Archive for the ‘Transmission’ Category

Tick-borne Powassan Virus Confirmed in 6 Minnesota Counties

http://www.fox9.com/news/powassan-virus  Go here for 2 Min News Video

Tick-borne Powassan virus confirmed in 6 Minnesota counties

By Jack Highberger

Posted May 02 2017 10:09PM CDT

(KMSP) – A tick-borne disease that is more serious than Lyme disease is on the rise. It’s called the Powassan virus, and there are already 20 confirmed cases in Minnesota. Ticks in 6 counties have tested positive, some of them very close to the Twin Cities metro.

The virus was confirmed in Anoka, Cass, Clearwater, Houston, Morrison and Pine counties.

First documented in 1958, the virus is named after the Canadian town where it first appeared. Symptoms include headache, vomiting, weakness, and in many cases, swelling of the brain.

Government statistics show that half of those infected will suffer permanent neurological damage.
Unlike Lyme disease, which is treatable and preventable, if an affected tick is quickly removed, the Powassan virus has no known treatment and can be transmitted from a tick to human in only minutes.
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**Comment**
I’ve looked everywhere but can not find why they think that deer ticks transmitting Powassan is a NEW thing.  It’s always been able to transmit it & is even called “Deer Tick Virus.” Even the CDC website states it and they’re usually the last to know about anything.
We’ve also known it takes mere minutes to transmit and being a virus it’s unique in that antibiotics won’t work – but there are many things you can do for viruses:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/03/28/combating-viruses/
The frightening aspect of Powassan of course is that the symptoms can be severe and transmission happens quickly.  I do know many patients who improved on anti-virals.  Typically this is discovered through trial and error on their part. I am not aware if anti-virals would work on Powassan, but this recent study suggests certain ones may:  https://www.contagionlive.com/news/investigators-discover-how-ticks-reproduce-powassan-virus-in-salivary-glands  Excerpt:
…the utilization of the organ cultures is likely a bona fide way to rapidly assess the efficacy of gene inactivation methods as well as drugs and small molecule inhibitors as antivirals.”

 

Coppe Lab, a CLIA certified lab, right here Waukesha has been studying Powassan for quite some time. Their pdf below states that numbers look low because only severe cases are reported. Despite this, there’s been a 375% increase in the last 5 years. 

They state the clinical picture of Powassan looks like many other tick-borne illnesses and is…

probably overlooked yet directly contributes to disease long term.

About two-thirds are subclinical but round 30% of symptomatic adults contract a severe form called meningoencephalitis. One-third of those have incomplete recovery with neuropsychiatric symptoms that become chronic. The overall fatality rate is about 1% and severity of illness increases with the age of the patient.  

In 2016, Coppe Laboratories’ Study 1 evaluated 106 patientswith suspected acute tick-borne disease and 10.4% tested positive for POWV by immunofluorescence assay. Nearly 17% of the patients with positive Lyme results also tested positive for POWV exposure. The authors concluded,

“Infection with POWV may be underdiagnosed and may contribute to the persistent symptoms often associated with Lyme disease diagnosis.”16

Coppe states the following patients should be tested for POWV:
  • Patients with a recent tick bite. Studies have shown 2–9% of ticks to be infected with POWV in Lyme endemic areas.17
  • PatientswithLymeoranothertick-borneillness who have been treated with antibiotics and have persistent symptoms consistent with post-treatment Lyme disease.
  • Patients with tick exposure who have tested negative for Lyme disease or other tick-borne illnesses who continue to have symptoms.
  • Patients with tick exposure and unexplained neurologic symptoms.
  • ChronicFatigueSyndrome(CFS)orPost-Infectious Fatigue (PIF) patients with tick exposure.

Coppe has developed both direct and indirect tests for Powassan virus and is the only commercial laboratory to offer this type of testing.  See their pdf for case studies:  http://www.coppelabs.com/wp-content/uploads/coppe-powassan_16pg_030818_lores_indiv.pdf

More on Powassan:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/13/half-of-powassan-cases-from-wisconsin-and-minnesota/

 

Category:

Ticks, Transmission, Viruses

Top 5 Myths About Lyme – Dr. Dempsey on Fox News

https://dms.licdn.com/playback/C4D05AQG-qO15mnPTZw/bcfa97f0454c4969a4be3b100a253788/feedshare-mp4_3300-captions-

Click on link for news story

Fox 61 News discusses the Top 5 Myths About Lyme Disease with Dr. Tania Dempsey of Armonk Integrative Medicine, Armonk, New York

Fantastic job Dr. Dempsey!

Then they talk about tick prevention:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/12/tick-prevention-2019/

Dr. Dempsey on Bartonella:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/07/fox-news-bartonella-is-the-new-lyme-disease/

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing, Ticks, Transmission, Treatment

Is A Cell Tower Causing Cancer In School Children?

https://www.brighteon.com/6028326665001

Is A Cell Tower Causing Cancer In School Children

Please click on link above for CBS13 news story of 4 children diagnosed with cancer all attending the same school that has a cell tower on its premise. More than 200 children protested the tower by staying home from school.

Parents hired an electromagnetic radiation specialist who found much higher levels than the district’s experts.  He also stated that it’s not just a cell-tower but it also transmits wireless frequencies.

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https://ehtrust.org/key-issues/cell-phoneswireless/5g-networks-iot-scientific-overview-human-health-risks/  Verizon and Sprint have announced “test cities” for 5G which include Sacramento, Washington DC, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami and New York.

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/16/award-winning-journalist-exposes-wifi-disaster-in-canadian-public-school-that-injured-dozens-of-children-health-alert-on-cell-phones/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/13/study-wi-fi-is-an-important-threat-to-human-health-list-of-scientific-studies/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/13/despite-lack-of-studies-safety-standards-relaxed-ahead-of-5g-emf-health-effects-survey-shows-health-harm-rat-study-shows-microwaves-cause-brain-permeability/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/05/global-5g-will-blanket-the-earth-in-a-mosaic-of-cells/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Transmission

Three Strains of Borrelia & Other Pathogens Found in Salivary Glands of Ixodes Ticks – Suggesting Quicker Transmission Time

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30940200

2019 Apr 2;12(1):152. doi: 10.1186/s13071-019-3418-7.

Tick-borne pathogen detection in midgut and salivary glands of adult Ixodes ricinus.

Lejal E1, Moutailler S1, Šimo L1, Vayssier-Taussat M2, Pollet T3.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

The tick midgut and salivary glands represent the primary organs for pathogen acquisition and transmission, respectively. Specifically, the midgut is the first organ to have contact with pathogens during the blood meal uptake, while salivary glands along with their secretions play a crucial role in pathogen transmission to the host. Currently there is little data about pathogen composition and prevalence in Ixodes ricinus midgut and salivary glands. The present study investigated the presence of 32 pathogen species in the midgut and salivary glands of unfed I. ricinus males and females using high-throughput microfluidic real-time PCR. Such an approach is important for enriching the knowledge about pathogen distribution in distinct tick organs which should lead to a better understanding I. ricinus-borne disease epidemiology.

RESULTS:

  • Borrelia lusitaniae, Borrelia spielmanii and Borrelia garinii, were detected in both midgut and salivary glands suggesting that the migration of these pathogens between these two organs might not be triggered by the blood meal.
  • In contrast, Borrelia afzelii was detected only in the tick midgut.
  • Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Rickettsia helvetica were the most frequently detected in ticks and were found in both males and females in the midgut and salivary glands.
  • In contrast, Rickettsia felis was only detected in salivary glands.
  • Finally, Borrelia miyamotoi and Babesia venatorum were detected only in males in both midguts and salivary glands.
  • Among all collected ticks, between 10-21% of organs were co-infected.
  • The most common bacterial co-infections in male and female midgut and salivary glands were Rickettsia helvetica + Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Rickettsia helvetica + Borrelia lusitaniae, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS:

Analysing tick-borne pathogen (TBP) presence in specific tick organs enabled us to (i) highlight contrasting results with well-established transmission mechanism postulates; (ii) venture new hypotheses concerning pathogen location and migration from midgut to salivary glands; and (iii) suggest other potential associations between pathogens not previously detected at the scale of the whole tick. This work highlights the importance of considering all tick scales (i.e. whole ticks vs organs) to study TBP ecology and represents another step towards improved understanding of TBP transmission.

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**Comment**
Ixodes ricinus, commonly known as the castor bean tick, sheep tick, or deer tick, transmits numerous pathogens of medical and veterinary importance including tick-borne encephalitis virus and Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme), and frequently bites humans. https://ecdc.europa.eu/en/disease-vectors/facts/tick-factsheets/ixodes-ricinus
The really important discovery was that three borrelia strains were found not only in the midgut but in the salivary glands – suggesting that the migration of these pathogens between these two organs might not be triggered by the blood meal.
For decades we’ve been told by the CDC that it takes a minimum of 36-48-hours for a tick to transmit Lyme to a human. Then, in 2013 we were told they needed to be embedded for 24 hours or more:  https://www.nhregister.com/columns/article/DR-KATZ-Of-Lyme-disease-and-lemonade-11412658.php
Then, microbiologist Holly Ahern came out with a fantastic video revealing that research on minimum attachment times have NEVER been done:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/04/14/transmission-time-for-lymemsids-infection/

Transmission Time:  Only one study done on Mice. 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 and https://www.dovepress.com/lyme-borreliosis-a-review-of-data-on-transmission-time-after-tick-atta-peer-reviewed-article-IJGM  no studies have determined the minimum time it takes for transmission.

Yet, “authorities” continue to propagate this longer window, despite Lyme/MSIDS being a true 21st century pandemic & plague.

This study finally begins pushing the ball down the hill by showing it may not take a blood meal for spirochetes already within the saliva to be much more quickly injected into humans, causing infection much more quickly.

Lastly, this is a French study. The CDC probably won’t even look at it.

Category:

Anaplasmosis, Babesia, research, Rickettsia, Testing, Ticks, Transmission

Possibility of Bed Bugs Transmitting Relapsing Fever Borrelia

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30938280

2019 Apr 1. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.18-0804. [Epub ahead of print]

Testing the Competence of Cimex lectularius Bed Bugs for the Transmission of Borrelia recurrentis, the Agent of Relapsing Fever.

El Hamzaoui B1,2, Laroche M1,2, Bechah Y1,2, Bérenger JM1,2, Parola P2,1.

Abstract

In recent years, bed bugs have reappeared in greater numbers, more frequently, and are biting humans in many new geographic areas. Infestations by these hematophagous insects are rapidly increasing worldwide. Borrelia recurrentis, a spirochete bacterium, is the etiologic agent of louse-borne relapsing fever. The known vectors are body lice, Pediculus humanus humanus. However, previous studies have suggested that bed bugs might also be able to transmit this bacterium. Adult Cimex lectularius were artificially infected with a blood meal mixed with bacterial suspension of B. recurrentis. They were subsequently fed with pathogen-free human blood until the end of the experiment. Bed bugs and feces were collected every 5 days to evaluate the capacity of bed bugs to acquire and excrete viable B. recurrentis using molecular biology, cultures, fluorescein diacetate and immunofluorescence assays. The feces collected on the day 5 and 10 postinfection contained viable bacteria. Immunofluorescence analysis of exposed bed bugs showed the presence of B. recurrentis in the digestive tract, even in bed bugs collected on day 20 after infection. Like human body lice, bed bugs can acquire, maintain, and excrete viable B. recurrentis that might infect humans through skin lesions. This preliminary work suggests that bed bugs might be competent vectors of B. recurrentis. Because bed bugs and body lice may share the same ecological niches, the role of bed bugs in transmitting recurrent fevers deserves further study.

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Great work here.  We need tons more research in the area of vector competence for not only borrelia but on ALL the pathogens Lyme/MSIDS patients are struggling with. Many feel that the tick is not the sole perp: 

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

Mattman isolated living Borrelia spirochetes in mosquitoes, fleas, mites, semen, urine, blood, plasma and Cerebral Spinal Fluid. She discovered that this bacteria is dangerous because it can survive and spread without cell wall (L shape). Because L-forms do not possess cell wall, they are resistant to antibiotics that act upon the cell wall.

Others have found various ways Bb is transmitted as well:

Category:

research, Testing, Transmission