Archive for the ‘Testing’ Category

Unraveling Complexities of Lyme Disease Laboratory Testing

http:// Approx. 12 Min.

Lyme Resource Centre

Dr Armin Schwarzbach, 2nd European Crypto-Infections Conference

26th-27th September 2020, via Zoom

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For more on Lyme testing:

Category:

Lyme, Testing

WI Tick-borne Illness Center on Hope & Healing & New York’s Upstate Tick Testing Program Tracks Alarming Trend,

https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee/news/2021/05/06/tick-borne-illness-center-looks-to-provide–hope-and-healing–for-lyme-disease-patients

Tick-Borne Illness Center looks to provide “hope and healing” for Lyme disease patients

By Maddie Burakoff Wisconsin

May. 06, 2021

WOODRUFF, Wis. — Across Wisconsin, as spring blooms are starting to emerge from the soil, a tiny threat is also popping out of the ground: Ticks, and the disease-inducing bacteria they carry.

“Most people are aware of Lyme disease,” said nurse practitioner Ashley Johnson, who focuses on treating tick-borne disease. “I’m not sure that everyone is aware of how serious it can be if it’s undertreated or left untreated.”

What You Need To Know

Rates of Lyme disease have risen in recent decades, but getting treatment can be a challenge
The Tick-Borne Illness Center of Excellence in Woodruff provides treatment for patients with new or chronic symptoms
The debate over chronic Lyme disease is still controversial, which providers say can be frustrating for patients
Precautions like covering up and checking for ticks every day can help you stay safe during tick season

(See link for article)

https://www.lymedisease.org/new-york-upstate-tick-testing/

New York’s Upstate Tick Testing Program tracks alarming trend

Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, has a year-round tick testing program.

In the following report from WSYR-TV, Dr. Saravanan Thangamani discusses the rise in tick numbers throughout the state–as well as the increased number of different infections carried by ticks.

2 Minute news video & story here: https://www.localsyr.com/news/local-news/living-with-lyme-upstate-tick-testing-program-tracks-alarming-trend/

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For more:

Ticks on the beach: https://www.webmd.com/arthritis/news/20210507/ticks-surprise-us-2021-may-be-big-lyme-disease-year
Minnesota Lyme Association warns, “If you have the bullseye rash, you have Lyme. It’s not prudent to wait on a test. If done too early, the result will be negative anyway.” (Please remember many never get or see a rash – but it IS diagnostic. Do not let a doctor turn you away if you have the rash). I would demand prophylactic treatment of EACH and EVERY tick bite.

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing, Ticks

How to Co-Exist With Wisconsin’s Ticks

https://mywisconsinwoods.org/2020/05/27/how-to-co-exist-with-wisconsins-ticks/

By Denise Thornton

If you plan to be out in the woods or live next to woods, don’t be too quick to trade long pants and long sleeves for shorts and a tee shirt as the weather warms. You need to protect yourself from the ticks that are starting to emerge. Tick bites are possible year-round, but ticks are most active April through September.

Many types of ticks never feed on people. In Wisconsin, the two most common ticks that do are the wood tick, which is not a health concern here, and the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis), commonly known as the deer tick, which can transmit several serious diseases including Lyme disease and, more recently, anaplasmosis, which can start with symptoms like fever and nausea and in some cases, progress to organ failure.

Deer tick (left) and Wood tick (right). Photo courtesy of prevention.com

Wisconsin is Tick Heaven

The Upper Midwest and the northeastern states are hardest hit by Lyme disease, and the numbers in Wisconsin are rising. According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Wisconsin had 3,105 estimated cases in 2018.

Once considered to be a north woods hazard, deer ticks are now found in every county of the state. Deer are an important blood source for adult ticks, and in 2018 overwinter deer densities in the state varied from three to over 60 per square mile. The abundant woodlands interspersed with agriculture throughout much of central and southwestern Wisconsin creates high quality deer habitat.

“There’s been a change in the past 25 years,” says Dr. Susan Paskewitz, chair of the UW-Madison Department of Entomology. Ticks thrive in moist, shady forested environments, and love our increasingly mild winters. “We find them in pine forests, mixed forests and deciduous forests.”

Paskewitz has sampled along the woody edges and out into the yard in neighborhoods in Eau Claire and near Delton.

“Of 90 houses tested, by the end of June, 80 percent of them had at least one deer tick in the area we were sampling. Most were within three to six feet of the woods,” Paskewitz continued, “but a few were found in bright, open, mowed lawn. I don’t think they live long there, but they were making their way out there, so if you are walking out to get your mail without your shoes on, you might pick up that particular tick.” (See link for article)

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**Comment**

They say a picture‘s worth a thousand words. The picture of this tick in the gum line in the mouth of a dog shows how durable and tenacious ticks are.

A few points for consideration:

Migrating birds, rodents, deer, lizards, and human movement are transporting ticks everywhere. For far too long doctors have been looking at maps to diagnose people. Trust me, ticks are virtually everywhere and adapt to weather conditions quite easily.
If I’ve written this once, I’ve written it 1,000 times – many people never see the tick or the rash and research shows the rash is highly variable – certainly not a sure thing.
For more on tick prevention: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/12/tick-prevention-2019/ I’m happy to report I saw some controlled burning in ditches as I was driving North today. This has proven to reduce tick populations significantly. I wish more of this was happening.
Regarding the section on if you find a tick bite: while it’s true that removing the tick as soon as possible is step #1, step #2 is getting prompt treatment as the “wait and see” approach has doomed patients to decades of suffering. Demand immediate prophylactic treatment for each and every tick bite. Trust me – whatever mild side effects and inconvenience a month or two’s worth of doxycycline can cause is nothing compared to the pain and suffering of a chronic, relapsing infection.
Testing for all tick-borne illnesses is abysmal. Lyme is just the tip of the spear. Ticks are literal garbage cans full of numerous pathogens they can transmit in just one bite. The only infections listed in this article were Lyme disease, Anaplasmosis, and Babesia, when there are 19 and counting infections ticks can transmit. Research has shown being infected with more than one pathogen causes more severe illness for a longer duration. It is imperative that treatment includes medications that focus on each pathogen. For the mounting list of tick-borne pathogens:
- Babesiosis
- Bartonellosis
- Borrelia miyamotoi
- Bourbon Virus
- Colorado Tick Fever
- Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic Fever
- Ehrlichiosis/Anaplasmosis
- Heartland Virus
- Meat Allergy/Alpha Gal
- Pacific Coast Tick Fever: Richettsia philipii
- Powassan Encephalitis
- Q Fever
- Rickettsia parkeri Richettsiosis
- Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF)
- SFTS: Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome
- STARI: Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness
- Tickborne meningoencephalitis
- Tick Paralysis
- Tularemia
While the wood tick and deer tick are the most common ticks in Wisconsin, they are hardly the only ticks we must be concerned about. Go here for more on the various types of ticks and the diseases they carry. The Lone Star tick has been found in Wisconsin and one allergist in MN states he diagnoses approximately 1 patient per month with Alpha-gal allergy – some patients hailing from WI. Wisconsin is a hot-spot for Powassan virus, and we recently had our first death due to Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. It would be a huge mistake to believe you only have to worry about Lyme, Anaplasmosis, and Babesia in Wisconsin. Nearly every patient I work with also has Bartonella – a tenacious pathogen that isn’t even on most doctors’ radars, and Mycoplasma is very common.
Most articles such as these don’t tell you what to do once you’ve become infected. Optimally, you would be prepared before this ever happened by finding the Lyme literate doctors (LLMD) in your state. The best way to do this is to contact your local Lyme support group. There is also a tab on the right side of this website called, “Find a Lyme Support Group.” There is also another tab slightly down from that in which you can contact ILADS directly for doctors in your area. Read this if you don’t know what a LLMD is. LLMDs are specially trained in tick-borne illness and know how to diagnose patients clinically. This is crucial because current 2-tiered CDC testing misses anywhere from 70-85% of cases or more. You truly can not trust testing. They also know how to treat this complex illness that typically is far more than just Lyme.

Category:

Babesia, Lyme, Prevention, Testing, Ticks, Transmission, Treatment, Viruses

Letter to IDSA President: Why Do Guidelines Omit Treating Disabled Lyme Patients, Why Do You Discourage Routine Testing, & Why Are There No References to Failed Treatment & Persistent Infection?

**Comment**

Tuttle brings up many valid questions you may want to consider if you are planning on writing HHS on how best to address Lyme disease.

It needs to be understood that this complex illness started out historically through the myopic lens of a rheumatologist and has never expanded to include the many and varied symptoms that are experienced in reality and demonstrated through research.
Conflict if interest riddled public health ‘authorities’ still have not admitted the potential of sexual transmission and they still state that congenital transmission is ‘rare’ despite the fact nobody’s counting.
They also continue to ignore the importance of other pathogens that research has shown cause more severe illness for a longer duration of time, and that require different medications.
Research has also demonstrated the different forms of borrelia that mainstream medicine continues to ignore, that also require different medications.
There is a sordid back-story (in which they took out the most specific band for Lyme) on current CDC-2 tiered testing which tests for ONE strain of borrelia, which misses a majority of cases. They aren’t even looking for or testing for other pathogens.
They falsely continue to state that 60-80% obtain the EM rash, when research shows it’s highly variable and between 0-80%. Only 25% had the rash in the first ever patient group. The CDC has received a formal complaint on this false statistic in 2019. Crickets.
Since obtaining a positive test and having the EM rash are requirements to enter research studies, it’s obvious that a HUGE subset of patients are not being studied. This has been going on for over 40 years and needs to change.
The CDC also falsely states that only 10-20% go on to suffer persistent symptoms. This only includes patients who were diagnosed and treated early. There is a larger group of 40-60% of patients that are diagnosed and treated late. When you combine the two groups, perhaps over 60% of infected patients are chronically infected and struggle with severe symptoms. This distinction is extremely important because CDC statistics downplay the significance of the problem. Also, research dollars are limited and typically go to issues affecting the most people.

https://www.change.org/p/the-us-senate-calling-for-a-congressional-investigation-of-the-cdc-idsa-and-aldf/u/

Inquiry to IDSA President Barbara D. Alexander, MD

MAY 4, 2021 —

Additional information to be shared with the public originating from the monthly NH Lyme Study Commission

Study Commission Website:
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/statstudcomm/details.aspx?id=1515&rbl=1&txtbillnumber=hb490

I do not expect a response to the inquiry below so feel free to send a personal note to Dr. Alexander to remind her to answer my three questions.

———- Original Message ———-
From: CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net>
To: “alexa011@mc.duke.edu” <alexa011@mc.duke.edu>
Cc: All members of the NH Lyme Study Commission
Date: 05/02/2021 8:19 AM
Subject: Inquiry to IDSA President Barbara D. Alexander, MD

May 2, 2021

Infectious Diseases Society of America
4040 Wilson Boulevard Suite 300
Arlington, VA 22203
Attn: Barbara D. Alexander, MD, MHS, FIDSA, President

Dear Dr. Alexander,

As a member of NH Governor Chris Sununu’s Lyme Disease Study Commission, I am forwarding the following three highlighted questions that were brought up during last month’s Zoom meeting. I am hoping that you can answer these questions which came to light after State Epidemiologist, Dr. Ben Chan reviewed your IDSA Lyme Treatment Guideline.

Question #1 refers to Lyme patients in wheelchairs as there doesn’t seem to be a section in your guideline focused on treating the disabled Lyme patient population.

I would also like to call attention to a statement from Dr. Ying Zhang, professor at the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health:

Standard antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease does not kill persistent Borrelia bacteria.
http://droopyyoupi.blogspot.com/2015/08/standart-antibiotic-treatment-for-lyme.html

Excerpt:

-What has tuberculosis and Borrelia burgdorferi in common? In the late stage of the disease occurs persistent (tolerant) bacteria, which essentially means that the bacteria lasts and lasts and lasts. They protect themselves against antibiotics and are difficult to treat.

– Both Borrelia burgdorferi and tuberculosis is relatively easy to cure in the early stages, even with the use of one antibiotic. In the late stage it is impossible to cure the disease with the same type of treatment in the acute phase, said Dr. Ying Zhang when he visited the year NorVect conference.
________________

Kindly hit “reply all” so all members of the NH Lyme Study Commission will see your response.
Respectfully submitted,
Carl Tuttle
Hudson, NH

Three highlighted questions that were brought up during last month’s Zoom meeting:

———- Original Message ———-
From: CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net>
To: All Members of the NH Lyme Study Commission
Date: 04/28/2021 11:04 AM
Subject: April 23rd meeting minutes

Rep Marsh and Commission members,
For the record here is a copy of the questions I asked during the last Zoom meeting which should be summarized in the minutes.

Question #1 Stages of Lyme disease
Stage 3: Months later; Arthritis (from the March 2th minutes)

I would like to call attention to the 43-page document I sent to all members prior to the start of this study commission. [1] On page two of that document under the topic “Severity of Lyme Disease” (cases that actually made headlines) there are references to Lyme patients in wheelchairs, along with Dr. Neil Spector requiring a heart transplant after his Lyme went untreated for four years.

Untreated strep throat can progress to rheumatic fever, causing irreversible heart damage. Untreated syphilis leads to progressive disability and dementia, and untreated HIV infection progresses to AIDS with significant disability and death. So what happens to a patient with Lyme disease who goes months, years, or decades before diagnosis because of a false-negative serological test result, missing bulls-eye rash, misdiagnosis etc., etc.?

Why isn’t the disabling stage of Lyme disease recognized? I have never seen a public Service Announcement informing the public that you could become horribly disabled or die from Lyme disease yet we have all this evidence nationwide that Lyme is destroying lives, ending careers while leaving its victim in financial ruin.

Question #2 IDSA Treatment Guidelines discourage routine testing for Lyme disease in patients who have been diagnosed with the chronic diseases of our time.

On page 5 of that 43-page document I sent to the group there is a link to the 5min extended trailer for the documentary “Under our Skin” From the Lyme patient interviews;

I was misdiagnosed with:

-Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
-Lupus
-MS
-Fibromyalgia
-ALS

We also know that Kris Kristofferson was being treated for Alzheimer’s disease only to find out it was Lyme all along.

The 2020 IDSA Lyme treatment guidelines strongly recommend against “routine” testing for disease in patients with:

Typical amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),
Relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS),
Parkinson’s disease,
Dementia, or cognitive decline,
New-onset seizures,
Psychiatric illness, and
Children with developmental disorders.

Who in their right mind would not want to make sure that these patients are not suffering from an untreated Lyme infection; especially in a state with one of the highest rates of Lyme in the country?

Question #3 There are no references to failed treatment in the IDSA Guidelines so no acknowledgment of persistent infection.

My letter to the editor published in the BMJ last June had a short list of failed treatment references; there are actually hundreds so why is the IDSA refusing to recognize this serious problem which is leaving hundreds of thousands if not millions worldwide in a debilitated state?

Letter to the editor of the BMJ:

Lyme borreliosis: diagnosis and management
https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1041/rr-1

Carl Tuttle
Hudson, NH

Reference

1. 43-page document I sent to all members prior to the start of this study commission
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cfgrq6m1y645q3b/NH%20House%20Bill%20490%20Lyme%20Disease%20Commission%20Oct%203%202020.pdf?dl=0

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing, Treatment

Bill Gates, China, 23andMe, And Your DNA

The purpose of this post is 3-fold:

Everyone should understand this for privacy reasons. Medical care should be personal, confidential, and protected.
Lyme/MSIDS patients in particular often get DNA testing to discover if they have the MTHFR gene or other genes that may inhibit proper detoxification as well as information on their ability to handle certain medications.
To reveal, yet again, the importance of understanding the many conflicts of interest and the tangled web of connections that best exemplify the expression, “Things are not as they seem.” These conflicts of interest/connections drive public health decisions which in turn affect all of us.

https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/bill-gates-china-23me-and-your-dna/

Bill Gates, China, 23andMe, And Your DNA

April 29, 2021

Derrick Broze

Is there a connection between China, Bill Gates, YouTube, and DNA collection?

Recent reports reveal that a Chinese company with connections to the Gates Foundation is involved in COVID-19 testing and poses a potential threat to American privacy, particularly the medical and health data of those who have been tested for COVID-19.

In late January, CBS’ 60 Minutes reported:

“60 Minutes has learned Chinese company BGI Group, the largest biotech firm in the world, offered to build COVID labs in at least six states, and U.S. intelligence officials issued warnings not to share health data with BGI.

The largest biotech firm in the world wasted no time in offering to build and run COVID testing labs in Washington, contacting its governor right after the first major COVID outbreak in the U.S. occurred there. The Chinese company, the BGI Group, made the same offer to at least five other states, including New York and California, 60 Minutes has learned. This, along with other COVID testing offers by BGI, so worried Bill Evanina, then the country’s top counterintelligence officer, that he authorized a rare public warning.”

“Foreign powers can collect, store and exploit biometric information from COVID tests” declared the notice. Evanina believes the Chinese are trying to collect Americans’ DNA to win a race to control the world’s biodata.” (See link for article)

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**Comment**

This information could be used to monopolize drugs and treatments.
Reuters reported in January that more than 40 publicly available documents and research papers show BGI’s regular partnering with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). They share a dozen patents for DNA tests. A 2015 patent is for a “low-cost kit to detect respiratory pathogens, including SARS (Sever Respiratory Syndrome) and coronaviruses.
BGI’s chief infectious disease expert is listed as an inventor on the patent while also being one of the 1st scientists to have sequenced COVID-19 samples from a Wuhan military hospital. Please remember; however, that China’s chief epidemiologist states the virus was NOT isolated.
Natalie Winter of National Pulse uncovered documentation of a relationship between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and BGI going back nearly a decade, with the Gates Foundation funding BGI projects relating to genome sequencing alongside Chinese Communist Party bodies such as the Ministry of Science and Technology and Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Dr. Tadataka Yamada, former president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s global health program, serves as the Chairman of BGI’s Scientific Advisory Board.
BGI, worth a market value of around $9 million and known for creating a cloned pig, has sold millions of their COVID-19 test kits around the world.

The article then switches to dangers posed by genealogy companies and that millions have voluntarily submitted their DNA for ancestry and health information.

A former counterintelligence officer told 60 Minutes that Chinese companies are investing in U.S. biotech companies which gives them access to health data. This officer ominously states that this genetic material represents “your past and your future as well as your children’s future.”

China is far from alone and most governments will seek to mine DNA information, which includes the U.S. government, military, as well as private companies.

The article then states 23andMe was discussed on 60 Minutes and that its CEO states the company plans to use DNA information to develop drugs. The company announced in February it would become a publicly traded company with help from billionaire Richard Branson.

The article connects a spider-web which includes Branson, Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Gates and the BGI Group. Another little known web includes the CEO of 23andMe, her sister who is CEO of Youtube, and her former husband – one of the founders of Google (which owns Youtube) and president of Alphabet Inc. until 2019.

These webs must be understood due to severe conflicts of interest to understand the wide censorship by Youtube labeling anything that doesn’t fit the COVID-19 narrative as “misinformation.”

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For more:

Category:

Activism, Testing, Treatment, vaccines, Viruses

Madison Area Lyme Support Group

Archive for the ‘Testing’ Category

Unraveling Complexities of Lyme Disease Laboratory Testing

Dr Armin Schwarzbach, 2nd European Crypto-Infections Conference

WI Tick-borne Illness Center on Hope & Healing & New York’s Upstate Tick Testing Program Tracks Alarming Trend,

Tick-Borne Illness Center looks to provide “hope and healing” for Lyme disease patients

What You Need To Know

New York’s Upstate Tick Testing Program tracks alarming trend

How to Co-Exist With Wisconsin’s Ticks

Wisconsin is Tick Heaven

Letter to IDSA President: Why Do Guidelines Omit Treating Disabled Lyme Patients, Why Do You Discourage Routine Testing, & Why Are There No References to Failed Treatment & Persistent Infection?

Inquiry to IDSA President Barbara D. Alexander, MD

I do not expect a response to the inquiry below so feel free to send a personal note to Dr. Alexander to remind her to answer my three questions.

Who in their right mind would not want to make sure that these patients are not suffering from an untreated Lyme infection; especially in a state with one of the highest rates of Lyme in the country?

Bill Gates, China, 23andMe, And Your DNA

Bill Gates, China, 23andMe, And Your DNA

Is there a connection between China, Bill Gates, YouTube, and DNA collection?

China is far from alone and most governments will seek to mine DNA information, which includes the U.S. government, military, as well as private companies.

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