Archive for the ‘Ticks’ Category

Viral Diversity of Tick Species Parasitizing Cattle and Dogs in Trinidad and Tobago

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-46914-1

Published:

Viral Diversity of Tick Species Parasitizing Cattle and Dogs in Trinidad and Tobago

Stephen Sameroff, Rafal Tokarz,Roxanne Albertha Charles,Komal Jain, Alexandra Oleynik,Xiaoyu Che,Karla Georges,Christine V. Carrington,W. Ian Lipkin &Chris Oura

Scientific Reports volume 9, Article number: 10421 (2019) | Download Citation

Abstract

Ticks are vectors of a wide variety of pathogens that are implicated in mild to severe disease in humans and other animals. Nonetheless, the full range of tick-borne pathogens is unknown. Viruses, in particular, have been neglected in discovery efforts targeting tick-borne agents. High throughput sequencing was used to characterize the virome of 638 ticks, including Rhipicephalus microplus (n = 320), Rhipicephalus sanguineus (n = 300), and Amblyomma ovale (n = 18) collected throughout Trinidad and Tobago in 2017 and 2018. Sequences representing nine viruses were identified, including five novel species within Tymovirales, Bunyavirales, Chuviridae, Rhabdoviridae, and Flaviviridae. Thereafter the frequency of detection of viral sequences in individual tick species was investigated.

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**Comment**

Understatement of the year: “Viruses, in particular, have been neglected in discovery efforts targeting tick-borne agents.”

What happens when a person contracts Lyme disease and tick-borne viruses at the same time?
Answer: Nobody knows.

Fact from the past: Dr. Allen Steere, the first to be on the scene in Connecticut’s outbreak, first believed the outbreak to be viral:  https://sites.google.com/site/jerryleonard999/home/allen-steere-psychopath-at-large#  He also insisted that Ixodes ticks are the only ones capable of transmitting Lyme and that any long-term damage was due to the patient’s immune system. Dr. Burrascano demonstrated that Steere’s patients that were treated and stated to be “cured,” were still infected by biopsies, cultures, and DNA probes. Steere’s stance is one and the same with the IDSA and the CDC.

Are viruses an unknown entity in Lyme/MSIDS that few have considered?
Answer: I’ve heard enough to make me wonder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

research, Ticks, Viruses

Got Ticks? Send & Help IPM

The IPM Institute (Integrated Pest Management) is seeking donations of tick specimens from different regions to examine during the Tick IPM Academy on Nov. 6 & 7, 2019. Please mail in ticks at least a week before. Below is the IPM Institute’s address where specimens you wish to donate may be sent.

This is for examination only – no pathogen reporting will occur.

The IPM Institute of North America, Inc.
ATTN: Maria Weber
211 S. Paterson Street, Suite 380
Madison, Wisconsin 53703

Thank you,

Maria Weber
Team Member, Sustainable Food Group
Office: (608) 232-1410 x 1009

IPM Institute of North America, Inc.<http://ipminstitute.org/>

Details about annual Tick IPM Academy: FINAL Tick IPM Academy Announcement 082719

 

 

Category:

Activism, research, Ticks

Open Letter to Governors & Congressmen in Lyme Endemic Areas

Congress Short letter

The letter in the link above was written by microbiologist Tom Grier, who is director of pathology studies for the Dr. Paul H. Duray Pathology Fellowship.

In it, he explains why Lyme disease is so confusing, what the medical experts got wrong, and the following untrue facts have been disseminated by the IDSA, CC, NIH, Yale, Harvard, SUNY, and Mayo Clinics for decades:

  • Only blacked-legged ticks transmit Lyme
  • Lyme is not congenital
  • Lyme is not intracellular
  • Lyme stays in the blood and doesn’t enter the brain
  • Elisa tests are 99% accurate
  • Lyme does not persist beyond 28 days of antibiotics
  • Lyme is mainly an arthritic disease
  • Lyme is mainly found in the NE USA
  • The Lymerix vaccine had no side effects and was pulled because of anti-vaxx hysteria
Grier also has more than 100 references and photos proving pathogen persistence after antibiotic treatment.

Here’s 700 references demonstrating pathogen persistence: Peer-Reviewed Evidence of Persistence of Lyme:MSIDS copy

Here is documentation proving the conflicts of interests:  ConflictReport

Grier’s letter takes on exactly what I was referring to when I wrote my comment about this article: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/08/24/its-time-to-get-serious-about-tick-borne-diseases/  If we are truly going to “get serious” about this pandemic, then we need to be concerned about what type of research is being funded. Right now there is a Pied Piper pushing a climate change agenda with research. Current tick research has already proven it a mute point and has even revealed faulty, biased research pushing an ideology that doesn’t pan out:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/06/17/ontario-public-health-officials-called-out-on-shoddy-biased-research-utilizing-an-erroneous-climate-change-model-to-program-a-futuristic-tick-problem/ This type of research is diverting dollars from neglected areas that demand answers such as accurate testing and diagnostics as well as transmission studies and effective treatments.

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks, Treatment

Sweden Reports Surge in Tularemia Cases

http://outbreaknewstoday.com/sweden-reports-surge-in-tularemia-cases-29406/

Sweden reports surge in tularemia cases

by NEWS DESK
August 12, 2019

By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

The number of reported cases of human tularemia has increased significantly in Sweden during the end of July and the beginning of August, according to the Public Health Agency of Sweden, or Folkhälsomyndigheten (computer translated).

Image/Folkhälsomyndigheten

A total of 212 confirmed cases have been reported, significantly more than reported during an average year, officials note.

Most cases of illness have been reported from Dalarna, Gävleborg and Örebro counties, but the last week also saw an increase in the counties of Västerbotten and Norrbotten. Since the number of illness cases is usually highest in September, the outbreak is expected to grow further in the coming weeks.

The animals most likely to carry the disease are wild hares, hence the name rabbit fever, aka tularemia and rodents, but it can also be transferred to humans via mosquito bites and occasionally tick bites.

Tularemia can be transmitted to people, such as hunters, who have handled infected animals. Infection can also arise from the bite of infected insects (most commonly ticks and deer flies); by exposure to contaminated food, water, or soil; by eating, drinking, putting hands to eyes, nose, or mouth before washing after outdoor activities; by direct contact with breaks in the skin; or by inhaling particles carrying the bacteria (through mowing or blowing vegetation and excavating soil).

Typical signs of infection in humans may include fever, chills, headache, swollen and painful lymph glands, and fatigue. If tularemia is caused by the bite of an infected insect or from bacteria entering a cut or scratch, it usually causes a skin ulcer or pustule and swollen glands. Eating or drinking food or water containing the bacteria may produce a throat infection, mouth ulcers, stomach pain, diarrhea and vomiting. Inhaling the bacteria may cause an infection of the lungs with chest pain and coughing.

Tularemia can be effectively treated with antibiotics. Untreated tularemia can lead to hospitalization and may be fatal if not diagnosed and treated appropriately.

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For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/10/25/of-rabbits-and-men/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/18/tularemia-in-minnesotan-ticks/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/08/23/ticks-are-one-way-tularemia-can-be-spread-rabbits-are-another/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/09/28/after-tularemia-death-experts-stress-education/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/02/27/tularemia-infected-ticks-found-on-sorrento-valley-trail-in-ca

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/09/19/glandular-tularemia/

 

Category:

Ticks, Tularemia

It’s Time to Get Serious About Tick-Borne Diseases

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/its-time-to-get-serious-about-tick-borne-diseases/

By Mary Beth Pfeiffer on

It’s Time to Get Serious about Tick-Borne Diseases

The U.S. vanquished malaria and beat back AIDS, but Lyme and other illnesses are raging unchecked

In the article in the above link, the author compares the treatment of Lyme/MSIDS patients with how those with AIDS were treated in the 80’s. She notes that patients with tick-borne diseases are dismissed similarly to how AIDS patients were, and are labeled anti-science, and are summarily denied insurance reimbursement. The author also compares the fact there are over 11,500 studies on AIDS compared to the 55 for Lyme.

  • West Nile virus, which currently infects about 2,000 people annually in the U.S. received $42 million from the U.S. National Institutes of Health
  • Lyme disease, which has 20 times the number of reported cases, got half as much
Evidently that number hasn’t budged in a decade.

She then aptly points out:

  • Zika, another mosquito-borne virus infecting just seven U.S. people in 2017, obtained $1.1 billion from Congress
  • Lyme, admittedly underreported, yet estimated to be potentially 427,000 new cases per year, received just $90 per new case from the NIH and $35 per new case from the CDC compared to $53,571 per new case of HIV/AIDS from the NIH and $14,054 per new case of HIV/AIDS from the CDC according to The Tick borne disease working group (TBDWG). The report states federal funding for Lyme disease has failed to increase as the problem has grown.  https://undark.org/2018/09/06/lyme-research-funding/

Unfortunately, the author erroneously states that the lone star tick has migrated due to the climate warming; however, research has shown warmer winters are actually lethal to ticks and that ticks are extremely eco-adaptive and equipped for survival: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/13/study-shows-lyme-not-propelled-by-climate-change/

Please be aware the author of the article is selling her own book about climate change and Lyme.

Independent research has shown that birds and photoperiod are behind the movement of ticks: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/07/ticks-on-the-move-due-to-migrating-birds-and-photoperiod-not-climate-change/  This fact demonstrates why tropical ticks are found in Canada and Canadian ticks are found in the topics. They didn’t walk here because the weather was nicer.

I agree whole-heartedly with the author that precious time has been wasted and that research funding is “paltry and static.”

I think we would disagree; however, on how research dollars should be spent.  If we are to truly “get serious,” we need to admit that the statically paltry research dollars need to go toward issues that directly affect patient well-being. I say, “NO MORE” funding on climate data which has not and will not help suffering Lyme/MSIDS patients. We need to start over with a blank slate. This complex illness is NOT what we’ve been told it is. There is much indicating it’s a STD, is spread congenitally, and potentially by other insects.  We still don’t have accurate testing that picks up ALL pathogens involved. We still don’t have adequate treatment. And, we still don’t have a means of paying for treatment. There are so many other important issues that haven’t been addressed in over 40 years when the initial outbreak happened.

If we are truly serious, we need to care where the research dollars go.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/08/13/lyme-disease-the-cdcs-greatest-coverup-what-they-dont-want-you-to-know/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/07/19/biological-warfare-experiment-on-american-citizens-results-in-spreading-pandemic/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/07/22/lyme-disease-medical-myopia-the-hidden-global-pandemic/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/08/01/why-we-need-to-stop-treating-lyme-disease-like-a-typical-infectious-disease/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks