella Visualized by PET/CT & MRI

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/9/1/25

Diagnostics 2019, 9(1), 25; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics9010025

Disseminated Bartonella henselae Infection Visualized by [18F]FDG-PET/CT and MRI

Marie Norredam 1,* , Andreas Knudsen 2, Carsten Thomsen 3and Lothar Wiese 2

Published: 1 March 2019
Abstract
We describe the clinical course of a 24-year old male with Crohn’s disease in immunosuppressive therapy admitted with a 6-week history of fever, weight loss, night sweat, and general malaise. The patient received extensive workup for a fever of unknown origin and received empiric antibiotics. Workup with Fluorine-18 fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose ([18F]FDG) positron-emission tomography (PET/CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with intravenous contrast showed multifocal ostitis of the columna and os sacrum, as well as abscesses in m. iliopsoas and m. iliacus and affection of the retroperitoneum, liver, and spleen. Initially, malignancy was suspected, but a subsequent liver biopsy showed necrotizing granulomatous inflammation and a later polymerase chain reaction (PCR) showed Bartonella henselae. The patient had relevant exposure from housecats. He was treated with Doxycycline and Rifampicin for 12 weeks resulting in complete recovery. This case is, to our knowledge, a rare example of disseminated infection with Bartonella henselae visualized on both [18F]FDG-PET/CT and MRI. View Full-Text
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**Comment**
The Cat’s beginning to get out of the bag regarding Bartonella.  Prepare yourself to see a whole lot more of this. I’m thankful that the authors stated that this case was to their knowledge a rare example; however, Bartonella has flown under the radar for so long chances are quite high there is much more of this going on. Similarly to Lyme and other coinfections, testing that relies on serology is abysmal and many remain undiagnosed.
We’ve always been told that folks that contract Bartonella need a history of cat exposure or other animals and have suppressed immune systems.  Please know, many completely healthy individuals with NO cat exposure can have disseminated Bartonella.  For examples of this:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/02/skin-inflammation-nodules-letting-the-cat-out-of-the-bag/  After the study I list 6 cases.
Dr. Ericson’s work has shown Bartonella virtually everywhere in the human body:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/27/advanced-imaging-found-bartonella-around-pic-line/  Slides in link
In my experience Bartonella is as bad if not worse than Lyme which gets all the press. Authorities do not even consider it with Lyme patients but nearly everyone I work with has it along with Lyme and often Babesia as well as Mycoplasma and various viruses.  Until the polymicrobial aspect is acknowledged and treated, we are doomed as patients.
Yes, Martha, Lone Star ticks are in Wisconsin as well:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/02/10/lone-star-ticks-in-wisconsin/

 

Category:

Bartonella, research, Testing, Treatment

Danish Study Shows Migrating Birds are Spreading Ticks & Their Pathogens – Including Places Without Sustainable Tick Populations

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30709658

2019 Jan 24. pii: S1877-959X(18)30126-2. doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2019.01.007. [Epub ahead of print]

Screening for multiple tick-borne pathogens in Ixodes ricinus ticks from birds in Denmark during spring and autumn migration seasons.

Klitgaard K1, Højgaard J2, Isbrand A2, Madsen JJ3, Thorup K3, Bødker R2.

Abstract

Presently, it is uncertain to what extent seasonal migrating birds contribute to the introduction of ticks and tick-associated pathogens in Denmark. To quantify this phenomenon, we captured birds during the spring and autumn migration at three field sites in Denmark and screened them for ticks. Bird-derived ticks were identified to tick species and screened for 37 tick-borne pathogens using real-time PCR. Overall, 807 birds, representing 44 bird species, were captured and examined for ticks during the spring (292 birds) and autumn migrations (515 birds). 10.7% of the birds harboured a total of 179 Ixodes ricinus ticks (38 ticks in spring and 141 in the autumn) with a mean infestation intensity of 2.1 ticks per bird. The European robin (Erithacus rubecula), the common blackbird (Turdus merula), and the common redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) had the highest infestation intensities. 60.9% of the ticks were PCR-positive for at least one tick-borne pathogen. Borrelia DNA was found in 36.9% of the ticks. The Borrelia species detected were B. spielmanii (15.1%), B. valaisiana (13.4%), B. garinii (12.3%), B. burgdorferi s.s. (2.2%), B. miyamotoi (1.1%), and B. afzelii (0.6%). In addition, 10.6% and 1.7% of the samples were PCR-positive for spotted fever group rickettsiae and Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis.

All of the tick-borne pathogens that we found in the present study are known to occur in Danish forest populations of I. ricinus. Our study indicates that migrating birds can transport ticks and their pathogens from neighboring countries to Denmark including sites in Denmark without a sustainable tick population. Thus, a tick-borne pathogen affecting human or animal health emerging at one location in Europe can rapidly be introduced to other countries by migrating birds. These movements are beyond national veterinary control. The current globalization, climatic and environmental changes affect the potential for introduction and establishment of ticks and tick-borne pathogens in Northern Europe. It is therefore important to quantify the risk for rapid spread and long distance exchange of tick-borne pathogens in Europe.

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**Comment** 

Great study until the end.  They have to mention “climatic” changes when this has been proven to be a red-herring:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/13/study-shows-lyme-not-propelled-by-climate-change/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/07/ticks-on-the-move-due-to-migrating-birds-and-photoperiod-not-climate-change/

Ticks are marvelous ecoadaptors and will survive harsh weather by seeking out leaf litter and snow.  In fact, warm winters have proven to be lethal to deer ticks.  In addition to that, please see links above for details on the shoddy science behind the climate model regarding ticks.

And, most importantly, as patients we must continue to insist on tax dollars and monies going for good, solid, transparent research on issues that will relieve human/animal suffering.  

Climate change data has not and will not help patients one iota.

 

Category:

Borrelia Miyamotoi (Relapsing Fever Group), Ehrlichiosis, Lyme, research, Rickettsia, Testing, Ticks, Transmission