Archive for the ‘Transmission’ Category

May Lyme Awareness Talk, 2021

http://

May 5, 2021

Lyme Awareness Talk

According the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the average number of Lyme disease cases has more than doubled over the last decade.  In this presentation, Alicia Cashman from the Madison Lyme Support Group discusses tick-born illness, why it’s so difficult to obtain help, symptoms, prevention, and real life experience of patients.  The program was made possible through funding from the Friends of the Oregon Library.

Slide 1: Lyme Disease a 21st Century Pandemic
Slide 2: Why should we care about Lyme disease:
Slide 3: The History of Lyme disease:
Slide 4:  What is Lyme disease?
  • The CDC/NIH/IDSA accepted narrative
  • Reality
Slide 5: Pleomorphism (Lyme shape-shifts)
Slide 6: Video of a spirochetal cluster grown from a sick patient’s blood
Slide 7: Polymicrobialism (There are often other infections involved)
Slide 8:  How is Lyme Transmitted?
  • The CDC accepted narrative
  • Reality
Slide 9:  Congenital Lyme – is real
Slide 10: How is Lyme diagnosed?
Slide 11:  Symptoms of Lyme disease
  • CDC accepted narrative
  • Reality
Slide 12: Lyme disease signs and symptoms explained by Dr. Aucott of Johns Hopkins
  • Patients can jump to stage 3 quickly and bypass the other stages.  I give the example of the little girl who went out to play, got a tick bite above her eye and within 4-6 hours couldn’t walk or talk.
  • Many never see the tick or the rash
  • While the rash is diagnostic for Lyme (if you have the rash, you have Lyme – no testing required), you may still be infected even if you don’t have the rash. Most doctors are uneducated, don’t know what the rash looks like, and mistakenly tell people they got a spider or other bug bite.  The rash can also be irregular: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/07/18/misdiagnosis-of-lyme-caused-rash-can-have-potentially-fatal-consequences/
Slide 13: Why are definitions important?
  • Organism
  • Transmission
  • Treatment
Slide 14:  Tick Prevention
Slide 15: Willy Burgdorfer, the “discoverer” of Lyme
Slide 16: New Treatments for Lyme disease
Please remember that most patients are infected with numerous infections.  Treatment should reflect this as research shows patients fighting numerous infections simultaneously have more severe symptoms for a much longer duration.
Slide 17: Hollywood Stars infected with Lyme

Category:

Activism, Babesia, Bartonella, Biofilm, Lyme, Prevention, Psychological Aspects, research, Testing, Ticks, Transmission, Treatment

Mothers & Children Panel: 5th Annual LymeMIND Conference 2020

http://

Mothers & Children Panel: 5th Annual LymeMIND Conference 2020

Nov. 2, 2020

  • Sue Faber, RN, BScN, President, LymeHope
  • Holly Ahern, MT(ASCP), Associate Professor of Microbiology, SUNY Adirondack 
  • Charlotte Mao, MD, Pediatric infectious disease specialist, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital Congenital Lyme research has been on hold for 25 years.
CDC just updated and acknowledged the importance of this field of study. We are interested in exploring the paradigm shifting potential of this.
  • How can we detect and treat Lyme and TBD in children – especially infants?
  • What are the special considerations for children?
  • Children are most at-risk population in the US, so how do we prevent infection?
  • What should pregnant and new mothers do if they have (or suspect they have) Lyme or TBD?

For more:

Don’t get your hopes up.  The CDC still falsely states congenital transmission to be “rare,” which is their way of saying, “Nothing to see here!”

As Lyme advocate Carl Tuttle states, how can they even know it’s rare when nobody’s counting?!  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/02/19/how-can-mother-to-fetus-transmission-of-lyme-disease-be-rare-when-no-one-is-counting/

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research, Transmission

Tick-borne Diseases & Co-infection: Current Considerations

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33220628/

2020 Nov 9;12(1):101607.

doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2020.101607.Online ahead of print.

Tick-borne diseases and co-infection: Current considerations

Sally J Cutler 1, Muriel Vayssier-Taussat 2, Agustín Estrada-Peña 3, Aleksandar Potkonjak 4, Andrei D Mihalca 5, Hervé Zeller 6

Abstract

Over recent years, a multitude of pathogens have been reported to be tick-borne. Given this, it is unsurprising that these might co-exist within the same tick, however our understanding of the interactions of these agents both within the tick and vertebrate host remains poorly defined. Despite the rich diversity of ticks, relatively few regularly feed on humans, 12 belonging to argasid and 20 ixodid species, and literature on co-infection is only available for a few of these species. The interplay of various pathogen combinations upon the vertebrate host and tick vector represents a current knowledge gap. The impact of co-infection in humans further extends into diagnostic challenges arising when multiple pathogens are encountered and we have little current data upon which to make therapeutic recommendations for those with multiple infections. Despite these short-comings, there is now increasing recognition of co-infections and current research efforts are providing valuable insights into dynamics of pathogen interactions whether they facilitate or antagonise each other. Much of this existing data is focussed upon simultaneous infection, however the consequences of sequential infection also need to be addressed. To this end, it is timely to review current understanding and highlight those areas still to address.

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**Comment**

About time.

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

Key Quote:  “Our findings recognize that microbial infections in patients suffering from TBDs do not follow the one microbe, one disease Germ Theory as 65% of the TBD patients produce immune responses to various microbes.”

But there is another important point.

According to this review, 83% of all commercial tests focus only on Lyme (borrelia), despite the fact we are infected with more than one microbe.  The review also states it takes 11 different visits to 11 different doctors, utilizing 11 different tests to be properly diagnosed.  https://www.news-medical.net/news/20181101/Tick-borne-disease-is-multiple-microbial-in-nature.aspx?

It has also been discovered that many are infected with Borrelia miyamotoi which will also not be picked up with current CDC 2-tiered testing.

They found: 

  • Among positive ticks, 60% were for B. miyamotoi.
  • Testing on over 2,000 humans (mainly late stage/chronic patients) showed 30% negative results and 70% positive, among which over 60% indicated the presence of specific Borrelia miyamotoi phages.

Source:

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/11/30/neglected-infections-gastrointestinal-issues-in-patients-with-late-vector-borne-infections/

Category:

research, Ticks, Transmission

New Study: COVID Was Already Here in 2019 & Getting COVID Protects You For Years

https://thehighwire.com/videos/new-study-covid-was-already-here/  10 Min Video here

NEW STUDY: COVID WAS ALREADY HERE

A new study is raising serious questions about the #Covid19 timeline. Antibodies of the virus in asymptomatic participants may go back even further than we initially thought. Find out how far back, and why this may change everything we think we know about the Coronavirus.

Study here:  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0300891620974755

Unexpected detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the prepandemic period in Italy

Giovanni Apolone*, Emanuele Montomoli*, Alessandro Manenti, …

First Published November 11, 2020 Research Article Find in PubMed

https://doi.org/10.1177/0300891620974755

There are no robust data on the real onset of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and spread in the prepandemic period worldwide. We investigated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD)–specific antibodies in blood samples of 959 asymptomatic individuals enrolled in a prospective lung cancer screening trial between September 2019 and March 2020 to track the date of onset, frequency, and temporal and geographic variations across the Italian regions. SARS-CoV-2 RBD-specific antibodies were detected in 111 of 959 (11.6%) individuals, starting from September 2019 (14%), with a cluster of positive cases (>30%) in the second week of February 2020 and the highest number (53.2%) in Lombardy.

This study shows an unexpected very early circulation of SARS-CoV-2 among asymptomatic individuals in Italy several months before the first patient was identified, and clarifies the onset and spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Finding SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in asymptomatic people before the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy may reshape the history of pandemic.

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**Comment**

If 11% had COVID-19 antibodies as far back as September 2019, we know it was here before then. We should also be testing blood banks in the U.S. so the public understands this.  This should change everything.  

But the mainstream media is still only reporting fear and fake numbers.

Food for thought:  Madison, Wisconsin is home to research facilities where researchers from all over the globe, travel all over the world.  Students and researchers from other countries are in and out, and in again.  How likely is it that COVID was here much sooner than we are being told as people were freely moving about?  I suspect highly likely and might explain the strange virus my entire family experienced that had us flat on our backs in January – way before any mask mandates or lockdowns.

I posted on this before, but please read:  https://www.salon.com/2020/04/24/did-this-virus-come-from-a-lab-maybe-not–but-it-exposes-the-threat-of-a-biowarfare-arms-race/   Excerpt

In that same year, 2012, a similar study by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin was published in Nature:

Highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza A viruses occasionally infect humans, but currently do not transmit efficiently among humans. … Here we assess the molecular changes … that would allow a virus … to be transmissible among mammals. We identified a … virus … with four mutations and the remaining seven gene segments from a 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus — that was capable of droplet transmission in a ferret model. 

They’ve been doing viral research in Madison forever.  While Madison is home to a BSL-3 facility, there are plenty of BSL-4 facilities in the U.S. working on viruses and other toxic agents.
 
According to CDC and WHO guidelines, 
“Biosafety Level 3 is applicable to laboratories where work with indigenous or exotic agents may cause serious disease because of exposure by inhalation route. Laboratory personnel require specific training for handling such agents, and are supervised by competent scientists who are experienced in working with these agents.” 
 
My point is that there was plenty of opportunity for many, many people in the U.S. to be exposed to COVID-19 way before the first outbreak in Wuhan in November, 2019.  Historically, people are weaker and more susceptible to flu-like illnesses in the winter so we probably didn’t visually see much until November, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t circulating in the population.  
________________________
 
 
I posted this before, but it deserves repeating:  
 

GETTING COVID PROTECTS YOU FOR YEARS

Recent data from scientists at the Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research suggests those who have had COVID-19 may be immune for years. Del & Jeffery Jaxen breakdown the science and show why herd immunity may be an effective tool to end the pandemic.

 

These findings should alleviate fears and end draconian measures.

For more:

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/11/05/robust-sars-cov-2-specific-t-cell-immunity-is-maintained-at-6-months-following-primary-infection/

lymphocytes from 20–50% of unexposed donors display significant reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 antigen peptide pools1,2,3,4.

In conclusion, it is now established that SARS-CoV-2 pre-existing immune reactivity exists to some degree in the general population.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/07/10/coronavirus-why-everyone-was-wrong/  Excerpt:

  1. Firstly, it was wrong to claim that this virus was novel.
  2. Secondly, It was even more wrong to claim that the population would not already have some immunity against this virus.
  3. Thirdly, it was the crowning of stupidity to claim that someone could have Covid-19 without any symptoms at all or even to pass the disease along without showing any symptoms whatsoever.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/10/18/dr-sunetra-gupta-takes-on-herd-immunity-nay-sayers/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/07/31/top-expert-most-of-u-s-already-has-herd-immunity/  Posted back in July!

Category:

research, Transmission, Viruses

Moose Ticks Are Dining on Local Deer

https://www.telegram.com/story/sports/2020/10/29/outdoors-moose-ticks-dining-our-deer/

Moose ticks are dining on local deer

Back-breaking work begins after succeeding in hunt
By Mark Blazis
Correspondent
Tufts University infectious disease authority Dr. Sam Telford collects a vial of engorged moose ticks from a local white-tailed deer.Tufts University Infectious disease authority Dr. Sam Telford Collects a vial of engorged moose ticks from a local white-tailed deer.Photo/Mark Blazis

Any time you shoot a deer that’s heavier than you are is worthy of celebration. So I was ecstatic when I dropped a big buck with my arrow last Monday evening. Few events are more exciting than finally getting a deer you’ve worked hard for. But once he’s down, the reality of potentially backbreaking work just begins.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Excerpt:  

Besides the ubiquitous moose ticks — also called winter ticks — there were many lice, louse flies and only male deer ticks, which are of no value to Sam’s research. “The female deer ticks must have already engorged and dropped off,” Sam concluded disappointingly.

This article mentions a very practical tip: spraying the area under dead bucks with permethrin or other acaricide right away to kill any females that drop off that could lay 2,000-3,000 eggs infesting your yard.
Hanging deer in the backyard can unintentionally spread ticks and disease.

Laying the ground with an insecticide-sprayed tarp is the answer to this.

Telford states that moose ticks in Northern New England suck the blood of 1st year moose enough to cause over half of them to die every winter. He states they don’t prefer human blood but the native Americans had an expression for them that translates, “bite like fire,” so they evidently DO bite humans!

Moose ticks also typically spend their entire life on one host.

The article states there were abundant, wingless louse flies or keds – which unfortunately Telford did not collect. The female releases her young on the forest floor where they attach to bedded deer, which they feed on almost exclusively.  Again, the article states they don’t care for humans but they CAN carry bacteria and their potential disease threat remains unclear.

Yet, the following articles show THEY DO TRANSMIT TO HUMANS:

It’s truly unfortunate that transmission studies remain in infancy.  The one all the researchers refer to has an inch of dust on it.

Category:

Ticks, Transmission, Uncategorized