Archive for the ‘Ticks’ Category

Lyme Disease & Herxheimer Reaction in Newborn

https://danielcameronmd.com/lyme-disease-herxheimer-reaction-newborn/

LYME DISEASE AND HERXHEIMER REACTION IN NEWBORN

Newborn with lyme disease and herxheimer reaction being examined by doctor.

The Herxheimer reaction, also referred to as a Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction, is “a transient clinical phenomenon that occurs in patients infected by spirochetes who undergo antibiotic treatment.”¹ It was first described in patients with syphilis but has also been associated with other spirochetal infections including leptospirosis, Lyme disease, and relapsing fever. The reaction is associated with the onset of new symptoms or a worsening of existing symptoms in patients receiving antibiotic treatment.

By 

In 2020, investigators published a case involving a 13-year-old boy with Lyme arthritis, a common manifestation of Lyme disease, who developed a Herxheimer reaction when treated with doxycycline. On the 7th day of treatment, the boy developed a low-grade fever and severe arthralgias with intense hip, ankle and cervical spine pain and myalgias.

You can read more about the 13-year-old boy’s case in an earlier blog “Herxheimer reaction in a 13-year-old boy with Lyme disease.” 

Newborn with herxheimer reaction

In their article “Lyme disease in a neonate complicated by the Jarisch–Herxheimer reaction,” Prodanuk and colleagues² describe the case of a 21-day-old infant who was admitted to the hospital with decreased activity, poor feeding and abdominal distension.

The parents removed an engorged tick from the infant’s forearm 5 days earlier. An EM rash was present at the site of the tick bite.

“Given the erythema migrans lesion at the site from which the engorged tick was removed, we made a presumptive diagnosis of Lyme disease and administered IV ceftriaxone,” the authors write.

Two hours after treatment began, the infant developed a fever, tachycardia and other symptoms consistent with the Jarisch–Herxheimer reaction.

Testing for Lyme disease was negative.

Clinicians should also “be aware of the possibility of the Jarisch–Herxheimer reaction during the initial phase of treatment.”²

Several studies, they warn, indicate “newborns with findings consistent with early localized disease may also be at higher risk for disseminated disease.”

“Given the limited data for neonates and the possible predisposition of this population to disseminated Lyme disease, clinicians should strongly consider administering IV antibiotics to target Lyme disease,” the authors suggest.

Patients can experience a broad range of symptoms resulting from a herxheimer reaction, explains Nykytyuk and colleagues, including fever, severe polyarthralgias, myalgias, chills, hypotension, nonpruritic, nonpalpable rash, tachycardia, nausea, headache, strengthening of existing or occurrence of new symptoms of the underlying disease.¹

The exact cause of Jarisch-Herxheimer reactions is still unknown. “At first, the role of an endotoxin in the development of JHR was suggested, but later experimental studies showed that spirochetes do not have biologically active endotoxins,” the authors explained.¹

Related Articles:

What does a Lyme disease flare-up feel like?
Herxheimer reaction in a 13-year-old boy with Lyme disease
Lyme disease causes a mix of symptoms including autonomic dysfunction

References:
  1. Dhakal A, Sbar E. Jarisch Herxheimer Reaction. [Updated 2022 Apr 28]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557820/
  2. Prodanuk M, Groves H, Arje D, Bitnun A. Lyme disease in a neonate complicated by the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction. CMAJ. 2022 Jul 18;194(27):E939-E941. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.220112. PMID: 35851530; PMCID: PMC9299745.

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**Comment**

This infant won the lotto by having astute parents, a noticable tick bite, and EM rash.  Many are not so fortunate to have these clear signs.  Many also test negative.  Without the signs and positive test, many are misdiagnosed and miss this opportunity for early treatment which is imperative.

For more:

Category:

Inflammation, Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks, Treatment

Patients Want Canadians to Know About Lesser-Known Tick-Borne Diseases

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/be-vigilant-patients-want-canadians-to-know-about-lesser-known-tick-borne-diseases

‘Be vigilant’: Patients want Canadians to know about lesser-known tick-borne diseases

While these infections are indeed spreading, it has nothing to do with the climate.  Faulty climate change maps which have been used to push a ‘climate change’ agenda have been debunked, with many experts finally coming forth and denying that man has anything to do with the climate at all.
Important to note: neither of these spreading pathogens are listed as a nationally notifiable disease in Canada, which simply means nobody has a clue as to their prevalence.  This is true for many of the “lesser  known” tick-borne diseases as well, and is a real problem.  You can’t state how big a problem is if you aren’t even looking for it.
One of the patients sent her tick to a private lab and paid out of pocket for tests that look for a wide range of pathogens. 
This is another real problem that needs to be addressed.  Since everyone and their brother knows ticks are spreading everywhere and are often infected with pathogens transmitted to animals and humans, tick testing should be widely available and FREE.  There is no tick testing for the public right here in Wisconsin, an epicenter for Lyme, Powassan, and other infections.  This simply shouldn’t be.
Rather than fund more faulty, erroneous climate change research, how about we fund labs for something practical like testing ticks and all the pathogens they carry?
Since so many patients slip through the cracks, testing ticks directly would help us know what pathogens are in an area and an idea about prevalence.

This information; however, should never be used against patients, which has happened historically.  The lunacy of telling someone they can’t have Lyme disease because certain ticks don’t exist there or “there aren’t any recorded cases,” is shear madness and defies all sound logic.  Ticks travel everywhere due to migrating birds and other animals that don’t understand borders.

For more:

To be clear, a test only picks up what it is created to pick up.  To this day, many strains of of the pathogens infecting humans do not have testing, and those that do aren’t accurate.

Category:

Activism, Babesia, Rickettsia, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Testing, Ticks, Transmission

Alongshan Virus Found For the First Time in Swiss Ticks

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/12/221207104213.htm

New virus discovered in Swiss ticks

Date:
December 7, 2022
Source:
University of Zurich
Summary:
The Alongshan virus was discovered in China only five years ago. Now researchers have found the novel virus for the first time in Swiss ticks. It appears to be at least as widespread as the tickborne encephalitis virus and causes similar symptoms. The team is working on a diagnostic test to assess the epidemiological situation.

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**Comment**

There is no test for this virus.

This too is a problem.  We don’t have accurate tests for the pathogens infecting people.  Sick people continue to go to doctors for help, are given inaccurate, faulty tests, are told they are “fine,” or are gaslit, and are sent packing.

For more:

But the “climate change” band plays on, and on, and on…..

Category:

research, Ticks, Viruses

Lyme May Help Ticks Survive

https://www.lymedisease.org/evolution-lyme-bacteria-in-ticks/

The bacteria that causes Lyme in humans doesn’t hurt ticks. In fact, it might help them survive.

Dec. 7, 2022

University of Rhode Island entomologist Jannelle Couret is tipping the way we understand the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

Instead of looking at it from the human perspective, she and an interdisciplinary team of researchers are taking the view of the tick.

While the bacteria – Borrelia burgdorferi – is the pathogen that causes Lyme disease in humans, its presence is quite different in blacklegged ticks that pick up the bacteria from feeding on white-footed mice.

For the ticks, the bacteria doesn’t cause disease. It might even be beneficial.

For the next four years, Couret’s team will research the ecological factors driving the evolution of Borrelia burgdorferi in blacklegged ticks thanks to a $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

The grant is part of the prestigious Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease (EEID) program, run by the NIH, National Science Foundation, and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“I am really interested in the factors that are driving the tick populations,” said Couret, an assistant professor of biological studies and the principal investigator on the grant.

“Their populations vary year to year. Our preliminary data suggests that the survival of the ticks during some of their early life stages is improved based on whether they host these bacteria.”

All-female research team

For the four-year study, Couret is collaborating with Associate Professor Sukanya Narasimhan of Yale Medical School, Associate Professor Jean Tsao of Michigan State University, and Associate Professor Cynthia Lord of the University of Florida – along with postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate trainees at each institution.

“One of my favorite aspects of this work is the research team. We are all women and three of us are women of color,” said Couret, who is part Indigenous, Afro-Cuban, and American. “I think that is – unfortunately – somewhat rare in science.”

Prof and grad student in a lab sorting tick samples
Couret (on the right) works with graduate student Samantha Schofield as they sort out tick samples. (URI photo/Nora Lewis)

Blacklegged ticks, also called deer ticks, carry seven known pathogens and are responsible for about 95% of the tick-borne diseases in the U.S., including about 30,000 cases of Lyme disease reported each year.

Deer ticks can acquire the bacteria that causes Lyme disease during any of its life stages – larvae, nymph or adult – during a blood meal from white-footed mice, the primary carriers of the Lyme disease bacterium.

(While the abundance of deer ticks is casually associated with deer, these hosts do not transmit Borrelia burgdorferi to ticks, and deer are not considered an important host for the maintenance of the bacteria in wildlife populations.)

Do ticks benefit from carrying infections?

But the bacteria doesn’t lead to Lyme disease in either the mice or the ticks. In pilot studies, Couret has seen changes in the ticks that acquire the bacteria – including behavior, metabolism, respiration, and survival. So there appears to be an advantage for those ticks, she said.

“That’s a shift in mindset,” said Couret, who joined URI in 2015 after earning her Ph.D. in the ecology of infectious diseases at Emory University.

“We mainly think of Borrelia burgdorferi as a pathogen because it causes Lyme disease in humans. We are studying the transmission cycle of the bacteria in nature between ticks and white-footed mice. It’s possible that it’s not acting as a pathogen, but rather as a beneficial symbiont of the tick, a partner. The bigger picture question is, if we view Borrelia burgdorferi with this lens, can we better understand its transmission dynamics?”

Environmental factors

In understanding the transmission cycle of Lyme disease, the researchers will explore the relationships of many influences on the bacteria in the tick, including environmental factors, such as temperature and humidity; ecological facets, such as the tick’s microbiome; and the bacteria’s interactions with other organisms in the tick.

“We’re studying the effects of the bacteria on ticks at different levels, from gene expression to behavior,’’ she said. “We’ll combine that information to look at the evolutionary fitness of ticks, and model the impacts of bacteria on annual tick populations. We also are considering the microbiome. We want a really comprehensive view of the ensemble of ecological interactions that influence ticks, Borrelia burgdorferi, and their partnership.”

For the study, Narasimhan, a molecular biologist, will look at gene expression to learn what is changing in the ticks that acquire the bacteria, along with what is changing in the bacteria.

Lord, a vector-borne disease modeler, will incorporate the experiment results in a model that can predict tick populations and rates of transmission of Borrelia burgdorferi.

Tsao, a tick ecologist, will study deer ticks in the Midwest, another hot spot of Lyme disease. Paralleling Couret’s work in Rhode Island, Tsao will study tick behavior and development in a semi-natural environment.

Tsao and Couret will also look at traits that may be affected by the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi, effects of environmental conditions, survival rates, and gene expression.

Learning ways to improve prevention

When it’s completed, the study will greatly expand our understanding of the factors driving the maintenance of Lyme disease in wildlife. Findings could eventually lead to ways to control the deer tick population or inform disease prevention measures, Couret said.

Also, by characterizing the role of the microbiome as it relates to tick-Borrelia interactions, the research could lead to novel methods of biological controls, such as finding competing bacteria within the tick that, when present, negatively impact Borrelia burgdorferi transmission.

A unique aspect of the grant is the heavy focus on providing comprehensive mentorship for trainees, centering the experiences of those who have been marginalized in science and supporting the team through professional development across all four institutions involved.

Called the Microbiome Integrated Tick Ecology Network – or MITEY Network, as in mites – the mentoring will send trainees to each partner university to sharpen science skills, promote sustainable and productive writing practices and science communication, support a growth mindset, and reduce imposter syndrome.

“We want to make sure it’s an inclusive research culture and environment for our trainees,” Couret said.

PRESS RELEASE SOURCE: University of Rhode Island

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**Comment**

Unfortunately the wrong things are emphasized in this article.  I don’t give a jot what gender, color, or beliefs researchers have and nobody else should either.  What we desperately need are good, unbiased, well designed research studies that help patients by giving real answers to real problems.  And true to form, this study, once again, while lining the pockets of researchers, most probably won’t help patients.  I realize I’ve grown quite skeptical, but we need accurate tests, treatments, and transmission studies.  Period.  

We need mainstream medicine and public health to accept the fact this is a relapsing illness that persists and sequesters inside the body.

Until these foundational, fundamental issues are addressed and resolved, everything else is moot.

For a deeper dive and excellent read into the topic of the interplay between Bb and ticks:  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lyme-disease-ticks-borrelia-co-conspirators-john-eoin-healy

Important excerpt:

Quite a bit of research has already been done on this subject with regard to Ixodes ricinus – the European vector of Lyme and a species that is very closely related to the east coast U.S. tick Ixodes scapularis – the black-legged tick. 

Also see:  https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/47/6/1196/996195

Important excerpts, showing this is not a new idea:

Survival rate of nymphal and adult I. ricinus was significantly enhanced by infection by B. burgdorferi s.l. (χ2: nymph, P = 0.008; adult, P = 0.021).

Moreover, ticks infected by B. afzelii survived better than other ticks (infected by other genospecies or not). The results here indicate that infection by B. burgdorferi s.l., and more specifically infection by B. afzelii, confers survival advantages to I. ricinus under challenging thermohygrometric conditions.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-020-0400-5

Important excerpt showing that Bb also relies upon the tick for survival:

The spirochaete relies heavily on its arthropod host for basic metabolic functions and has developed complex interactions with ticks to successfully colonize, persist and, at the optimal time, exit the tick. For example, proteins shield spirochaetes from immune factors in the bloodmeal and facilitate the transition between vertebrate and arthropod environments. 

So we already know that the relationship between ticks and pathogens is beneficially symbiotic.
For the love of God, can we please move on to accurate testing, effective treatments, and transmission studies?

Category:

Lyme, research, Ticks

Molecular Detection of Anaplasma, Babesia odocoilei, Babesia spp. & Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato in Songbirds

https://www.jelsciences.com/articles/jbres1619.pdf

Molecular Detection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia odocoilei, Babesia species and Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato in Songbirds

John D Scott1 *, Elena McGoey2, Ana Morales3 and Risa R Pesapane2,4 1 Upper Grand Tick Centre, 365 St. David Street South, Fergus, Ontario, N1M 2L7, Canada 2 School of Environmental and Natural Resources, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA 3 McGill Bird Observatory, Ste Anne de Bellevue, QC, Canada H9X 0A6 4 Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, 1920 Coffey Rd., Columbus, OH 43210, USA

Abstract

The blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, is known to carry various tick-borne zoonotic pathogens with the potential to cause debilitating human and animal diseases. Juvenile I. scapularis parasitize songbirds and, perhaps, these avifauna are competent hosts of common microbial pathogens. We extracted brachial venous blood from 18 groundforaging passerine birds that were parasitized by I. scapularis larvae and nymphs. Using molecular identification, namely PCR, DNA sequencing, and Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), we targeted Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia spp. and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. Overall,

  • 15 (83%) of 18 passerine birds were positive for 3 microbial zoonotic pathogens that comprised of A. phagocytophilum (n = 8), Babesia odocoilei (n = 6), Babesia spp. 20-5A74 (n = 1), and B. burgdorferi sensu lato (n = 9).
  • The pathogen load consisted of 8 singles, 5 doubles, and 2 triples.
  • One novel Babesia sp. (Babesia spp. 20-5A74) was found, and the remaining Babesia infections were B. odocoilei.

Our findings reveal that ground-foraging, passerine birds are avian hosts of zoonotic pathogens. We provide the first-ever documentation that songbirds are hosts of B. odocoilei. Based on our data, B. odocoilei outnumbered other Babesia spp., and elucidated the authentic fact that B. odocoilei is the predominant Babesia sp. in North America. As avian hosts, passerine birds play a significant role in the enzootic transmission cycle of B. burgdorferi sensu lato, A. phagocytophilum, and Babesia species.

Important excerpts:

In the USA, tick researchers have reported B. odocoilei in Indiana [41-43], Michigan [44] Maine [42,43], Massachusetts [41-43], New York [45], Oklahoma [46,47], Pennsylvania [48,49] Texas [50,51], Virginia [52], and Wisconsin [42,43]. As well, B. odocoilei has been detected in I. pacificus in California [53]. In Canada, B. odocoilei has been detected in Saskatchewan [54], Ontario [7,15,55-59], and Quebec [55,57,58]. And yet, acarologists and ecologists have not reported B. microti in these three provinces [7,15,21,55-59]. Babesia odocoilei, which is a sequestering Babesia sp., can be recalcitrant to treat in human patients [7].

Not only do groundfrequenting songbirds transport ticks, they may also be hosts for tick-borne, zoonotic pathogens. Migratory songbirds widely disperse zoonotic pathogens across North America and, therefore, one does not have to frequent or live in an endemic area to contract human babesiosis caused by B. odocoilei.

For more:

Category:

Anaplasmosis, Babesia, Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks