Archive for the ‘Testing’ Category

Sharp Rise in Lyme Cases Due to Change in How They Are Reported

https://www.lymedisease.org/sharp-rise-in-lyme-cases/

Sharp Rise in Lyme Cases Due to Change in How They Are Reported

Reported Lyme disease cases in the U.S. rose nearly 70% in 2022. The CDC says it’s not because of a large increase of new infections, but rather because of a change in reporting requirements.

According to the CDC, there were more than 62,000 reported cases in 2022. This was up from about 37,000 a year from 2017 through 2019.

Although the CDC estimates that about half a million people get Lyme disease in the US every year, “reported cases” are those which follow a strict case definition and specialized requirements.

In the past, in order for a Lyme case to be officially counted, local health departments needed to go through a complicated verification process for each case. In 2022, reporting requirements were eased in states the CDC considers “high incidence.” In those states, Lyme cases are now counted based solely on a positive Lyme test.

Read more here:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CNN

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**Comment**

Ha, ha, ha….this is a joke.

The chance of getting a positive test is akin to winning the lottery, so numbers in reality are exponentially higher yet.

For more:

It’s important to clearly understand that government sanctioned Lyme testing (like COVID testing) is utterly useless:

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing, Uncategorized

ALS & MS Suspected in Woman Later Diagnosed With Bartonella & Lyme Disease

https://danielcameronmd.com/als-and-ms-suspected-in-woman-later-diagnosed-with-bartonella-and-lyme-disease/

ALS AND MS SUSPECTED IN WOMAN LATER DIAGNOSED WITH BARTONELLA AND LYME DISEASE

bartonella-lyme-disease

After developing multiple neurologic symptoms following a spider bite, a woman tests positive for Bartonella. Yet, her symptoms are attributed to possible multiple sclerosis (MS) or ALS. Just prior to having hip surgery, additional tests confirm that she is positive not only for Bartonella, but for Lyme disease, as well.

By 

In their article, “Bartonella- and Borrelia-Related Disease Presenting as a Neurological Condition Revealing the Need for Better Diagnostics,” Ericson and colleagues describe the case of a 61-year-old female, who experienced a painful bite while hiking in Minnesota.¹

It was diagnosed as a spider bite because of the two large bite marks present and the painful sensation. One day after the bite, a large blue ring appeared around the bite and the woman developed muscle aches and pains.

The woman was treated with doxycycline for two weeks, which decreased but did not resolve the arthritic pain.

Five months later, her symptoms progressed to include blurry vision, lack of balance, muscle pain, night sweats and insomnia.

At this point, testing for Lyme disease and Bartonella were negative.

After expressing continued concern about having Lyme disease, she was referred to an infectious disease physician, who stated that he “did not believe in persistent Lyme disease.” She was then referred to a neurologist for an MRI.

“At this time, her blood was used in a research study aimed at developing new PCR diagnostic techniques for Bartonella infections,” the authors state.

This new PCR test confirmed the presence of both Bartonella vinsonii and Bartonella henselae.

One year after infection, the patient visited an integrative medicine physician who prescribed clarithromycin and rifampin based on symptoms consistent with a Bartonella infection.

However, her symptoms continued and she was referred to a physical therapist, who prescribed a wheeled walker. Her primary care physician attributed her symptoms to possible ALS or MS.

“She reported to multiple physicians that her hips sounded like popcorn whenever she walked or climbed stairs.”

Hip x-rays revealed a loss of cartilage. She had bilateral hip degeneration, which would require hip replacements.

Prior to surgery, the woman underwent another round of tests for Bartonella. And again, test results confirmed for a second time the presence of Bartonella.

However, in addition, testing revealed “a spirochete-like organism” in a buffy coat smear sample.

“Given her symptomology and the known possibility of co-infections in Lyme disease, the spirochete was suspicious for Borrelia burgdorferi.”

Testing for Lyme disease was positive.

Once the woman began treatment for Lyme disease, her condition improved.

However, “Despite the intermittent use of antibiotics for five years, the patient remains positive for Bartonella henselae and Borrelia burgdorferi.”

If she ceases taking antibiotics, her symptoms recur within 3 months.

Authors Conclude:

  • “This case report illustrates the inadequacy of conventional tests in diagnosing Bartonella spp. infections, and the potential promise of enhanced techniques.”
  • Serology and other antibody-based tests are usually used for Bartonella and Borrelia detection. However, this patient never tested positive through serology but was positive by FISH and PCR testing.
  • “The limitations of serology for detecting an active infection need to be more clearly understood by the medical community.”
References:
  1. Ericson ME, Mozayeni BR, Radovsky L, Bemis LT. Bartonella- and Borrelia-Related Disease Presenting as a Neurological Condition Revealing the Need for Better Diagnostics. Microorganisms. 2024; 12(1):209. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12010209

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**Comment**

Incredible work here, and it’s easy to see why: the funding for it was independently obtained through the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation and all the authors are serious researchers who are not part of the Cabal.  I know three of them personally and Dr. Mozayeni is a widely known and respected LLMD.  This work would NEVER happen in mainstream research which is completely bought out and untrustworthy.  Ericson, whose son had a severe Bartonella infection, continues to do amazing work:   https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/27/advanced-imaging-found-bartonella-around-pic-line/

This study shows perfectly what patients have been up against for decades: negative serology, coinfection involvement making the CDC definition meaningless, and transmission by other insects and arachnids.

But, nobody will care about this work except patients and the doctors who dare to treat them.

For more:

Category:

Bartonella, Lyme, research, Testing, Treatment

Deciphering Lyme Disease

https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/01/right-now-lyme-disease

Deciphering Lyme Disease

by Jonathan Shaw

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

WHOLE-GENOME sequencing of hundreds of samples of Borrelia burgdorferi, the tick-borne bacterium that causes Lyme disease, has revealed why the severity of the illness varies from place to place and person to person. The findings suggest new strategies for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of Lyme—the most prevalent vector-borne disease in North America and Europe, and one of the fastest-growing infectious diseases in the United States.

Assistant professor of medicine Jacob Lemieux spearheaded the sequencing effort beginning in 2017. Lemieux had become interested in tick-borne disease several years earlier, when he was a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of professor of immunology and infectious diseases Pardis Sabeti. A colleague had mentioned the genetic similarities between the parasites that cause babesiosis (a disease also spread by ticks) and malaria, which Lemieux had studied previously. Intrigued, he and Sabeti, one of the world’s leading geneticists studying the biology and evolution of human disease, published the whole-genome sequence of the Babesia parasite in 2015.

On the heels of that success, they expected their sequencing of Lyme-causing bacteria to take perhaps six months. “It took more like six years,” says Lemieux. “It turned out that the genetic diversity of Lyme disease is orders of magnitude harder to handle than any other pathogen.” And that complexity is associated with the wide range of Lyme disease symptoms—from severe arthritis in children to fatigue and potentially debilitating joint, neurological, and cardiovascular symptoms in adults—that persist in some patients for months or even years after treatment.

Rather than being concentrated in one place, “The genome of the Borrelia spirochete [it is a spiral-shaped bacterium] is shredded,” he explains. “There is one chromosome,” the double-stranded linear sequence of DNA found in most living cells, “but then there are about 20 plasmids.” Plasmids are small, circular strands of DNA that can replicate independently of the DNA in the main chromosome. And though extremely difficult to sequence, they turned out to be critical to understanding variations in the severity of Lyme disease.  (See link for article)

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A few key points:

  • Patient samples were primarily from those with the “classic” bullseye rash, which while diagnostic of Lyme is highly variable and often not seen at all in many patients.
  • The group focused on strains that disseminate easily.
  • A study author who also studies COVID states BOTH diseases have plasmids that used to be viruses that infected bacteria.
  • Notably, the most severe cases had a surface protein with plasmids that occur only in certain strains that are associated with virus-derived plasmids. Some of the genes encode lipoproteins on the bacterial surface which appear to protect the bacteria against immune assault.
  • The authors state their discovery will allow for better diagnostic tests that can single out those at risk of severe disease, which could in turn help researchers test whether longer treatments are more effective against these more dangerous strains.
  • Predictably, the group is pushing for a “vaccine” to “block” the illness from ever occurring.
  • The team included none other than Allen Steere who first identified the disease affecting children in Lyme, Connecticut that he wrongly attributed to juvenile arthritis. His continued myopic focus on Lyme arthritis is worth noting as the disease(s) in the literature has shown it to cause dermatological, neurological, and neuropsychiatric manifestations since the 1800’s. He was also named in the racketeering lawsuit alleging he colluded to deny persistent infection. He is a pharma consultant, co-author of the antiquated and unscientific IDSA Lyme guidelines and a CDC/EIS biowarfare officer which is chartered with responding to biowarfare agents released on U.S. soil, as well as developing vaccines against them. He also worked for the private Yale Corporation that worked closely with the biowarfare tick lab in Connecticut. Steere personally oversaw the Lymerix vaccine trials and associated tests run by the company that licensed the vaccine from his previous employer.  Steere personally testifies against doctors who who treat chronic Lyme.  Source

Category:

Lyme, research, Testing, vaccines, Viruses

Lyme Disease Test Lawsuit Settled & Dismissed

https://www.masslive.com/news/2024/01/lawsuit-over-at-home-lyme-disease-test-gets-dismissed-after-settlement.html

Lawsuit over at-home Lyme disease test gets dismissed after settlement

By Greta Jochem | gjochem@repub.com

SPRINGFIELD — A class action lawsuit alleging that an at-home Lyme disease test is faulty was voluntarily dismissed last week in U.S. District Court in Springfield after a settlement.

Moira Kerans, a Dalton woman, and TruthCures, a Kansas-based nonprofit group, filed a lawsuit in June against LetsGetChecked, arguing the company’s home Lyme disease tests are deceptive and inaccurate.

On Dec. 28, the plaintiffs filed to voluntarily dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning it can’t be brought again.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

The class action lawsuit alleges that the LetsGetChecked test is not accurate.

Sadly, this can be said about ALL testing for Lyme, particularly the FDA “cleared” 2-tier CDC testing, which was rigged for vaccine purposes by leaving out two highly specific bands.

As with most settlement cases, the terms are confidential so we will never know what went on behind closed doors.  The only thing that was brought to light was that the company will never again sell these tests directly to consumers.

The complaint asked for $5 million in damages and a jury trial. In the end, each side paid its own costs and attorneys fees, according to the voluntary dismissal paperwork.  Evidently the amount of money in the agreement was “minimal.”

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing

Under Our Skin 1 & 2 Lyme/MSIDS Documentary: Another Bioweapon?

A very real U.S. Government laboratory shrouded in secrecy that existed at Plum Island (which has been moved to Kansas state University) was inspired by a Nazi bioweapons expert, and housed Fort Terry a biological warfare defense research facility. The lab had a mission to poison cattle in the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was also connected to an African Swine Fever outbreak in Cuba. It should come as no surprise that strange genetically mutated creatures have washed up on the shores of the mainland.

Tick experimentation by the government has been going on since at least the 60’s due to their ability to spread disease, with certain pathogens never showing up on testing. The “discoverer” of Lyme disease – Willy Burgdorfer, just happened to work at the NIH state of the art BSL- 4 biomedical research facility called the Rocky Mountain Lab (RML) in Montana force-feeding ticks various pathogens.  There is also a record of dropping infected ticks from airplanes to study their distribution patterns.

It doesn’t take a rock-scientist to realize the implications of these actions.
But despite efforts the government says, “Nothing to see here!”

https://rumble.com/v43vmkx-under-our-skin-part-1-and-2-both-lyme-disease-movies-in-one-video-is-lyme-d.html

Under Our Skin 1 & 2:  Is Lyme Disease A Bioweapon?

Under Our Skin: Part 1 (2009)

https://amzn.to/48znBOJ

In the early 1970’s, a mysterious ailment was discovered among children living around the town of Lyme, CT. What was first diagnosed as isolated cases of juvenile arthritis, eventually became known as Lyme disease, an illness triggered by spiral-shaped bacteria, similar to the microorganisms that cause syphilis. Today, many of those untreated will suffer chronic debilitating illness. Some unknowingly will pass the disease onto their unborn children. Many will lose their livelihoods, and still others, their lives.

Yet Lyme disease is one of the most misunderstood and controversial illnesses of our time. Difficult to test accurately, tens of thousands of people go undiagnosed — or misdiagnosed with such conditions as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, autism, MS and ALS. The Centers for Disease Control estimates more than 300,000 people acquire Lyme disease each year, a number greater than breast cancers and AIDS combined. And yet, the medical establishment — with profound influence from the insurance industry — has stated that the disease is easily detectable and treatable, and that “chronic Lyme” is some other unrecognized syndrome or a completely psychosomatic disorder.

UNDER OUR SKIN is a powerful and often terrifying look not only at the science and politics of the disease, but also the personal stories of those whose lives have been affected and nearly destroyed. From a few brave doctors who risk their medical licenses, to patients who once led active lives but now can barely walk, the film uncovers a hidden world that will astound viewers. While exposing a broken health care and medical research system, the film also gives voice to those who believe that instead of a crisis, Lyme is simply a “disease du jour,” over diagnosed and contributing to another crisis: the looming resistance of microbes and ineffectuality of antibiotics. As suspenseful and hair-raising as any Hollywood thriller, UNDER OUR SKIN is sure to get under yours.

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Under Our Skin: Part 2 (Emergence) (2014)

https://amzn.to/48znBOJ

In this dramatic follow-up to the widely acclaimed UNDER OUR SKIN, EMERGENCE takes the viewer on a journey from horror to hope. We witness the emerging epidemic of Lyme disease as infection and education spread globally. We watch as the truth emerges about the disease’s persistence and reach, about promising new research, and about medical collusion and conflicts of interest that continue to impede progress. We revisit the characters from UNDER OUR SKIN as they emerge into better health, reclaiming their lives and dignity, and offering hope to the legions now suffering. As Lyme disease surges, EMERGENCE shines a probing light on the issue and becomes a beacon in the dark.

Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons (Book)

By Kris Newby

https://amzn.to/3NKAUUq

Amazon Description:

A riveting thriller reminiscent of The Hot Zone, this true story dives into the mystery surrounding one of the most controversial and misdiagnosed conditions of our time — Lyme disease — and of Willy Burgdorfer, the man who discovered the microbe behind it, revealing his secret role in developing bug-borne biological weapons, and raising terrifying questions about the genesis of the epidemic of tick-borne diseases affecting millions of Americans today.

While on vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, Kris Newby was bitten by an unseen tick. That one bite changed her life forever, pulling her into the abyss of a devastating illness that took ten doctors to diagnose and years to recover: Newby had become one of the 300,000 Americans who are afflicted with Lyme disease each year.

As a science writer, she was driven to understand why this disease is so misunderstood, and its patients so mistreated. This quest led her to Willy Burgdorfer, the Lyme microbe’s discoverer, who revealed that he had developed bug-borne bioweapons during the Cold War, and believed that the Lyme epidemic was started by a military experiment gone wrong.

In a superb, meticulous work of narrative journalism, Bitten takes readers on a journey to investigate these claims, from biological weapons facilities to interviews with biosecurity experts and microbiologists doing cutting-edge research, all the while uncovering darker truths about Willy. It also leads her to uncomfortable questions about why Lyme can be so difficult to both diagnose and treat, and why the government is so reluctant to classify chronic Lyme as a disease.

A gripping, infectious page-turner, Bitten will shed a terrifying new light on an epidemic that is exacting an incalculable toll on us, upending much of what we believe we know about it.

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December 27, 2023

Jay Bhattacharya @DrJBhattacharya writes:

I just finished @krisnewby’s Bitten, which tells the history of the US government’s secret program in the 1950s and 1960s to weaponize ticks to deliver deadly bacteria to incapacitate unsuspecting populations.

Newby, a talented journalist and science writer, structures her history around a biography of Willy Burgdorfer, the Swiss-American scientist who discovered borellia burgdorferi, a spirochete bacteria often found in Lyme disease patients.

It’s an incredible, infuriating, well-written book worth your time.

A few lessons:

1. The mid-20th century US biomedical research establishment was psychopathic, whole-heartedly embracing reckless, deadly investigations in the name of developing vaccines and bioweapons.

2. It is possible (& perhaps likely, though not proven) that the emergence and spread of Lyme disease may have been caused by this research program, which included large open-air testing of intentionally infected ticks on US soil.

3. The bioweapons program used combinations of viruses and bacteria infecting the same tick to hide the body’s immune response to infection from detection by standard medical tests.

4. Lyme disease and related syndromes are likely caused by more than just borellia burgorferi. Newby makes a circumstantial case for a shadowy rickettsia bacteria that Willy Burgdorfer studied, which he called the “Swiss agent.”

5. The financial interests of biomedical researchers and testing companies peddling faulty tests — alongside their control over the official pronouncements and policy of the National Institute of Health and the US Infectious Disease Society of America — have frozen in place a diagnostic doctrine that has led to countless Lyme disease patients misdiagnosed and gaslit about the symptoms they are suffering.

Closing thought: similar tendencies in the biomedical research and medical establishments are still extant and may help explain many things about the covid pandemic. History does not repeat, but it rhymes.

Source:  https://twitter.com/DrJBhattacharya/status/1740029782967148624

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**Comment**

Please read these articles to get a bird’s-eye view of the topic:

Category:

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