Soldiers in WWI and even WWII were sidelined by Trench Fever, a strain of Bartonella transmitted from lice that gave them headaches, low back and shin pain, fever, and dizziness. Today, it is a disease of the homeless as well as many Lyme/MSIDS patients.
While many are familiar with Cat Scratch Fever, a common strain of Bart, there are many others, and every species which causes disease in dogs also infects humans.
As the author, Jamie Rothenburger, veterinarian and PhD student at Ontario Veterinary College states, the best prevention of disease is by controlling fleas and ticks as both carry the pathogen, along with transmission from bites and scratches from cats and now deer keds(found in link above on vectors).
By Alessandra Martinez
Published: April 11, 2017, 6:07 pm Updated: April 11, 2017, 6:51 pm
UMass Amherst’s Tick Testing Lab is researching where most ticks are and why they carry disease.
According to microbiology Professor, Dr. Stephen Rich,
“We’re finding pathogens that we didn’t know – well, we knew they were there, we just didn’t know how abundant they were. We find in some cases that people are getting sick from getting exposed to those, so we write those up in case studies and medical journals, for example.”
Send all ticks dead or alive to: Laboratory of Medical Zoology
Visit their Tick Report website for more information. For specific questions, contact:
(413) 545-1057 info@tickreport.com
Two weeks after pulling a tick off that had only been attached for 2-3 hours, a five month old baby developed a fever, vomiting, facial twitching, and seizures. A brain MRI showed inflammation deep in the brain.
Thankfully, the physician in charge studied in Upstate New York and was familiar with Powassan – a virus which can be fatal in up to 10 percent of cases.
Unfortunately, the article by Sun repeats the oft repeated transmission myth that a tick needs to be attached for days to transmit Lyme Disease. While it’s true that viruses, such as Powassan can be spread in minutes, Lyme Disease has been spread in hours:https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/04/14/transmission-time-for-lymemsids-infection/ A minimum time has never been established. We don’t even know how long it takes other coinfections to be transmitted as well as nematodes, funguses, and other bacteria/protozoa. Please remember a tick transmits many pathogens when it bites.
A month after being sent home the baby couldn’t sit up anymore, but three months later his motor function returned to normal.
Sun also states that Powassan virus is rare. I tend to agree with the physician who treated the baby that clinicians are probably only diagnosing the worst cases. Folks that do not show symptoms, as in the case of many viruses, fly under the radar. When bit by a tick; however, a pathogen invasion can trigger these normally benign viruses that are either lurking in the body or are transmitted at the same time as Lyme Disease and other pathogens. I also agree with his statement that it is important to study Powassan in both ticks and people to determine just how prolific it really is.
Published on Jul 14, 2016
Dr. Tom Mather and Dr. Ed Breitschwerdt on the growing risks of tick and flea exposure from “Healthy Body, Healthy Minds” with special thanks to ITV productions.
Bartonella is a formidable coinfection for many Lyme/MSIDS patients. Symptoms are largely associated with where blood flow is compromised:
Skin rashes (stretch-mark-like), cysts, heartburn, abdominal pain, chest pain, gastritis, duodentis, mesenteric adenitis, psychological issues (anxiety, anger, suicidal thoughts, depression, irritability), pain in the soles of the feet, skin tags and red papules, endocarditis, acute encephalopathy, seizures, visual and auditory hallucinations, ocular floaters, fatigue, partial paralysis, laryngitis, severe confusion, difficulty swallowing, muscle weakness, and vasculitis that occurs anywhere in the body which can destroy blood vessels. For a longer list of symptoms see: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2011/09/25/the-bartonella-checklist-copyrighted-2011-james-schaller-md-version-11/
Since it exists in very low amounts in human blood, blood tests are unreliable. It also has a long division time between 22-24 hours and requires a special growth environment. There is a Triple Draw through Galaxy which collects blood over 8 days to maximize the test, stating a 90% reduction in false negatives.
http://townsendletter.com/July2015/bartonellosis0715_3.html Vectors include fleas and flea feces, biting flies such as sand flies and horn flies, the human body louse, mosquitoes, mites, and ticks; through bites and scratches of reservoir hosts; and potentially from needles and syringes in the drug addicted. Needle stick transmission to veterinarians has been reported. There is documentation that cats have received it through blood transfusion.
Bartonella infection in southern Finnish moose was 90.6% (inside the deer ked zone), while northern Finnish moose was 55.9% (outside the deer ked zone). At least two species of bartonellae were identified. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26967131/
An oft quoted dogma currently exists that states you can not get infected with Lyme or the various coinfections that typically come with it if you get the tick off within a window of 24-48 hours.
FALSE!
Transmission Time:
A study done on mice showed that at 24 hours every tick had transmitted borrelia to the mice; however, animal studies have proven that transmission can occur in under 16 hours and it occurs frequently in under 24 hours
No human studies have been done
No studies have determined the minimum time it takes for transmission Source
A 2018 study by Eisen et al. found the risk of infection increases:
10% after a tick has been attached for 48 hours
50% after 63 – 67 hours
70% by 72 hours
90% for a complete feed
Partially fed ticks and spirochetes in the salivary glands
There’s also the issue of partially fed ticks transmitting more quickly:
http://iai.asm.org/content/61/6/2396.full.pdf Ticks can spontaneously detach – and the authors of this study found that they did so 15% of the time in mice. They also state that about a tenth of questing nymphs appear distended with partially fed sub-adult ticks being common. If you are the tick’s second meal, it stands to reason transmission would be quicker
Several studies have shown that the Powassan virus can be transmitted within 15 minutes of tick attachment
Anaplasmosis and Borrelia miyamotoi can be transmitted within the first 24 hours of attachment, explains
Partially fed Amblyomma aureolatum (Gulf Coast ticks) have been shown to transmit Rickettsia rickettsii in as little as 10 minutes
Transmission with more than one pathogen is associated with more severe illness and renders antibiotics less effective. Tick Borne Viruses can be transmitted in minutes.
In the following video microbiologist Holly Ahern explains how the 24-48 window myth has been inappropriately used and is keeping people from getting diagnosed and treated.
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.wordpress.com/2016/12/07/igenex-presentation/? Bob Giguere of IGeneX states a case of a little girl who went outside to play about 8:30a.m. and came inside at 10:30 with an attached tick above her right eye. By 2 o’clock, she had developed the facial palsy. At the hospital she was told it couldn’t be Lyme as the tick hadn’t been attached long enough. They offered a neuro-consult…..
By 4pm she couldn’t walk or talk.
A Lyme literate doctor trained by ILADS met the family in his office on a Saturday, gave her an intramuscular injection of antibiotics and within 2 hours the palsy was gone. He continued her treatment for approximately 4 weeks.
One thing we can all agree upon is the probability of infection increases the longer the tick is attached, but to keep people from life-saving drugs that could keep them from a life-time of misery due transmission dogma is unjustifiable.
