Tick-borne diseases can cause serious illnesses, including Lyme disease. Prevalent throughout New Jersey, ticks are found in wooded and grassy areas. Here’s what to after a family hike to protect yourself against tick bites. Russ Zimmer
‘Hopefully it breaks this gridlock that we have on Lyme disease,’ said Wall resident Pat Smith, a leading advocate and a member of the panel.
That was the most pressing recommendation of a report to Congress by a federal working group convened to address tick-borne diseases. The 100-page report, the first of three over a four-year period, is crucial because it represents consensus on how to deal with Lyme after decades of disagreement among government officials and medical experts.
The discord, advocates for Lyme patients say, caused an explosion of cases throughout the country.
“It’s a good first step,” Wall resident Pat Smith, a member of the 14-person working group, told the Asbury Park Press. “Hopefully we will break this gridlock that we have on Lyme disease. Patients are still having difficulties and doctors are having problems trying to treat them. I hope this will be an eye-opener for Congress.”
Smith is a leading advocate for Lyme disease patients. In the 1980s, Lyme afflicted two of her daughters, one of whom missed four years of school. She founded the nonprofit Lyme Disease Association and has traveled the country to raise awareness.
“It’s pretty exciting that this report has been issued,” she said. “Now the big question is, what is Congress going to do in light of these recommendations?”
The report contends that, because of poor diagnostics, the number of actual cases is 10 times greater than the number of reported cases. So in 2017 there were 420,000 new cases of Lyme disease nationally and 36,000 in New Jersey, which ranks third among all states.
Monmouth County is one of the Garden State’s epicenters of Lyme. The federal working group was the brainchild of Rep. Chris Smith, whose 4th District includes most of the county.
“Lyme disease is having a direct, devastating impact on my constituents, and through countless meetings, advocacy, and pieces of legislation, I have been working to address the needs of the Lyme disease community,” Rep. Smith, R-N.J., said in a statement on the working group’s report.
Rep. Smith also called for “for a coordinated, comprehensive federal response, including more funding of research,” in response to the report.
Atop the list is testing. The report outlines the shortcomings of the standard practice of testing for Lyme through “serological assays,” or blood tests that look for antibodies. This form of testing is notoriously unreliable in detecting Lyme, especially in the crucial early stages of infection.
The report recommends federal investment into the development of new testing techniques. It also suggests exploring specific ways to better test children, who are believed to comprise as much as half of the infected population.
“The most significant thing, one everyone agrees with, is we need new kinds of testing for Lyme disease,” Pat Smith said. “We also need new kinds of therapeutic options for both acute Lyme and those with persistent illness.”
Another focus of the report: The national surveillance system for tracking cases of tick-borne illnesses needs to be strengthened.
“Right now, quite frankly, it’s a mess,” Pat Smith said, “even (in terms of recording) what kind of ticks we’re looking at in different states.”
The report also includes stories of people who suffer from tick-borne illnesses. After years of helping desperate patients cope with the horror stories of a widely misunderstood illness, Pat Smith wanted the report to reflect some of Lyme’s human toll.
“That talks about what patients are experiencing in trying to get diagnoses and treatment,” she said. “All kinds of issues are being brought to the forefront for a change.”
Received: 31 July 2018 / Accepted: 2 October 2018 / Published: 15 October 2018
Abstract:
Lyme disease arises from infection with pathogenic Borrelia species. In Canada, current case definition for confirmed Lyme disease requires serological confirmation by both a positive first tier ELISA and confirmatory second tier immunoblot (western blot). For surveillance and research initiatives, this requirement is intentionally conservative to exclude false positive results. Consequently, this approach is prone to false negative results that lead to underestimation of the number of people with Lyme disease. The province of New Brunswick (NB), Canada, can be used to quantify under-detection of the disease as three independent data sets are available to generate an estimate of the true human disease prevalence and incidence. First, detailed human disease incidence is available for the US states and counties bordering Canada, which can be compared with Canadian disease incidence. Second, published national serology results and well-described sensitivity and specificity values for these tests are available and deductive reasoning can be used to query for discrepancies. Third, high-density tick and canine surveillance data are available for the province, which can be used to predict expected human Lyme prevalence. Comparison of cross-border disease incidence suggests a minimum of 10.2 to 28-fold under-detection of Lyme disease (3.6% to 9.8% cases detected). Analysis of serological testing predicts the surveillance criteria generate 10.4-fold under-diagnosis (9.6% cases detected) in New Brunswick for 2014 due to serology alone. Calculation of expected human Lyme disease cases based on tick and canine infections in New Brunswick indicates a minimum of 12.1 to 58.2-fold underestimation (1.7% to 8.3% cases detected). All of these considerations apply generally across the country and strongly suggest that public health information is significantly under-detecting and under-reporting human Lyme cases across Canada. Causes of the discrepancies between reported cases and predicted actual cases may include undetected genetic diversity of Borrelia in Canada leading to failed serological detection of infection, failure to consider and initiate serological testing of patients, and failure to report clinically diagnosed acute cases. As these surveillance criteria are used to inform clinical and public health decisions, this under-detection will impact diagnosis and treatment of Canadian Lyme disease patients.
Recently I signed a petition started by a mother of a young child suffering from Lyme disease. Before I had time to post it, it was removed. As you will see from the information below, this poor family has been through the ringer undergoing a CAS investigation, and their physician being reviewed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, necessitating a complete inward focus on extremely stressful matters.
I’m happy to report the petition is back up and running. I hope you will consider helping this family by making your voice heard.
Please click on links for the entire story. I’ve abbreviated the information below each link.
Right now, if you are a child suffering from Chronic/Late/Persistent Lyme beyond having an acute tick bite, you need a positive Canadian Lyme test to be diagnosed with Lyme within the hospital, and you will be referred to an Infectious Disease specialist within the hospital who will focus their decision to diagnose strictly on serological testing.Not receiving an official hospital diagnosis can lead to the refusal of care, misdiagnosis, and not receiving critical treatment, and can result in a life of suffering, paralysis, loss of mobility, devastating emotional consequences, the inability to speak, and death. Not to mention the current lack of Lyme and Co-infection training is causing an inconsistent standard of care within the hospital with damaging consequences.
Jennifer Wheeler
Perth, Canada
NOV 19, 2018 —
We had taken a huge step back in advocacy during a tumultuous time for our family. We had to undergo a CAS investigation, and our physician a review by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and we decided that a step-back during that terribly difficult time was needed for survival of our family, and our physician.
We thank everyone who has supported our family during the worst time of our lives, we encourage all to sign our petition to help change hospital policy on Lyme and bring awareness to the critical need to change the current policy to be more inclusive in diagnosing and treating individuals based on a clinical diagnosis, and not solely relying on flawed testing, because to solely rely on inadequate serological testing is a clear violation of child and human rights.
California’s Forced Vaccinations a Violation of Nuremberg Code
Published on
Written by Roger Landry
Concerns are mounting among scientists that the recent implementation of SB277 making vaccinations mandatory law in California for men, women and children is a chilling step towards universal compulsory vaccination.
Coupled with the fact governments and multi-national pharmaceutical companies are being prosecuted and convicted over poorly-tested and administered vaccines, suggests a crisis is coming.
Vaccine activists are citing the notorious post Second World War Nuremberg Trials in which Nazi doctors were convicted of forced experiments on humans. Fears are that seemingly once benign governments are now resorting to forcing medication into the bodies of the unwilling masses and their children without their consent.
A little recent history …
Here is a short video discussing the ethical questions raised by many concerned parents during the debates leading up to the implementation of SB277 in California. The focus here is the concerns of these educated parents who were very aware of the possibilities of vaccine damage, wanting to know who gets to decide if the (possible) gains outweigh the (known) risks …
Vaccines are scientifically proven to have side-effects ranging from mild to catastrophic. These may include anything from a mild rash, a compromised immune system, sterility, cognitive dysfunction (brain damage), paralysis, cancer, to … death and many more “proven” issues not mentioned here.
We are constantly being told by the healthcare personnel we trust that the chance of vaccine damage is “Less than one in a million”, yet statistics prove over and over again that this is a totally erroneous and massively understated number, with the actual occurrences of harm caused by vaccines being massively higher, and in fact … very common.
Even with the cases reported being well in excess of the laughable quote stated above, we must also consider that the CDC itself states that as few as 1 – 10% of vaccine damage incidents are ever reported as such, making the possible total ‘Magnitudes Higher’ than what we are made aware of via the CDC or the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is stating Proposed Changes Restrict Vaccine Reaction Reporting, making these incidences of vaccine damage even more difficult to track or tally (intentionally).
Now lets consider that the vaccine court (VICP) in this country has already paid out well over $3 BILLION in damages, and this is to only a very small percentage of possible claimants who actually get their cases heard, and can prove damage to a (known) biased system of supposed justice.
So how rare can vaccine damage actually be … ???
Approximately thirty thousand (30,000) VAERS reports are filed annually, and again the CDC states that only 10% (on the high side) of actual cases are ever reported … Yea do the math (300,000)! Now not all of these are life threatening, but how many are life wrecking? If even 10-20% are life threatening, wrecking, or stealing (30,000 – 60,000 a year), that is still a huge number, and magnitudes above “one in a million.” That would actually equate to less than 320 adverse reactions nation wide if EVERYONE in the country (about 320 million people) is vaccinated in a calendar year … But the fact is only about 25% of the public is vaccinated each year (all vaccinations combined) making the actual number about 80 cases of vaccine damage … if these doctors are correct (BULL SH#T)!
Now take the above numbers and plot probable vaccine damage with 10% reported over just the last decade … 300,000 x 10 = 3,000,000, and if we use 1% reported … 30,000,000! Now try to imagine the damage to the American society, or the entire vaccinated global community over the last century of ever increasing vaccine proliferation, and you will come to understand that vaccines may very well be responsible for more death and human suffering than ANY or maybe ALL wars in human history.
We can easily see, with even the most rudimentary research, the possible incidence of vaccine damage is mind bending and so far above the lies and platitudes fed to us by those we are conditioned to trust, that it is almost inconceivable. Please understand that if the above statement (less than one in a million) were true … Vaccines would be among the safest mechanisms on this planet, but all data points Blatantly to Exactly the Opposite.
When all is said and done We The People (more every day) are becoming painfully aware of the frequency and magnitude of Vaccine damage and we are horrified and angry!
How is this Medical Experimentation?
With the many proven side-effects, and NO long term Proven Efficacy or Harm Study on vaccines (or multiple dose vaccinations) ever accomplished or even commissioned by the CDC, that we are made aware of in a century of use in the USA (try to find one), they can have no scientific or factual claim to being an effective or safe mechanism. Thus by default, HOW can this be considered or categorized as anything more than Medical Experimentation?
Please watch as Dr. Russell Blaylock connects the vaccine industry today to violations of the Nuremberg Code …
The Nuremberg trials where 23 defendants, all medical doctors, were accused of having been involved in the horrors of Nazi human experimentation, procedures and exposures without the consent of those experimented on. The trial lasted eight months, from December 9, 1946, to August 20, 1947. Of the 23 defendants, five were acquitted, seven received death sentences, and the remaining received prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment. Those sentenced to death were hanged on June 2, 1948, in Landsberg Prison, Bavaria.
What resulted from this was the ten points of the Nuremberg Code. Of these ten points the following are most germane to this discussion, those being:
Nuremberg Code: Point #1
The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him/her to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject there should be made known to him the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonable to be expected; and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his participation in the experiment. The duty and responsibility for ascertaining the quality of the consent rests upon each individual who initiates, directs or engages in the experiment. It is a personal duty and responsibility which may not be delegated to another with impunity.
Nuremberg Code: Point #5
No experiment should be conducted where there is a prior reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects.
Nuremberg Code: Point #7
Proper preparations should be made and adequate facilities provided to protect the experimental subject against even remote possibilities of injury, disability, or death.
Nuremberg Code: Point #9
During the course of the experiment the human subject should be at liberty to bring the experiment to an end if he has reached the physical or mental state where continuation of the experiment seems to him to be impossible.
Nuremberg Code: Point #10
During the course of the experiment the scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the experiment at any stage, if he has probable cause to believe, in the exercise of the good faith, superior skill and careful judgment required of him that a continuation of the experiment is likely to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject.
GUILTY AS CHARGED
With forced or mandated vaccinations, the known side-effects of vaccines, the total lack of consideration (research) of either efficacy or harm, the lack of full (true) disclosure of any of the information stated above prior to application, the total immunity from prosecution of the entire chain from production to administration, and the denial or cover-up of known causality … ALL … of these above (Nuremberg Code) points are Grossly Violated.
If one stops to consider the testimony of individuals such as Dr. Thompson and other learned CDC whistle-blowers, the ethics question is a total and disastrous failure. If one also stops to consider the untold number of high level research scientists globally who have dedicated their lives and staked their professional reputations on proving the harm and danger of vaccines … proof gone unnoticed, ignored, or intentionally buried, by governments and health agencies, the morals question is also a catastrophic failure.
For those just tuning in, I post articles on the dangers of vaccines as Lyme/MSIDS patients are in a war with their own body and typically numerous pathogens working symbiotically together to make us extremely ill. You can’t visit your local pharmacy, grocery store, or health clinic without a full-out assault on how you need to get the poke.
For patients who are chronically or even acutely infected, our immune systems are in overdrive or just trying to balance what’s going down in our bodies. Vaccines, by nature, accost the immune system so that it mounts a response. Patient after ever-loving patient often has a reaction after a vaccine. I’ve lost track of the numbers of such stories.
HHS Working Group Calls for Tick-Borne Disease Strategic Plan
The Tick-Borne Disease Working Group, a federal advisory committee established by Congress in the 21st Century Cures Act, issued its first report Nov. 14.
Nov 15, 2018
The Tick-Borne Disease Working Group, an HHS advisory committee established by Congress in the 21st Century Cures Act, issued its first report Nov. 14. The document recommends that the National Institutes of Health create an NIH tick-borne disease strategic plan to address these diseases, including all stages of Lyme disease; that funding be dedicated within CDC to study babesiosis incidence; that the Department of Defense begin a study of tick-borne disease incidence among active-duty service members and their dependents; and that the Veterans Administration begin a study of tick-borne disease incidence and prevalence among veterans and eligible family members.
The DoD recommendation says the department should compile data on the impact of tick-borne diseases on military readiness and should create education and preparedness programs that address the unique risks service members face during training and on deployment and by their families.
The working group consists of 14 people appointed by the HHS secretary in December 2017. They include scientists, physicians, patients, patient advocates, and representatives of HHS, DoD, and the Office of Management and Budget.
Their report calls Lyme disease a growing public health threat, with about 300,000 new cases reported in the United States every year. A map of U.S. states in the report indicates the hardest-hit states, those reporting more than 12,856 cases each in 2004-2016, include Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Maine.
Most Lyme disease patients who are diagnosed and treated early can fully recover, but 10-20 percent of patients suffer from persistent symptoms, which for some are chronic and disabling. The report says while studies indicate Lyme disease costs approximately $1.3 billion annually in direct medical costs in the United States,
“a comprehensive understanding of the full economic and societal cost remains unknown. It is likely orders of magnitude higher and potentially a $50- to $100-billion-dollar problem for the United States, although more research is needed.”
On Nov. 14, CDC reported that new data show tick-borne diseases are again on the rise, and that in 2017, state and local health departments reported a record number of cases of tick-borne disease to CDC. Cases of Lyme disease, anaplasmosis/ehrlichiosis, spotted fever rickettsiosis (including Rocky Mountain spotted fever), babesiosis, tularemia, and Powassan virus disease all increased—from 48,610 cases in 2016 to 59,349 cases in 2017. However, the 2017 data capture only a fraction of the number of people with tick-borne illnesses, according to CDC. According to the agency, between 2004 and 2016, the number of reported cases of tick-borne disease doubled and researchers discovered seven new tick-borne pathogens that infect people. The new data are from the Notifiable Disease Surveillance System.
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/30/study-shows-lyme-msids-patients-infected-with-many-pathogens-and-explains-why-we-are-so-sick/ For the first time, Garg et al. show a 85% probability for multiple infections including not only tick-borne pathogens but also opportunistic microbes such as EBV and other viruses.
I’m thankful they included Bartonella as that one is often omitted but definitely a player. I’m also thankful for the mention of viruses as they too are in the mix. The mention of the persister form must be recognized as well as many out there deny its existence.
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.”
