Archive for the ‘Ticks’ Category

Fighting Lyme Disease in Maine – Part 2 TV Report

https://www.wabi.tv/content/news/PART-TWO-Fighting-Lyme-Disease-511597151.html TV News Story Here

PART TWO: Fighting Lyme Disease

By Morgan Sturdivant

Posted: Thu 7:18 PM, Jun 20, 2019

ORONO, Maine (WABI) – “Through our lab we’re kind of trying to provide surveillance on tick populations as well as the pathogens that they spread,” says Griffin Dill.

Griffin Dill is doing critical research on ticks at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. He says reported cases of disease from ticks is increasing and so is the population here in Maine.

“It’s a more forested state with the human element mixed in so it’s kind of created the perfect habitat for ticks as well as their wild life hosts.”

He says people don’t have to change their lifestyle, but it is important to take some simple precautions, like treating clothing and gear with repellents, like permethrin which is a highly effective repellent for ticks.

“We want people to be aware of ticks but not afraid. We want people to go outside.”

“I got sick after two tick bites.”

Constance “Happy” Dickey is a founding director of Maine Lyme. Happy and the others behind the organization have made education, support and prevention their mission because they know isolating and costly it can be.

“Everything after the tick bite is more complicated than preventing the tick bite. We need to make prevention second-nature to us.”

There are multiple resources on the Maine Lyme website for prevention and education including what to do if you find a tick attached to your skin. It’s important not to put any soaps, ointments, alcohol or heat on the tick and do not squeeze the body of it. Take note of when the tick was found and mark the bite area. Report any illness or rashes to your doctor. You can even send the tick to the UMaine Tick Lab for testing.

Your pets are susceptible, too.

“”For the most part of if your animal gets sick with it they have a fever. That’s one of the first signs. So same with a human if you feel tired, lethargic, you don’t really feel like moving around, so if you see that, it’s one of the things we start to think of,” says Dr. David Cloutier at the Veazie Veterinary Clinic.,

They can also test and treat for Lyme at the Veazie Veterinary Clinic. Care that comprehensive for people is what those in this fight are hoping for.

“I’ve heard from so many of my constituents.”

Including Senator Susan Collins who has recently introduced the TICK Act.

“It’s evident from the exploding numbers of these illnesses that are borne by ticks that we need to do much more.”

Dill says he meets with a group run by the Maine CDC ona regular basis for a statewide strategy. He says he wants people to know work in being done in the fight against Lyme.

“Hopefully, we make some breakthroughs on potential management strategies for controlling tick population’s as well as the medical side with the potential for new treatments even vaccination.”

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**Comment**

After watching both of these news reports and being in a few of my own, one thing sticks out to me: there’s never reporting on effective treatments.

Why?

Because it’s sticky and the way this is being treated by mainstream medicine, the CDC, and other authorities isn’t working. Period.

It’s easier to do a 2-4 minute sound bite and interview a tick researcher than it is to get to the bottom of this plague which is riddled with conflicts of interest and frankly patient abuse.

Do not let the tick researcher working with the CDC fool you. They are doing nothing. They have changed nothing, and forget about that “Lyme vaccine” which has directly caused Lyme symptoms in dogs and people: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/22/why-we-care-so-strongly-about-a-potential-lyme-vaccine/ (Many more links within this one)

I’m not saying the study of ticks isn’t important but there’s so much more that needs to be done:

Transmission studies: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/05/24/microbiology-professor-im-convinced-lyme-disease-is-transmittable-from-person-to-person/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/02/transmission-of-lyme-disease-lida-mattman-phd/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/07/are-mosquitoes-transmitting-lyme-disease/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/19/33-years-of-documentation-of-maternal-child-transmission-of-lyme-disease-and-congenital-lyme-borreliosis-a-review/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/02/24/pcos-lyme-my-story/

Effective treatments: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/22/why-mainstream-lyme-msids-research-remains-in-the-dark-ages/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/29/is-the-sky-truly-going-to-fall-for-patients-with-the-untreatable-form-of-lyme-disease/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/13/lyme-disease-treatment/

The recognition and treatment of coinfections: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/05/01/co-infection-of-ticks-the-rule-rather-than-the-exception/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/30/study-shows-lyme-msids-patients-infected-with-many-pathogens-and-explains-why-we-are-so-sick/

The recognition and treatment of the pleomorphism of borrelia: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/12/14/closing-in-on-the-8/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/05/ability-of-stationary-phase-persister-biofilm-microcolonies-of-borrelia-burgdorferi-to-cause-more-severe-disease/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/24/three-antibiotic-cocktail-clears-persister-lyme-bacteria-in-mouse-study/

More accurate testing: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/15/news-release-on-57-1-million-lyme-disease-lawsuit-filed-against-cdc/

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

Science on chronic/persistent symptoms: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/04/13/chronic-lyme-post-mortem-study-needed-to-end-the-lyme-wars/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/25/medical-stalemate-what-causes-continuing-symptoms-after-lyme-treatment/

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research, Ticks

Fighting Lyme Disease in Maine – TV Report

https://www.wabi.tv/content/news/Part-One-Fighting-Lyme-Disease-511540782.html (News Video Here)

By Morgan Sturdivant

Posted: Wed 7:08 PM, Jun 19, 2019

Part One: Fighting Lyme Disease

HERMON, Maine (WABI) – “For me, the month of May is awareness month and I will fight to my death to get awareness.”

Every day last month Regina Leonard posted something on Facebook about Lyme Disease.

“To get people to acknowledge it.”

She knows first hand the havoc the tick-borne illness can cause someone.

“It was three years ago in the fall that I got a call from the teachers that Cooper was not feeling well and he had this random rash all over his body.”

“I immediately noticed that he had a rash on his face and he had raccoon eyes and it was all red and blotchy,” said Erica Hake, a teacher at Hermon Elementary School.

Cooper was six at the time. His teachers at Hermon Elementary School contacted Regina when they saw the rash and knew something wasn’t right.

“My heart sank. I was just really worried about Cooper,” said Hake.

“The fact that they caught it and called me meant the world.”

Regina immediately took Cooper to walk-in care.

“We literally saw the rash spread before our eyes at the doctor’s office. Within eight hours my kid couldn’t walk on his own. His hands were curled in like a paraplegic. He stuttered when he spoke. He just screamed and cried in pain and for the next two and a half weeks it was like that. I was really scared. There was a moment I really thought my kid was going to die,” said Regina.

“I remember things like waking up in the middle of the night and feeling sick and I remember when I first got it, throwing up in the trash can,” said Cooper.

One of the most alarming factors is the Leonards never saw a tick on Cooper.

“Never, ever did I think it was a tick. I didn’t find a tick on him. I do tick checks. I thought I was being thorough.”

It’s been a hard road for Cooper. They were only given two weeks worth of antibiotics. Regina says when their doctor said Coop was cured three years ago and they were still dealing with symptoms, they turned to a doctor in New Hampshire friends of theirs had success with.

“He’s a homeopathic but he works in an integrated health facility combined with holistic therapy in order to treat this. I left there completely in tears because I felt like we had answers, I was listened to and that he was going to get some help.”

“I think it’s just quite devastating and quite unbelievable in this day in age that we don’t have a better handle on this,” said Constance “Happy” Dickey.

Happy Dickey is an RN and a past president of the non-profit, MaineLyme. She’s also had to pay out of pocket for her own Lyme Disease treatment.

“The treatment is treat the patient. If the patient is getting better continue treatment if the patient isn’t responding change it up and do something else.”

Happy, along with the other members of Maine Lyme, began working to educate others about Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses in 2010. She says while more and more people are becoming aware of the damage ticks can do, many are still not taking critical precautions at a time when the tick population is growing in Maine.

“This is an epidemic. And we need to prevent people, help people prevent illness and we’re just not doing it. I shouldn’t have to do this. This should be coming from the CDC. This should be part of the doctor’s tool box and it’s not. It’s pretty devastating.”

For Regina, she says when she found out her dog, Lionel had Lyme it was easier to treat and cure him than her son. Now, she says they’re hoping for a break from the medications and from the bills.

“Not only for Cooper to get a break but for the wallet because it’s been really expensive to pay for this out of pocket.”

She says it was worth every penny but hopes their story will possibly prevent other families from going down the same road.

“I’d like to gather every single tick and then cover the bucket in gasoline, light it on fire then put some dynamite next to it,” said Cooper.

_________________

**Comment**

Thank God for astute teachers!

“Happy” Dicky’s statement is too logical for mainstream medicine:

“The treatment is treat the patient. If the patient is getting better continue treatment if the patient isn’t responding change it up and do something else.”

You know things are bad when your dog gets better treatment than you do…

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks

Emerging Babesia sp. Similar to Babesia Motasi in 1st Human Case & Ticks in Korea (Asian Long-horned & Haemaphysalis Flava)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31179860

2019;8(1):869-878. doi: 10.1080/22221751.2019.1622997.

Detection and characterization of an emerging type of Babesia sp. similar to Babesia motasi for the first case of human babesiosis and ticks in Korea.

Hong SH¹, Kim SY¹, Song BG¹, Rho JR¹, Cho CR², Kim CN³, Um TH², Kwak YG⁴, Cho SH¹, Lee SE¹.

Abstract

Babesiosis is a tick-transmitted intraerythrocytic zoonosis. In Korea, the first mortalities were reported in 2005 due to Babesia sp. detection in sheep; herein we report epidemiological and genetic characteristics of a second case of babesiosis. Microscopic analysis of patient blood revealed polymorphic merozoites. To detect Babesia spp., PCR was performed using Babesia specific primers for β-tubulin, 18S rDNA, COB, and COX3 gene fragments. 18S rDNA analysis for Babesia sp., showed 98% homology with ovine Babesia sp. and with Babesia infections in Korea in 2005. Moreover, phylogenetic analysis of 18S rDNA, COB, and COX3 revealed close associations with B. motasi. For identifying the infectious agent, Haemaphysalis longicornis (296) and Haemaphysalis flava (301) were collected around the previous residence of the babesiosis patient. Babesia genes were identified in three H. longicornis: one sample was identified as B. microti and two samples were 98% homologous to B. motasi.

Our study is the first direct confirmation of the infectious agent for human babesiosis. This case most likely resulted from tick bites from ticks near the patient house of the babesiosis patient. H. longicornis has been implicated as a vector of B. microti and other Babesia sp. infections.

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**Comment**

Everyone’s been waiting with bated breath on what the Asian Long-horned tick is transmitting. We know it’s transmitting numerous pathogens in Asia but has yet to be found to transmit pathogens here in the U.S., although the tick itself is spreading geographically like wildfire. This is the tick that clones itself and drains cattle of its blood. https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/12/asian-tick-found-in-new-jersey-can-kill-cattle-by-draining-them-of-blood/

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/vbz.2018.2298 This article shows the ticks and transmittable diseases in South Korea.

The full-length article tells the unfortunate story of an elderly men’s death 36 hours after hospitalization due to an emerging type of Babesia due to a tick bite.

A blood sample was obtained from the jugular vein in the patient that presented with dizziness and general weakness.

No microorganisms were isolated from the blood culture.

Microscopy revealed the following:

Upon light microscopic examination, variable intraerythrocytic parasites as ring forms, pear-shaped forms, paired pyriforms, pleomorphic ring forms, and multiple-infected parasites and clusters of extracellular rings were detected in Giemsa-stained blood smears. The percentage of parasitaemia was 1.8% (Figure 1). Maltese cross forms comprising four masses in an erythrocyte that are often described as a characteristic of B. microti infection were not detected in most blood smears (Figure 1).

Please note that the patient would have failed a simple blood test and even microscopy revealed atypical findings as well as the fact parasitemia was less than 2%.

Yet, 2% was enough to kill a man.

Tick collections were performed by dividing the area around the patient’s residence and the findings were:

A total of 597 ticks were collected around the patient’s residence, including 296 H. longicornis (186 adult, 41 nymphs, and 68 larvae) and 301 Haemaphysalis flava (1 adult and 300 larvae) (Table 2). Among these, 94% of the ticks were collected in both the front yard of patient’s residence (442 ticks) and associated hill III (124 ticks). Based on the results of the amplification of Babesia genes in each tick, 2 (0.3%) were positive for 18S rDNA of Babesia species, 1 (0.2%) for COB and COX3, and 1 (0.2%) for β-tubulin gene of B. microti. While the nymph of H. longicornis yielded a positive result for only 18S rDNA, one female tick of H. longicornis yielded positive results for 18S rDNA, COB, and COX3 gene fragments. Also, one female tick of H. longicornis only yielded positive results for β-tubulin gene of B. microti (Table 3).

Please note two things: the high amount of ticks found right in his yard and the low incidence of infected ticks – yet, it only took one to kill him.

The Discussion section reveals some interesting things:

Previously, seven different Babesia spp., B. microti, B. divergens, B. bovis, B. canis, B. duncani, B. venatorium, and a novel Babesia sp. similar to ovine babesias were reported to cause human babesiosis...Human babesiosis (KCDC-1) in 2017 was the second case identified in Korea and the sequence of Babesia sp. was very closely related to that of KO1 and Liaoning, China. These large Babesia are clearly distinct from other agents of human babesiosis based on their shape and phylogeny. These results suggest that the causative agent in their case of babesiosis is a novel large Babesia parasite infecting humans and may be highly fatal….

the identified Babesia parasites (in the patient) might be B. motasi, and this is the first study to detect B. motasi in human babesiosis and H. longicornis in Korea.

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For more on Babesia: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/01/16/babesia-treatment/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/01/bb-new-strain-of-babesia-found-in-tick-on-a-tropical-bird-in-canada/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/12/11/babesia-widespread-in-canada-its-high-tolerance-to-therapy/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/21/could-it-be-babesia/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/05/variable-clinical-presentations-of-babesiosis/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/05/22/babesiosis-in-pregnancy-an-imitator-of-hellp-syndrome/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/05/26/fda-recommends-testing-for-tick-borne-illness-in-donated-blood-a-big-duh/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/11/transfusion-transmitted-babesiosis-one-states-experience/

Category:

Babesia, research, Testing, Ticks, Transmission

BBC Video ‘My Life is Dominated by Lyme Disease’

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-scotland-48636858/my-life-is-dominated-by-lyme-disease (Video Here)

June 17, 2109

‘My life is dominated by Lyme Disease’

One tiny tick under the skin can cause chronic illness but GPs can be slow to diagnose and to give treatment for Lyme Disease.

“Disclosure: Under The Skin” meets sufferers who feel let down by the health service and asks what more can be done to combat this debilitating disease.

The programme was aired on BBC One Scotland on Monday 17 June, 2019.

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing, Ticks

Morgellons & Lyme Disease Connection – Joe Rogan: “Lyme Disease is Terrifying”

**Warning – explicit language in each video**

Scroll to 2:21

Joe Rogan on the Morgellons & Lyme Disease Connection

“Everyone who has Morgellons also has Lyme disease.”

Rogan explains how a tick is full of pathogens – Lyme is only one of many.

There’s discussion on Bells Palsy and some doctors state to just wait until it goes away. I would caution this approach as this is often a Lyme disease symptom. While symptoms wax and wane with Lyme disease, just because the symptom disappears does not mean you are not still infected systemically. Waxing and waning symptoms is hallmark of Lyme disease. You need to see a Lyme literate doctor who understands these things. (Contact your local support group to find these specially trained doctors) In this article, Dr. Cameron warns against using steroids for facial palsy due to this practice causing refractory disease in Lyme/MSIDS patients: http://danielcameronmd.com/steroid-use-can-lead-long-term-treatment-failure-lyme-disease-patients/

Approx. 10 Min.