Archive for the ‘Testing’ Category

Another CDC Conflict of Interest – Director Resigns

Scandalous CDC director RESIGNS after caught buying shares of vaccine maker Merck while heading the CDC

Wednesday, January 31, 2018 by: 

Image: Scandalous CDC director RESIGNS after caught buying shares of vaccine maker Merck while heading the CDC

(Natural News) As yet more proof that the CDC functions as little more than an extension of the corrupt vaccine industry, CDC director Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald was forced to resign yesterday following a that exposed her ownership of shares of Big Tobacco companies as well as Merck, a prominent vaccine manufacturer whose products are promoted by the CDC.

The gross conflict of interest didn’t stop there, either: Fitzgerald also purchased shares of junk food companies and a tobacco corporation, according to media reports, all while she was serving as director of the CDC. “Documents revealed Fitzgerald had holdings in Reynolds American, British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Philip Morris International, and Altria Group,” reports CNBC.

“Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald had also invested money in food and pharmaceutical companies just one month after taking over the job,” reports the UK Daily Mail.

Yes, the head of the CDC bought tobacco stocks and Big Pharma stocks, even when her own decisions at the CDC were neck-deep in gross conflicts of interest related to public health.(The CDC studies and reports on death and disease related to smoking. The corrupt agency also promotes pro-vaccine propaganda while burying all science that reveals vaccine injuries or adverse events.)

The CDC is in bed with junk food companies, vaccine manufacturers and Big Tobacco

This pattern of corruption and collusion is no surprise, given that the director of the CDC’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention was caught pushing pseudoscience nonsense that favored Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. The CDC, it turns out, is in bed with junk food companies, tobacco companies and vaccine manufacturers… all while claiming to be working in the interests of “public health.”

As further proof of that, CNBC reports:

Along with her Japan Tobacco purchases, documents confirm Fitzgerald also bought thousands of dollars of shares in several health-care companies, including Merck & Co, Bayer and Humana, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deemed a conflict of interest…

In other words, the head of the CDC stood to profit from vaccines, medications, tobacco use and “disease profits” reaped by health care companies.

As the World Mercury Project explains:

Both Merck and Bayer have a pattern of wreaking havoc on human health while striving to bury the evidence. Merck, for example, manufactures the top-selling but devastating Gardasil vaccine and used statistical gimmicks and other deceptive tactics to conceal Gardasil’s risks. Whistleblowers also have accused Merck of falsifying its mumps vaccine data. Bayer, too, has a track record of “scandal and marketing fraud,” having once paid out millions to the U.S. government in a medical fraud settlement after admitting to overcharging for Bayer’s antibiotic Cipro. Bayer also settled tens of millions after having persisted in selling contaminated blood products to hemophiliacs. At present, Bayer is poised to close a “mega-deal” to merge with Monsanto, which manufactures the glyphosate-containing herbicide RoundUp—both glyphosate and RoundUp’s other ingredients have been shown to be highly toxic.

As this video explains, the CDC actually owns 56 vaccines and profits from pro-vaccine propaganda:

Natural News vindicated yet again for accurately claiming the CDC is tied to vaccine makers

The bombshell news confirms yet again that Natural News has been right all along in reporting the “corruption and collusion” of the CDC and vaccine makers. On January 26, 2017, Natural News published a story entitled CDC works in collusion with vaccine manufacturers… can you really trust their “fake science?”

As that story explains:

If you’ve ever wondered how the CDC can afford to do all that it does, look no further than the CDC Foundation. The organization describes itself as some kind of liaison between the CDC and the private sector, existing solely for public benefit, but a quick look at their list of corporate partners reveals a much more sordid story; a story of fake science that is being propagated for industry benefit. While studying the rather lengthy list of corporate donors — who also sometimes collaborate with the CDC on their project — one might notice that many of them are pharma companies, pesticide makers, and biotech firms.

When one considers the apparent ties the CDC has to Merck — and countless other corporations — it honestly raises doubts for just about anything the federal agency has put their stamp on.

The World Mercury Project adds:

The CDC has its own lengthy history of corruption and deceit and has routinely turned a blind eye to conflicts of interest while it works to “protect the private good.” Although the agency owns 56 patents applicable to vaccines, it has no problem shredding vaccine safety data it doesn’t like, while continuing to serve as the nation’s powerful (and ostensibly “independent”) arbiter of vaccine policy. Julie Gerberding, the doctor who led the CDC from 2002 to 2009 (the time period when the Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil without proper safety testing), left CDC to become president of Merck Vaccines and subsequently became Merck’s executive vice president for global strategic communications. Gerberding has benefited handsomely from her shares of Merck stock.

Thus, Brenda Fitzgerald’s personal financial stake in companies such as Merck and Bayer only illustrates, in microcosm, the CDC’s longstanding willingness to cozy up to Big Pharma and Big Health Care in defiance of ethics rules.

CDC corruption and collusion with death-causing corporations is now an established fact

With Dr. Fitzgerald’s sudden resignation and credibility implosion, we now have irrefutable proof that top CDC personnel have financial conflicts of interest with with vaccine companies, Big Pharma companies and even junk food companies.This is now an established fact, widely reported across most of the media. (Natural News told you this years ago…)

Watch the CDC lie to Congress about “vaccine safety” in this eye-opening video:

Follow more news on the corruption and criminality of the CDC at CDC.news. Stay informed about the lies and deceptions of the baby-murdering vaccine industry at Vaccines.news.

______________

**Comment**

And these are the very folks in power over all things Lyme/MSIDS.  Frightening indeed.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/11/29/spider-attacks-cdc/  CDC scientists expose agency corruption

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/09/25/speaking-of-fake-science-fifty-seven-million-anti-trust-lawsuit-against-cdc-lyme-tests/  An anti-trust law suit of $57 million is being prepared against the CDC. They are accused of deliberately suppressing the use of an accurate DNA direct diagnostics for Lyme disease.

After publishing the 2013 article ‘A simple method for the detection of live Borrelia spirochetes in human blood using classical microscopy techniques’, professor Laane was invited to give a lecture at the 2014 Norvect conference in Oslo. I was present at that conference and still remember how nervous he was. The reason was that several medical professors complained to his university. He was threatened with losing his job, if he would speak at the conference.  In fact, he did not literally speak – as you can see in the movie below – but used performing arts to show the slides of the spirochetes. Professor Laane was fired anyway and his laboratory was closed down.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/06/remembering-dr-masters-the-rebel-for-lyme-patients-who-took-on-the-cdc-single-handedly/  Masters went over the charts with a fine tooth comb and found huge CDC errors. Another contentious point was the arbitrary cut off date imposed by the CDC which did not pick up serious late-stage symptoms. Another was the CDC’s rejection of many positive blood tests performed in its own lab, as well as other lab work showing “motile spirochetes” in nearly 5% of lone star nymphs. Long story short, after numerous revisions, Masters could never sign onto the bastardized study. The CDC had purposely tossed out data and manipulated the results.

The CDC essentially tried blackmailing Masters into signing off on the study before they would let him see the final draft. Refusing the bait, he published a letter of objection in the Journal of Infectious Diseases as well as an article of his own in Missouri Medicine which showed Missouri patients met the CDC surveillance definition for LD and growing evidence that lone star ticks were infected with an unidentified spirochete causing identical symptoms of LD in patients. When the CDC study came out they unbelievably attributed the rashes they labeled STARI to an allergy to tick saliva! In the acknowledgment section of the paper where dozens of folks were thanked, they completely omitted the man who made it all possible – Dr. Ed Masters.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/01/31/when-als-is-lyme-letter-to-tbi-working-group/  The racketeering scheme to downplay the severity of Lyme disease as identified in the RICO lawsuit should be addressed and documented by the TBD Working Group and not ignored as if this crime does not exist otherwise it will be business as usual at the Centers for Disease Control and we’ll have another thirty years of failure to properly diagnose, treat and control this life-altering infection.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/12/09/25303/ 10 points – Suing the Architects of Lyme Policy as Task Force Meets to Review it

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/12/02/still-a-pig-with-lipstick-cdc-removes-link-to-idsa-guidelines/  And you’ll notice that for information about “chronic Lyme disease” and long-term treatment, the CDC page kicks you to the National Institutes of Health website. If you follow the link, you’ll find the same-old, same-old tripe about how long-term treatment doesn’t help, etc. (Based on three statistically puny studies of “chronic Lyme” the NIH funded years ago.)  Perhaps the CDC is trying to make its ties to the IDSA less glaringly obvious.

 

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/12/the-cdc-needs-a-good-dictionary/  The statement “this disease does not occur nationwide” is inaccurate.  According to CDC surveillance reports, Lyme disease has been reported in every U.S. state except Hawaii, and the black-legged tick that transmits Lyme disease has been found in 45 percent of U.S. counties.

“As a result of their speaking out, from 1997 to 2000, more than 50 physicians in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island and Texas were investigated, disciplined or had had their licenses removed. Many of these doctors were reported to their medical boards by the insurance defendants,” the complaint states.
The insurers also allegedly reported doctors who were treating chronic Lyme disease to state medical boards, leading many doctors to refuse to treat Lyme disease patients.”
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/09/07/20268/  LYMErix did not produce antibodies. It is a fungal antigen. It activates latent herpesviruses, which are basically the main drivers of the MS and Lupus outcomes. And OspA-induced tolerance to similar TLR2-agonists causing the ALS and Chronic Fatigue outcomes (mycoplasma bear OspA-like antigens). LYMErix vaccine (and the Tuberculosis vaccines) all failed because they caused immunosuppression, no antibodies, and they made the victims more susceptible to other infections.
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/12/05/bought-documentary-on-pharma-vaccines-gmos/  “The goal of officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is to achieve a 90 percent health care worker vaccination rate by 2020, and a key strategy for meeting this goal is to tie a health care facility’s employee flu vaccination rate to the facility’s Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements from the federal government.”

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Lyme Vaccine, Testing, Treatment

New Powassan Test – 89% Sensitive

Development and Validation of a Serologic Test Panel for Detection of Powassan Virus Infection in U.S. Patients Residing in Regions Where Lyme
Disease Is Endemic

Thomm AM, Schotthoefer AM, Dupuis AP II, Kramer LD, Frost HM, Fritsche
TR, Harrington YA, Knox KK, Kehl SC.
/mSphere/. 2018 Jan 10;3(1). pii: e00467-17. eCollection 2018 Jan-Feb.

https://doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00467-17

Abstract

Powassan virus (POWV) is an emerging tick-borne arbovirus presenting a
public health threat in North America. POWV lineage II, also known as
deer tick virus, is the strain of the virus most frequently found in
/Ixodes scapularis/ ticks and is implicated in most cases of POWV
encephalitis in the United States. Currently, no commercial tests are
available to detect POWV exposure in tick-borne disease (TBD) patients.

We describe here the development and analytical validation of a
serologic test panel to detect POWV infections. The panel uses an
indirect enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to screen. EIA-positive samples reflex
to a laboratory-developed, POWV-specific immunofluorescence assay (IFA).

The analytical sensitivity of the test panel was 89%, and the limit of
detection was a plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT) titer of
1:20. The analytical specificity was 100% for the IgM assay and 65% for
the IgG assay when heterologous-flavivirus-positive samples were tested.

On samples collected from regions where Lyme disease is endemic,
seroprevalence for POWV in TBD samples was 9.4% (10 of 106) versus 2%
when tested with non-TBD samples (2 of 100, /P/ = 0.034). No evidence of
POWV infection was seen in samples collected from a region where Lyme
disease was not endemic (0 of 22).

This test panel provides a sensitive and specific platform for detecting
a serologic response to POWV early in the course of infection when
neutralizing antibodies may not be detectable. Combined with clinical
history, the panel is an effective tool for identifying acute POWV
infection.

*Importance*
Approximately 100 cases of POWV disease were reported in the United
States over the past 10 years. Most cases have occurred in the Northeast
(52) and Great Lakes (45) regions
(https://www.cdc.gov/powassan/statistics.html). The prevalence of POWV
in ticks and mammals is increasing, and POWV poses an increasing threat
in a greater geographical range.

In areas of the Northeast and Midwest where Lyme disease is endemic,
POWV testing is recommended for patients with a recent tick bite,
patients with Lyme disease who have been treated with antibiotics, or
patients with a tick exposure who have tested negative for Lyme disease
or other tick-borne illnesses and have persistent symptoms consistent
with posttreatment Lyme disease. Testing could also benefit patients
with tick exposure and unexplained neurologic symptoms and chronic
fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients with known tick exposure.

Until now, diagnostic testing for Powassan virus has not been
commercially available and has been limited to patients presenting with
severe, neurologic complications. The lack of routine testing for
Powassan virus in patients with suspected tick-borne disease means that
little information is available regarding the overall prevalence of the
virus and the full spectrum of clinical symptoms associated with
infection. As /Ixodes scapularis/ is the tick vector for Powassan virus
and multiple other tick-borne pathogens, including the Lyme disease
bacterium, /Borrelia burgdorferi/, the clinical presentations and
long-term outcomes of Powassan virus infection and concurrent infection
with other tick-borne disease pathogens remain unknown.

_______________

More on Powassan:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/28/powassan-can-kill/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/05/05/powassan-another-reason-to-avoid-ticks/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/05/18/powassan-and-bb-infection-in-wisconsin-and-u-s-tick-populations/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/04/29/more-powassan-in-maine/

 

Category:

Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks, Viruses

Review of Lyme Tests & How to Diagnose Lyme – Dr. Marty Ross LLMD

 Approx. 31 Min

Jan. 2018

Marty Ross MD LLMD describes how to overcome obstacles to getting a Lyme diagnosis like how to find a doctor to help you or what the best and lowest cost test is. Read more helpful articles about how to treat and diagnose Lyme at www.treatlyme.net

Ross states emphatically it’s possible to have Lyme and test negative.

Dr. Ross uses the Horowitz Lyme/MSIDS Questionnaire:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/symptomlist.pdf

If you are concerned you may be infected, please print and fill this out.  Tell others about this questionnaire as it really is a great document to help you figure things out.  Take it with you to your doctor appointment.

Ross states that in his practice about 15% of sexual partners both have Lyme, indicating the need to consider it as a STD.  For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/02/24/pcos-lyme-my-story

He also points out he sees it in families and suggests there is a genetic component.  I would also add that I feel there are probably many ways to contract it but the studies are lacking or are old.  Bb is fastidious and extremely tough to study in the lab:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/02/24/pcos-lyme-my-story/  (Breast milk, semen, vaginal secretions, congenitally, urine, saliva, and other modes)

Ross has found that 30% of his chronic fatigue & fibromyalgia patients also have Lyme.

At about 13:00 he talks about Lyme testing.  

He says the CDC 2-tiered testing is worthless and a waste of money. 

He talks about using an antibiotic challenge which is using antibiotics for 3 weeks before testing so the immune system has a stronger reaction and can be picked up on the test.

To read about IGeneX testing:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/12/07/igenex-presentation/

New tests:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/01/15/new-lyme-tests-could-offer-quicker-more-accurate-detection/

http://www.treatlyme.net/treat-lyme-book/best-lyme-tests/  The following review by Dr. Ross on Lyme testing includes the new tests from IGenex.  Ross advises caution on DNA Connexions.  He also does NOT include the CD-57 test as it only shows immune suppression which may or may not be caused by a Lyme infection.  Please go to link for a detailed explanation of all the available tests.

Although tests are helpful they are far from perfect.  The toughest part of my job is convincing patients that testing may NEVER be positive and yet a person can be infected.  Having a positive test somehow validates to a person that the are sick.  For Lyme/MSIDS, that paradigm just isn’t true and you must shift your thinking to a symptom-based illness that defies testing.  

There are plenty of us that believe you out here in Lyme Land!

In the video Ross recommends taking the specific test you want taken to your doctor and circle the exact test(s) you want.  Show them the validation/accuracy numbers so they can see the results.

Before you attempt that, read this first:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/01/15/new-lyme-tests-could-offer-quicker-more-accurate-detection/

Unfortunately, doctors at this point in time are brain-washed into thinking the only valid tests are the CDC-two-tiered testing.  They’ve been taught that any other lab out there is using “home brewed” tests and equivalent to quackery.

More on testing:  https://www.lymedisease.org/lyme-basics/lyme-disease/diagnosis/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/01/16/2-tier-lyme-testing-missed-85-7-of-patients-milford-hospital/

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

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/15/reliability-of-lyme-testing/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/08/lyme-testing-using-two-recominant-proteins/

For an excellent article on testing by Dr. Ross:  http://www.treatlyme.net/treat-lyme-book/best-lyme-tests/.  This is covered in Ross’s The Treat Lyme Book and is by subscription only (monthly, for a year, or for $30 you have unlimited access and will be able to read on many topics.  Highly recommended)

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing

2-Tier Lyme Testing Missed 85.7% of Patients – Milford Hospital

https://www.change.org/p/1120418/u/22255324?utm_medium=email&utm_source=petition_update&utm_campaign=228977&sfmc_tk=GMMXfuEdwN9ahd2uRes%2bYz7IACkro6DA7%2brPwdqwfoMnga0JumrNDJyG2Dm49N96&j=228977&sfmc_sub=410444853&l=32_HTML&u=41890189&mid=7259882&jb=74

The 2-tier serology assay missed 85.7% of the cases of early Lyme disease with spirochetemia

Carl Tuttle
Hudson, NH
JAN 16, 2018 — Please see the letter below addressed to the TBD Working Group referencing ongoing attempts to suppress direct detection methods in the laboratory testing for Lyme disease.

Anyone wishing to contact the Lyme Disease Working Group can send an email to:  tickbornedisease@hhs.gov

Letter to the Working Group:

I would like to call attention to the study below published in November of 2010 by Dr. Sin Lee identifying faulty serology tests for Lyme disease in 85.7% of the walk-in patients in the Emergency Room of Milford Hospital.

One month after publishing his paper (Dec 13, 2010) Dr. Lee received a termination of employment letter from the Director of Human Resources at Milford Hospital as they ordered the immediate shutdown of the molecular diagnostic laboratory. It appears that individuals at Yale Medical Group weren’t happy with the truth and wanted to end his work and shut down his lab sabotaging the development of a DNA sequencing test for Lyme disease diagnosis.

For those who haven’t made the connection:

Serology cannot be used to gauge treatment failure or success which makes it the ideal tool for concealing persistent infection perpetuating the thirty year dogma that chronic Lyme does not exist.

Did the scientists in Europe use Western blot or DNA sequencing to prove the Iceman contracted Lyme disease 5000 years ago? If DNA sequencing can be used to confirm Lyme disease in a dead man frozen 5000 years ago, why are we not trying to use the same technology to diagnose Lyme disease on those still walking?

Iceman Mummy May Hold Earliest Evidence of Lyme Disease

https://www.livescience.com/18704-oldest-case-lyme-disease-spotted-iceman-mummy.html

Dr. Lee went on to win a lawsuit against his employer’s irrelevant unsubstantiated accusations(Sin Hang Lee vs. Milford Hospital, Incorporated et al) and reopened his lab to continue his work. In 2014 Dr. Lee published a study of persistent infection while working on a project with the Centers for Disease Control. Once that study was published, the CDC stopped communicating with him.

“There are people who do not want to see the ugly truth which may be revealed by widespread use of direct detection tests.”

With early detection and treatment, eradication of infection is possible but faulty/misleading antibody tests are the root cause of unimaginable pain and suffering.

A Lyme patient in Norway won her recent lawsuit due to faulty/misleading antibody tests….

“On May 23rd, 2017, Seim was granted, in the District Court, 340,000 in court costs, and claims for expenses for up to 90,000”

BOTA BORRELIA – CURE LYME – Lyme patient receives compensation 10 years after inadequate treatment.
https://botaborrelia.wordpress.com/2018/01/09/bota-borrelia-cure-lyme-borreliapatient-far-ersattning-10-ar-efter-bristande-behandling-lyme-patient-receives-compensation-10-years-after-inadequate-treatment/
___________________________

1. Dr. Lee’s 2010 Publication:

BMC Res Notes. 2010 Nov 1;3:273. doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-3-273.
Early Lyme disease with spirochetemia – diagnosed by DNA sequencing.
Lee SH1, Vigliotti VS, Vigliotti JS, Jones W, Williams J, Walshon J. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21040573

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

A sensitive and analytically specific nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) is valuable in confirming the diagnosis of early Lyme disease at the stage of spirochetemia.

FINDINGS:

Venous blood drawn from patients with clinical presentations of Lyme disease was tested for the standard 2-tier screen and Western Blot serology assay for Lyme disease, and also by a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for B. burgdorferi sensu lato 16S ribosomal DNA. The PCR amplicon was sequenced for B. burgdorferi genomic DNA validation. A total of 130 patients visiting emergency room (ER) or Walk-in clinic (WALKIN), and 333 patients referred through the private physicians’ offices were studied. While 5.4% of the ER/WALKIN patients showed DNA evidence of spirochetemia, none (0%) of the patients referred from private physicians’ offices were DNA-positive. In contrast, while 8.4% of the patients referred from private physicians’ offices were positive for the 2-tier Lyme serology assay, only 1.5% of the ER/WALKIN patients were positive for this antibody test. The 2-tier serology assay missed 85.7% of the cases of early Lyme disease with spirochetemia. The latter diagnosis was confirmed by DNA sequencing.

CONCLUSION:

Nested PCR followed by automated DNA sequencing is a valuable supplement to the standard 2-tier antibody assay in the diagnosis of early Lyme disease with spirochetemia. The best time to test for Lyme spirochetemia is when the patients living in the Lyme disease endemic areas develop unexplained symptoms or clinical manifestations that are consistent with Lyme disease early in the course of their illness.
__________________________

2. Dr. Lee’s additional publication identifying chronic Lyme: (2014)

DNA sequencing diagnosis of off-season spirochetemia with low bacterial density in Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia miyamotoi infections.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24968274
_______________________

At what point in time do we acknowledge that Lyme disease has been tenaciously mishandled to protect the long established racketeering scheme outlined in the Shrader & Associates RICO lawsuit;

You can read the court document here:

https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LymeDisease.pdf

Might I remind everyone reading this email that the Centers for Disease Control has aligned itself with the seven defendants identified in this racketeering lawsuit so if the CDC is allowed to oversee the future direction of Lyme per the recommendations/outcome of this TBD Working Group we are in for another thirty years of failure to control, treat and eliminate this 21st Century plague.

Sincerely,

Carl Tuttle
Lyme Endemic Hudson, NH

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing, Uncategorized

Developing New Tests to Identify ALL Bacteria in Ticks – Drexel University

https://www.lymedisease.org/drexel-new-tick-testing/

LYME SCI: Developing new tests to identify ALL bacteria in ticks

by Lonnie Marcum

Researchers at Philadelphia’s Drexel University College of Medicine have joined the fight against tick-borne diseases and are asking citizens throughout the US to send them ticks.

Drexel’s Center for Advanced Microbial Processing (CAMP) has developed a state-of-the-art facility using comprehensive high-resolution testing able to detect all bacteria inside of ticks—not just Lyme disease and its better-known co-infections.

The goal of CAMP is to identify emerging pathogens and use that information to find targeted therapies to cure infection and illness.

Garth Ehrlich, PhD, holds professorships in two departments at Drexel—Microbiology & Immunology, and Otolaryngology. He’s also Executive Director of CAMP. He first thought of testing ticks while working on a different project a couple years ago.

Dr. Ehrlich knew about Lyme disease at the time, and started thinking his “Pan Domain Test” might be useful to identify the many different bacteria that are carried by ticks. After looking further, he realized most tick testing done in the past was limited to just a few common pathogens.

The Pan Domain test is unique. It uses “next-generation sequencing” to look for specific genetic markers and is able to detect every bacterium known to science—in just one test. This is different from PCR or ELISA testing, which require a separate test for each suspected pathogen.

In the end, Dr. Ehrlich hopes to have a comprehensive picture of exactly what diseases are carried by ticks in the U.S. Along the same lines, a recent study in France found that 45% of ticks carried five different pathogens. See:  https://www.lymedisease.org/lyme-sci-coinfections/

Current tick testing at CAMP is only set up to detect bacteria. The second phase of the study will look for parasites and fungi found in the same ticks. At this time, the researchers want as many ticks as they can get from diverse parts of the country. This information will give a clearer picture of which tick-borne diseases are the biggest risks in different regions.

Dr. Ehrlich’s goal is to bring the test to the public for human testing. He says that if all goes as planned, the bacterial assay could be available in 2018, with the parasite/fungi test about three to six months behind that. He estimates that his Pan Domain testing will cost significantly less than traditional testing for each pathogen. Not only is it cheaper, but the Pan Domain test can detect emerging bacteria, for which there currently are no standard tests.

I talked to Dr. Jaroslaw (Jarek) Krol when I was at ILADS in November. Jarek is the lab manager for CAMP and is deeply involved in the development of the genetic sequencing and analysis of the tick-testing project. He told me that preliminary tick testing has detected up to 60 different bacteria in northeastern ticks. Since co-infections compound illness and complicate treatment, the ability to rapidly detect many infections at once would be invaluable.

Dr. Krol says ticks can be sent in dead or alive. However, if you are going to send in more than one tick, please bag them separately. Ticks can share germs, he says, which can skew test results.

Click here to download the instructions and form for sending your ticks to CAMP:  http://drexel.edu/medicine/about/departments/institute-for-molecular-medicine-infectious-disease/Research-Centers-of-Excellence/center-for-advanced-microbial-processing/microbiome-testing-on-ticks/

Important note: CAMP testing is for research only. You will not be sent results of the testing. If you have been bitten by a tick and want to know what pathogens you were exposed to, you can send it to the University of Massachusetts’ TickReport. You should receive results within three business days.  https://www.tickreport.com

LymeSci is written by Lonnie Marcum, a Licensed Physical Therapist and mother of a daughter with Lyme. Follow her on Twitter: @LonnieRhea Email her at: lmarcum@lymedisease.org.

 

Category:

research, Testing, Ticks