Archive for the ‘Ticks’ Category

Have Test – Can Travel

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Lyme disease is under-reported and increasing in the United States, with as many as 300,000 new cases a year. But did you know that Lyme disease is not just here in the United States? With 68 million Americans traveling abroad last year alone, business travelers, vacationers, and people in the military should be aware of the facts: Over 80 countries of Europe and Asia have reported cases of Lyme, with more than 360,000 cases reported over the last two decades. Mexico reports cases of patients being infected when visiting the forested areas. Canada describes the increasing numbers of infected black-legged ticks. Not all countries have mandatory reporting, so these statistics do not account for all of the cases of disease. At least three species of Borrelia may be responsible:
*Borrelia burgdorferi
*Borrelia garinii
*Borrelia afzelii

Because of this, travelers returning to the U.S. showing symptoms of a tick-borne illness should be tested for more than Borrelia burgdorferi.

Coppe Laboratories is the only commercial reference laboratory testing for multiple genospecies including these European strains.

Using selective antigens (VlsE and OspC), Coppe’s Lyme panel is highly sensitive, which increases the likelihood of detection of antibodies from multiple strains of the Borrelia bacteria. Densitometry software is used to read the immunoblots, rather than relying on visual identification. Indeterminate results are less than 1% providing clear interpretation and actionable results.

In addition to the high–quality testing of Borrelia, Coppe Laboratories provides testing for Babesia and exclusive testing for Powassan virus. As a courtesy, Coppe will file insurance on behalf of the patient.

For more information, please visit our website at www.coppelabs.com.

Category:

Educational handouts, Lyme, Ticks, Uncategorized

Tiny Tick Big Controversy ABC Special Report

  Published on Feb 4, 2016 WMDT-TV Channel 47 Documentary on Lyme.  Approx. 25 minutes

See local Lyme patients, hear interviews with specialists, as well as medical professionals who don’t necessarily believe in chronic Lyme disease. Emily Lampa, senior reporter for WMDT-TV, courageously took on this challenge and created the documentary, “Tiny Tick Big Controversy”.

The prevention of tick-borne illnesses is much more complicated than just avoiding ticks. One of the major reasons is that the diagnosis and treatment of the most common vector-borne infection, Lyme Disease, is still such a mystery and so often clouded by controversy.

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks, Uncategorized

Great Lyme Video

Published on Jul 22, 2014
Excellent movie on the international problem of lyme – Approx. 50 min.

Category:

Lyme, Ticks

Borrelia Hiding in Worms Causing Chronic Brain Diseases

Here’s a Feb 2025 Review: Filarial Nematodes Parasitizing Tick Vectors: Unraveling global patterns in Species Diversity, Host Associations, and Interactions With Tick-borne Pathogens.

In short, while ticks are known to spread filarial nematodes of medical and veterinary importance, even now, very little is known.  However, some recent reports have shown success using using doxycycline and ivermectin (dewormer) for some patients with Lyme disease.

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Borrelia burgdorferi/CDC

Press Release May 23, 2016

http://outbreaknewstoday.com/lyme-discovery-borrelia-bacteria-hides-inside-parasitic-worms-causing-chronic-brain-diseases-13216/

Pathologist Alan MacDonald has done it again.

He found three strains of borrelia living in parasitic nematode worms, worm eggs, or larvae in the brain tissue of 19 autopsies.  

MacDonald states that both worms and borrelia can cause devastating brain damage and that:

“while patients are wrongly declared free of Lyme and other tick-borne infections, in reality, too often they contract serious neurodegenerative diseases which can kill them.”  

MacDonald made his discovery from 10 specimens from the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center Tissue Bank.  All 10 showed evidence of borrelia infected nematodes.  Five patients who died of Glioblastoma multiforme, a malignant brain tumor, and four patients who died of Lewy Body dementia also showed infected nematodes.

MacDonald used FISH, Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization, which uses molecular beacon DNA probes to identify pieces of borrelia’s genetic material which fluoresce under the microscope with a 100% DNA match.

In other words, this is no mistake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZnY871HZhM&feature=youtu.be  YouTube of MacDonald explaining the results

Lyme discoverer, Willy Burgdorfer, wrote of finding nematodes in tick guts way back in 1984 and in 2014 University of New Haven researcher, Eva Sapi, found 22% of nymphs and 30% of adult Ixodes ticks carried nematodes.  

So where’s the CDC?  I’ll give you a hint: it has something to do with Zika.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/03/08/fixation-on-zikapolio/

http://www.omicsonline.com/open-access/alzheimers-disease-a-novel-hypothesis-integrating-spirochetes-biofilm-and-the-immune-system-2314-7326-1000200.pdf  An excellent read on how autopsies of brains with Alzheimer’s show biofilms created by spirochetes that are present in the characteristic brain plaques of AD.

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Lyme, Parasites, research, Ticks, Transmission, Treatment

Fry and Die

http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-six-minute-plan-to-rid-clothes-of-ticks-1464635032

A study in the journal Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases, says just six minutes spinning dry clothes in a hot dryer should kill all ticks and reduce the risk of tick-related illnesses.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends washing tick-infested clothes and then drying them for one hour.

The recent research found that drying time can be significantly reduced if clothes aren’t washed first, as ticks are extremely sensitive to dryness.

“The researchers washed and dried hundreds of lab-raised blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) and immature nymphs, five at a time, in cloth bags in residential washers and dryers in Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts. Ticks and nymphs that survived washing were dried with wet towels at low and high heat. Control ticks were placed in containers at room temperature. In separate experiments, bugs were dried—without pre-washing—with dry towels at various temperatures.

The bugs survived cold-water washes, 94% survived warm-water washes, and 50% survived hot-water washes. Ticks that survived washing took 70 minutes to kill in dryers on low heat and 50 minutes at high heat. All control ticks survived for 24 hours.

By comparison, all ticks and nymphs dried with dry towels were killed in four to 11 minutes, depending on the temperature.

The researchers did include a caveat. The cloth bags that the ticks were washed and dried in may have protected the ticks from heat and dryness.”

While it might give all of us maniacal pleasure to “Fry and Dry” ticks, how about we collect them for researchers?

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/18/send-ticks-on-vacation/  You can send them to Arizona or to Coppe Lab in Wisconsin:

Coppe Laboratories
W229 N1870 Westwood Dr.
Waukesha, WI 53186

(262) 574-0701
(262) 574-0703
info@coppelabs.com

If you want to send them to Coppe, put the tick in a zip lock baggie and stick in your freezer.  Contact the lab and they will send you what you need to get them to the lab alive.

While this may not seem as fun you can relish the fact the researchers have to squish all the stomach contents out and spin them in a centrifuge or something – so they will still suffer.

For more info about how ticks survive extreme cold, see:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/01/20/polar-vorticks/

Category:

Ticks, Uncategorized