Archive for the ‘Transmission’ Category

Boy Gets Powassan Encephalitis After Camping Trip

https://danielcameronmd.com/powassan-encephalitis-camping-trip/

Young boy develops Powassan encephalitis after camping trip

powassan-encephalitis

Although the Powassan virus is considered to be a rare tick-borne illness, the number of cases is rising, and at an alarming rate. A recent survey found, a 4-fold rise in the number of Powassan virus cases in the US from 2014 to 2023 (compared with 2004 to 2013). [3]

By 

This summer, a 9-year-old boy in Canada developed Powassan virus encephalitis, a life-threatening condition. In Pennsylvania, another young child was hospitalized with the virus. And, in April, an older man from Massachusetts was infected. Meanwhile, last year, a Maryland resident died from Powassan encephalitis after contracting it in Canada.

Powassan virus – transmitted in 15 minutes

The Powassan virus, which is transmitted through the bite of an infected blacklegged tick, can be deadly. And, most concerning, as cases are rising, the infection can be contracted within 15 minutes of a tick attachment.

The virus can cause fever, headache, vomiting, loss of coordination and memory and speech problems. It can also cause encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) and meningitis (inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.)

However, it often does not present with any symptoms, according to the CDC.

POWV encephalitis can be deadly

From 2004 to 2022, the US reported 288 cases of Powassan virus infection. Of these cases, 72 (25%) occurred in children, 264 patients (92%) required hospitalization, and 36 patients (13%) died.1

Patients infected with the virus have a “10% risk of developing fatal encephalitis and up to 50% of infected patients have long-term neurologic damage.”2

Up to 50% of patients have long-term neurologic complications.

The prognosis for individuals with Powassan virus neuroinvasive disease is poor. The case fatality rate is 10%–15%, and survivors have about a 50% probability of persistent neurologic deficits, including headaches, altered mental status, and cognitive difficulties.1

There is no treatment for the Powassan virus.

Case Report: 9-year-old boy

In July, a 9-year-old boy, residing in Canada, was hospitalized with Powassan encephalitis, after returning from a camping trip in northern Ontario.

Blatman and colleagues describe the case in their article, “Powassan virus encephalitis in a 9-year-old.”1

The young boy was admitted to the hospital with a fever, neck stiffness and headache, which began 1 week after returning from his camping trip.

Initially, he was treated with ceftriaxone and vancomycin for suspected meningitis.

PCR testing of the CSF for viral causes of meningitis or encephalitis, however, was negative. Bacterial culture and Gram stain of the CSF sample was also negative. And, an MRI of the brain was unremarkable.

The patient had no known tick bites or rashes.

“Over the next 48 hours, blood cultures showed no growth,” the authors state. However, “The patient remained persistently febrile with ongoing severe headache.”

After 3 days in the hospital, the boy’s condition worsened and he was transferred to the ICU. At this point, he was nonverbal and nonresponsive to commands, according to the authors.

Testing for Lyme disease was negative.

“Tick-borne Powassan virus encephalitis is associated with high mortality and a risk of long-term neurologic sequelae in survivors.”

Repeat EEG showed generalized slowing of brain activity. Meanwhile, a repeat MRI of the patient’s brain and full spine showed subtle bilateral basal ganglia and substantia nigra.

However, CFS testing was negative for autoimmune encephalitis.

“Given concern for potential autoimmune encephalitis, the patient received intravenous immunoglobulin at a dosage of 1 g/ kg for 2 days, with notable improvement in his level of consciousness within 24–48 hour,” the authors state.

Within 2 months, the boy had made a complete recovery.

New research indicates that the Powassan virus may be more deadly in older patients. “… only minimal infectious doses of the virus were highly lethal in older mice and that lethality increased >10-fold with age,” states Mackow.2

“Increased awareness of Powassan virus among clinicians in Canada will likely lead to increased identification of Powassan virus and other arthropod-borne infections, which should always be reported,” the authors state.

Related Articles:4 cases of Powassan virus encephalitis
Powassan virus encephalitis contracted during winter months
Can Powassan virus cause encephalitis or other neurologic damage?
References:
  1. CMAJ 2024 August 26;196:E973-6. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.240227
  2. Megan C. Mladinich et al, Age-dependent Powassan virus lethality is linked to glial cell activation and divergent neuroinflammatory cytokine responses in a murine model, Journal of Virology (2024). DOI: 10.1128/jvi.00560-24
  3. Passive surveillance of Powassan virus in human-biting ticks and health outcomes of associated bite victims. Siegel, Eric et al. Clinical Microbiology and Infection, Volume 30, Issue 10, 1332 – 1334

________________

**Comment**

But like all things Lyme/MSIDS, Powassan can persist in humans as well as mice.

Powassan is NOT rare:

http://www.coppelabs.com/blog/why-is-powassan-virus-infection-still-described-as-rare-and-mysterious/  Excerpt:  

For the last two years, Coppe Laboratories has dedicated a significant amount of time and resources to dispelling the myth that infection with Powassan virus, a virus transmitted by tick bite, is rare. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) reports only 100 cases of Powassan virus infection in the United States in the last 10 years. Indeed, that statistic gives the illusion that Powassan infection is rare. However, did you know that the only infections reported to CDC are those that are life-threatening, particularly cases causing severe inflammation of the brain like the case reported in LiveScience?

Coppe has published three new papers in the last year that clearly show Powassan virus infection is not rare are at all, and until testing for this virus is included as part of tick-borne disease screening panels infections will continue to be underreported. Coppe’s Powassan Guide, which can be downloaded from the website, summarizes the findings from both tick and human Powassan prevalence studies, as well as defining the patient populations that would benefit most from Powassan testing.

Coppe Labs, a specialized CLIA-certified lab, right in Waukesha, Wisconsin tests for Powassan, West Nile, Anaplasma, Babesia, Human Herpes Viruses 6 & 7, COVID, and Lyme disease.

Wisconsin is a hot-spot for Powassan.

For more:

Regarding IVIG, it has been used successfully in many Lyme/MSIDS patients including this young autistic boy infected with borrelia, babesia, and bartonella.  After a rough week of treatment suddenly this boy could remember things, he became happy, social, and agreeable with fewer tics.  Disulfiram also played a key role as well as targeting bartonella.  IVIG has also been used in PANS and PANDAS with some success.

Susannah Cahalan, who wrote the book Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, was given steroids, plasmapherisis, and IVIG for autoimmune encephalitis.

Dr. Frid uses IVIG for treating infections induced autoimmune encephalitis.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/01/panspandas-steroids-autoimmune-disease-lymemsids-the-need-for-medical-collaboration/   Boy’s Lyme Disease Morphs into Autoimmune encephalopathy. It took 10 years and 20 doctors to find out 12-year-old Patrik had Lyme disease. Just 4 months later the doctors discovered he also has a condition where his immune system attacks his brain.

Category:

research, Ticks, Transmission, Treatment, Viruses

Massachusetts Officials Approve Curfew Due to EEE & Fauci Recovering from West Nile Virus

https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/despite-parental-pushback-officials-approve-curfew-mass-town-amid-critical-eee-risk

Despite parental pushback, officials approve curfew in Mass. town amid critical EEE risk

By Boston 25 News Staff

OXFORD, Mass. — Health officials in one of four Massachusetts communities facing a critical risk for Eastern Equine Encephalitis met Wednesday night at a special meeting to discuss measures to keep residents safe, ultimately approving a townwide curfew.

As of Wednesday, the towns of Oxford, Douglas, Sutton, and Webster were considered at critical risk for EEE, according to the latest Massachusetts arbovirus risk map.

The towns were elevated to the high-risk level after a man in his 80s recently tested positive for EEE last week.  (See link for article)

______________

**Comment**

The curfew set at 6pm will shift to 5pm starting Oct 1 and will last through the first frost.

Please note all of this due to one 80 year old man testing positive.

Please note that EEE is a nationally notifiable condition.  This means they are counting cases and keeping track of it.  Bartonella, on the other hand, isn’t, yet can make you miserable or kill you just the same.

The CDC webpages state:

  • Eastern equine encephalitis virus IgM testing is available commercially, at some state health departments, and at CDC.
  • A positive eastern equine encephalitis virus IgM test result should be confirmed by neutralizing antibody testing at a state public health laboratory or CDC.
  • Some patients who are severely immunocompromised might require molecular (e.g., RT-PCR) testing for diagnosis.
  • Most persons infected with eastern equine encephalitis virus have no apparent illness. Symptomatic persons typically develop a systemic febrile illness that can progress in <5% of individuals to meningitis or encephalitis. The incubation period for eastern equine encephalitis ranges from 4 to 10 days but can be several weeks in patients who are immunocompromised.
  • Signs and symptoms in patients with neuroinvasive disease can include headache, meningismus, confusion, focal neurologic deficits, seizures, and coma.
  • Eastern equine encephalitis should be considered in any person with an acute febrile or neurologic illness who has had recent exposure to mosquitoes, especially during the summer months in areas where virus activity has been reported.
  • EEE has a fatality rate of 30%.  Of those that recover, more than half are left with physical or neurologic sequelae.

The article doesn’t state how this elderly man was tested but I’ll bet my hat it was PCR, which inventor Kary Mullis states should never be used to diagnose anybody.

The article also doesn’t state whether this man even has symptoms or how severe they symptoms are.

Does all of this look and feel like deja vu?

It should.

________________

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/24/anthony-fauci-west-nile-virus

Anthony Fauci recovering at home after hospitalization for West Nile virus

Former head of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease is expected to make a full recovery

Anthony Fauci is recovering at home from a West Nile virus infection, a spokesperson told news outlets on Saturday.

The former head of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease was hospitalized for six days with the virus. Fauci, 83, is expected to make a full recovery.

“Tony Fauci has been hospitalized with a case of West Nile virus. He is now home and is recovering. A full recovery is expected,” a spokesperson told multiple outlets.

Fauci retired from his role at the NIH in 2022 after achieving widespread recognition for his role in public health communication during the Covid-19 pandemic. He now serves as a distinguished professor at Georgetown University’s School of Medicine. (See link for article)

______________

**Comment**

CDC webpages state:

  • West Nile virus is the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the U.S.
  • Most people with West Nile do not feel sick.  (About 1 in 5 have fever and symptoms)
  • Symptoms include fever, headache, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea, or rash.
  • There are no vaccines to prevent or medicines to treat West Nile virus disease (West Nile) in people.

For more:

Please note that all sorts of shenanigans have been done for decades against mosquitoes and nobody knows the effects of these interventions.  As in the case of ‘vaccines,’ man-made interventions to kill bugs often have deleterious effects on biological health, which few are tracking.

Category:

Activism, mosquitoes, Transmission, Viruses

Lyme & Autism: Dr. Jodie Dashore

https://lymediseaseassociation.org/blogs/lda-guest-blogs/jodie-a-dashore-may-awareness-guest-blog-borrelia-miyamotoi/

May Awareness LDA Guest Blogger

2019-11

Jodie A. Dashore PhD, OTD, BCIP, HHP, CCH, RH (AHG) is an internationally recognized practitioner, author, researcher and a pioneering clinical herbalist. She is widely known for her unique plant-based medicine approach to Autism, Lyme Disease, Mold/Biotoxin Illness and Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) and Camel Milk medicinal protocols.

Dr Dashore holds a PhD (Integrative Medicine) and completed a post-doctoral certification in Immunology at Harvard Medical School. Dr Dashore is a CIRS – Shoemaker Certified practitioner, Board Certified in Integrative Pediatrics, Board-Certified and licensed Doctor of Occupational Therapy (Neurology), Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner and registered herbalist with the American herbalist Guild with 25+ years of clinical experience. She is an International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) member and has been a Lyme literate clinician for a decade+.

She specializes in all-natural plant-based and individual genetic-based customized treatment options for Autism, Lyme Disease and Mold/Biotoxin Illness. She is the founder and Director of BioNexus Health Clinic, Apothecary and biodynamic herb farm in Marlboro New Jersey and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Dr Dashore is the author of the book “The BioNexus Approach to Biotoxin Illness- A step by step guide to sustainable plant-based treatment options.”

Lyme & Autism

Summary of Video Blog: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) continues to be on the rise causing tremendous hardship to the families impacted by its relentless impact on the lives of their loved ones. At BioNexus Health we see complicated cases of children of all ages diagnosed with ASD. In-depth history, examination and symptom analysis often points to neurological Lyme Disease in over 65% of cases of Autism we see. It is important to investigate further, gather laboratory evidence and factor in the appropriate treatment for the tick borne infections identified. Proper and timely intervention can change the course of the child’s condition, stop damage in its tracks and create the requisite environment for the child to heal. When a child with ASD heals, it sends waves of positivity to the entire family and the community as a whole with reduced strain on resources and greatly improved quality of life.

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the blog author and may or may not reflect the views of the Lyme Disease Association, Inc.

For more:

Category:

Autism, Lyme, research, Transmission

‘The Power of Natural Immunity’: COVID Challenge Trials Struggle to Infect Participants, Even at High Doses

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/natural-immunity-uk-human-covid-challenge-trials/

‘The Power of Natural Immunity’: COVID Challenge Trials Struggle to Infect Participants, Even at High Doses

U.K. scientists attempting to deliberately reinfect healthy people with COVID-19 for vaccine and treatment testing found that even doses 10,000 times higher than the original could not induce sustained infection in participants with natural immunity from prior infection, as reported in The Lancet Microbe.

covid vaccine and hand holding key that reads "immunity"

Scientists trying to reinfect people with the COVID-19 virus so they could test vaccines and treatments found high levels of immunity made it nearly impossible, according to results from the COVID-19 “Human Challenge” trials in the U.K

The results, published May 1 in The Lancet Microbe, “raise questions about the usefulness of COVID-19 challenge trials for testing vaccines, drugs and other therapeutics,” Nature reported.

“If you can’t get people infected, then you can’t test those things,” Tom Peacock, Ph.D., a virologist at Imperial College London, told Nature.

Brian Hooker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer for Children’s Health Defense told The Defender, “The results show the power of natural immunity as compared to the many breakthrough infections in ‘naive’ vaccinated individuals.”

“Any assertion that vaccination-based immunity is more powerful than natural immunity is complete lunacy — the acquired immune system is a beautiful thing and vaccination is a cheaper and much less effective substitute,” he said. (See link for article)

_____________

**Comment**

And that is just what the past four years have brought us: LUNACY.

SUMMARY:

  • The 1st study in 2021 exposed 36 adults to the original strain of COVID via nasal droplets. Of those, only 53% eventually tested PCR-positive but had very mild or no symptoms. There was no correlation between severity and viral load.
  • The 2nd study funded by the Wellcome Trust and the U.K.’s Department of Health and Social Care infected people with COVID who already had natural immunity – some of which were ‘vaccinated’.  Between 2021 and 2022 scientists inoculated 36 adults with different COVID doses and then quarantined them for 14 days and tested them during that time and throughout 12 months. When the 1st subjects did not get infected, they increased the dose until it reached 10,000 times the original dose. They were unable to induce sustained infection in any subjects.  Five later got mild infections during the Omicron period.
  • Another challenge trial is ongoing at Imperial College London but is also having trouble infecting participants, even though it’s with the Delta strain. The lead researcher received a $57 million grant from the European Union and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-backed CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, to use challenge trials to develop  inhaled and intranasal COVID-19 vaccines.

Saddest excerpt of all:

They are continuing to try to develop ways to actually infect trial subjects so they can develop vaccines. Those methods include giving people multiple doses of the vaccine or finding people who have low levels of immune protection.

So there you have it.

This reminds me of the failed experiment to infect volunteer inmates with the Spanish flu, also known as the Great Swine Flu – to develop a ‘magic bullet’ vaccine which also caused severe adverse reactions.  ZERO people got infected despite being injected with infected lung tissue from sick or deceased patients, having infected tissue dropped in their eyes, and sprayed in the nose and mouth with infectious aerosols. Others would see mucus taken from critically ill patients and put it into the noses and throats of prisoners. In other parts of the trials, experimenters would take the blood of the sick and inject it into the healthy, to see if it was spread through infectious microorganisms in the blood.  Nobody got sick and nobody died.

This should raise some questions.  What exactly were people dying from?

And this is the question that needs to be asked of COVID and every other ‘infectious’ disease that can’t be purposely used to infect others, and I’m not simply talking about a fraudulent positive PCR test that changes like the wind.  I’m talking about symptoms that make you sick.

People have certainly gotten severely ill, but with what, and why do anti-parasitic medications work on a supposed virus, which BTW, also work on cancer?  Hmmm…

Go here for more fundamental truths and busted persistent myths about cancer treatments.

For more:

  • https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/07/10/coronavirus-why-everyone-was-wrong/  Excerpt:
    • Firstly, it was wrong to claim that this virus was novel.
    • Secondly, It was even more wrong to claim that the population would not already have some immunity against this virus.
    • 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.  – Beda M Stadler

Category:

research, Transmission, Treatment, vaccines, Viruses

Woman Develops Lyme Disease Symptoms After Giving Birth, But Baby Doesn’t – Yet

https://danielcameronmd.com/woman-develops-lyme-disease-symptoms-after-giving-birth/

WOMAN DEVELOPS LYME DISEASE SYMPTOMS AFTER GIVING BIRTH

In their article, “An Unusual Case of Serologically Confirmed Post-Partum Lyme Disease Following an Asymptomatic Borrelia burgdorferi Infection Acquired during Pregnancy and Lacking Vertical Transmission in Utero,” Pavia et al. describe the case of a young woman who developed symptoms of Lyme disease immediately following the birth of her child. [1]

By 

A 23-year-old woman, who lived in Brooklyn, NY, had visited her primary care doctor complaining of bilateral knee swelling and pain. Three days prior, she had delivered a healthy baby girl.

The pain was reported as 8/10 in severity and was exacerbated by walking, according to the authors.

When the woman was 6 months pregnant, she experienced similar knee pain briefly but never sought treatment.

“Interestingly, except for a brief 2-day period where she experienced knee pain, she remained symptom-free for Lyme disease for the remainder of the pregnancy.”

During her pregnancy the woman had taken several trips to wooded areas in upstate New York.

She denied any known exposure to ticks or the development of any rash.

Testing for Lyme disease was positive by Western blot with several reactive bands including: 18, 23, 28, 33, 41,43, 58, 66, and 93 kDa.

The woman was treated successfully with a 3-week course of doxycycline.

Her newborn was symptom-free at birth and has never shown any of the usual signs or symptoms of active disease well into early childhood and beyond, the authors state.

According to the authors, “There was no evidence for congenital or perinatal transmission of this pathogen at any point pre-term or postnatally.”

Related Articles:

No complications with Lyme disease and pregnancy
Can Lyme disease impact pregnancy outcome?
Podcast: Pregnancy, breast feeding and Lyme disease

References:
  1. Pavia CS, Plummer MM, Varantsova A. An Unusual Case of Serologically Confirmed Post-Partum Lyme Disease Following an Asymptomatic Borrelia burgdorferi Infection Acquired during Pregnancy and Lacking Vertical Transmission in Utero. Pathogens. 2024 Feb 20;13(3):186. doi: 10.3390/pathogens13030186. PMID: 38535530; PMCID: PMC10976031.

______________

**Comment**

This, of course, will be used ad nauseam to push the myth that congenital transmission is rare or doesn’t occur.  FALSE!  Further, it is widely known that the immune system often keeps the infection in check until a trigger sets it off.

For more:

Category:

Lyme, Pregnancy, research, Testing, Transmission, Treatment