Coronavirus testing kits heading to the UK found to be contaminated with Covid-19
An expert has said the UK should be mass testing the population for the strain ( Getty Images )
Testing kits which were headed to the UK have been found to be contaminated with coronavirus.
The Government has said that it aims to boost the rate of tests to 25,000 every day by the end of April at the latest and has asked private companies to help drive up test production.
But one production firm, Luxembourg-based manufacturer Eurofins, told UK labs on Monday that deliveries would be delayed as core parts had been contaminated with coronavirus, the Telegraph reported. (See Link for article)
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**Comment**
Key Quote:
This shouldn’t significantly affect the UK’s testing efforts, Government sources told the paper.
An interesting response considering they just uncovered tests contaminated with the very thing they are looking for.
The goal of this paper is to characterize the clinical presentation, serological results, current antibiotic treatment practice, including compliance with current European guidelines, and outcome in adults with Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB) diagnosed at departments of infectious diseases in Denmark. Using a nationwide prospective cohort of patients with central nervous system infections, we identified all adults (≥ 18 years of age) treated for LNB at departments of infectious diseases in Denmark from 2015 through 2017. The database contains information on baseline demographics, history of tick bite, erythema migrans, clinical presentation, laboratory results of blood samples, and cerebrospinal (CSF) biochemistry (e.g. specific Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) antibodies in serum, B. burgdorferi s.l. intrathecal antibody index) as well as antibiotic therapy. Outcome was assessed by the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) and the presence of residual symptoms at follow-up one month after discharge. We included 194 LNB patients with a median age of 59 years (range 18-85 years, interquartile range [IQR] 47-69 years). The female-to-male ratio was 0.8. A total of 177 of 191 (93 %) of patients had early (second stage) LNB.
A history of tick bite or erythema migrans was registered in 75 (39%) and 49 (25%) patients, respectively.
The median duration of neurological symptoms before first hospital contact was 21 days (range 0-600 days, IQR 10-42 days).
Predominant symptoms consisted of radicular pain in 135 of 194 (70%), cranial nerve paresis in 88 of 194 (45%), headache in 71 of 185 (38%), and extremity paresis in 33 of 194 (17%) patients.
Serum-B. burgdorferi s.l. IgM and/or IgG antibodies were detectable in 166 of 181 (92%) patients at the time of first CSF investigation.
Median duration of antibiotic treatment was 14 days (range 10-35 days, IQR 14-21 days) and 59 (39%) of the patients received intravenous ceftriaxone and/or benzylpenicillin G throughout treatment.
At the 1-month follow-up, GOS was unfavorable (< 5) in 54 of 193 (28%) patients. An unfavorable GOS score was more often registered in patients with ≥ 45 days of symptom duration (20 of 45 (44 %) vs. 34 of 145 (23 %); P = 0.006).
In conclusion, a European cohort of adult patients with LNB diagnosed between 2015-2017 presented with classic symptoms and CSF findings. However, a substantial diagnostic delay was still observed.
In disagreement with current guidelines, a substantial part of LNB patients were treated with antibiotics longer than 14 days and/or intravenously as route of administration.
The above Denmark study; however, found 25% had the rash which is similar to the first ever patient group:1976circularletterpdf
The most common symptom (70% had it) was radiating spinal pain, a hallmark symptom of Lyme disease, followed by facial palsy, headache, and weakness in arms and legs.
Of import: diagnostic delays and the fact treatment was longer than the current IDSA guideline standard of 14 days.
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.”
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Los Angeles city and county leaders announced Monday they have purchased 20,000 coronavirus testing kits from a South Korean biotech company.
The L.A. City Council and the L.A. Board of Supervisors jointly spent $1.25 million to immediately purchase 20,000 tests from Seegene Technologies, the two agencies said in a news release.
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**Comment**
This should never have had to happen. Because our conflict-riddled CDC insists upon having their own tests so they can patent them for profit, the U.S. STILL doesn’t have a reliable test for COVID-19.
The CDC has a long and sordid history of dissing any tests but their own. They want to design the test for their purposes so ultimately they can create a vaccine and other patentable products.
Cuomo admits his decision to quarantine everyone at once was ‘not the best strategy’ and that he is ‘working on’ release of coronavirus antibody test that will allow people to go back to work
Dr. Birx Admits Initial Death Estimates Too Extreme
In a nutshell, she admits that the CDC STILL does not have an accurate test as well as the fact that the models used were faulty and don’t reveal what’s happening in reality (South Korea, Italy, Spain).
Germany is not suffering from a raging infection outbreak because they have been conducting accurate testing since the onset of their first infection. The World Health Organization (WHO) offered the US CDC the test from Germany – and yet CDC made the deadly decision to develop their own test.
The German test was ready and available on January 17th 2020 – including published details of the protocol.
The test had also already been validated for specificity to SARS-2-CoV – using human samples – meaning it would not accidentally give false positives for other respiratory viruses – and also meaning that it would not give a false positive from human genes in the human samples.
Weiler, points out how the CDC has a history of insisting upon their own testing so they can corner the market, putting them in direct competition with the private sector. He rightly points out what all of us in Lymeland have been screaming about:
It isn’t ethical to be in charge of public health AND own licenses to products.
Agency scientists should not be allowed use US taxpayer’s funds to develop “their own” test. CDC, and HHS, in fact, should not own anything.” James Lyons-Weiler
Those suffering with tick-borne illness have had to work about the faulty testing issue for over 40 years. Doctors to this day are sending people home with a false sense of security after they test negative on the only approved CDC 2-tiered tests available. For decades the CDC has vilified small CLIA-approved labs doing more specialized testing for Lyme disease. On their website a while back they actually had the nerve to call these tests “home-brewed,” always casting a negative light on ANY test other than their’s.
I pray this COVID-19 testing fiasco shines a light on a very real problem – the CDC is a captured agency.
Tick-borne lymphadenopathy (TIBOLA) is an infectious disease, mainly caused by species from the spotted fever group rickettsiae and is characterized by enlarged lymph nodes following a tick bite. Among cases of TIBOLA, a case of scalp eschar and neck lymphadenopathy after tick bite (SENLAT) is diagnosed when an eschar is present on the scalp, accompanied by peripheral lymphadenopathy (LAP). Only a few cases of SENLAT caused by Bartonella henselae have been reported.
CASE PRESENTATION:
A 58-year-old male sought medical advice while suffering from high fever and diarrhea. Three weeks before the visit, he had been hunting a water deer, and upon bringing the deer home discovered a tick on his scalp area. Symptoms occurred one week after hunting, and a lump was palpated on the right neck area 6 days after the onset of symptoms. Physical examination upon presentation confirmed an eschar-like lesion on the right scalp area, and cervical palpation revealed that the lymph nodes on the right side were non-painful and enlarged at 2.5 × 1.5 cm. Fine needle aspiration of the enlarged lymph nodes was performed, and results of nested PCR for the Bartonella internal transcribed spacer (ITS) confirmed B. henselae as the causative agent.
CONCLUSION:
With an isolated case of SENLAT and a confirmation of B. henselae in Korea, it is pertinent to raise awareness to physicians in other Asian countries that B. henselae could be a causative agent for SENLAT.
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 