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Lyme and other Co-infections

justy

Donate Advocate Demonstrate
Messages
5,524
Location
U.K
I don't know about casual contact, but I think some research has been done that suggests it could be sexually transmissible. I am worried about my husband (I have M.E but no Lyme dx as have never been tested)

He has gone from a very healthy vibrant man when I first met him 15 years ago to one who is always feeling ill and sick today. I feel like I have done this to him, but I don't know how...
 

Hanna

Senior Member
Messages
717
Location
Jerusalem, Israel
Dr R. Horowitz, of ILADS expressed in one of his videos on Lyme, that though he had some couples both with the disease, there was still no evidence about a sexual transmission. Other docs don't share the same opinion. So, no consensus for now for sexual transmission in Lyme. (On the contrary, there is a clear transmission from mother to child through placenta).

Justy, I noticed exactly the same pattern with my husband after 16 years, :(. Afraid too that there is something with ME.
 

Hanna

Senior Member
Messages
717
Location
Jerusalem, Israel
Found this today...
Research: Lyme maybe Transmitted Sexually
January 27, 2014 A new study suggests that Lyme disease may be sexually transmitted. The study was presented at the annual Western Regional Meeting of the American Federation for Medical Research, and an abstract of the research was published in the January issue of the Journal of Investigative Medicine.
Lyme disease is a tickborne infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, a type of corkscrew-shaped bacteria known as a spirochete (pronounced spiro’keet). The Lyme spirochete resembles the agent of syphilis, long recognized as the epitome of sexually transmitted diseases. Last summer the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that Lyme disease is much more common than previously thought, with over 300,000 new cases diagnosed each year in the United States. That makes Lyme disease almost twice as common as breast cancer and six times more common than HIV/AIDS.

“Our findings will change the way Lyme disease is viewed by doctors and patients,” said Marianne Middelveen, lead author of the study presented in Carmel. “It explains why the disease is more common than one would think if only ticks were involved in transmission.” The present study was a collaborative effort by an international team of scientists. In addition to Middelveen, a veterinary microbiologist from Canada, researchers included molecular biologists Jennie Burke, Augustin Franco and Yean Wang and dermatologist Peter Mayne from Australia working with molecular biologists Eva Sapi and Cheryl Bandoski, family practitioner Hilary Schlinger and internist Raphael Stricker from theUnited States. In the study, researchers tested semen samples and vaginal secretions from three groups of patients: control subjects without evidence of Lyme disease, random subjects who tested positive for Lyme disease, and married heterosexual couples engaging in unprotected sex who tested positive for the disease.

As expected, all of the control subjects tested negative for Borrelia burgdorferi in semen samples or vaginal secretions. In contrast, all women with Lyme disease tested positive for Borrelia burgdorferi in vaginal secretions, while about half of the men with Lyme disease tested positive for the Lyme spirochete in semen samples. Furthermore, one of the heterosexual couples with Lyme disease showed identical strains of the Lyme spirochete in their genital secretions.

“The presence of the Lyme spirochete in genital secretions and identical strains in married couples strongly suggests that sexual transmission of the disease occurs,” said Dr. Mayne.

“We don’t yet understand why women with Lyme disease have consistently positive vaginal secretions, whilst semen samples are more variable. Obviously there is more work to be done here.” Dr. Stricker pointed to the unknown risks of contracting Lyme disease raised by the study.

“There is always some risk of getting Lyme disease from a tickbite in the woods,” he said. “But there may be a bigger risk of getting Lyme disease in the bedroom.”

Source: PRWeb


As usual, things are complicated...
 

Clodomir

Where is the sun?
Messages
212
Location
Belgium
Anyone confident lyme and co-infections are not contagious to those in our sphere of casual contact? Any documentation around to support either view?
Hi,

I have Lyme. And my husband too...
Hopefully, my kids are ok (they were tested)!
What is funny is that he had many symptoms before me (facial paralysis, problems with his bones, memory problems, fatigue, etc...), but I was the one who collapse in a week time... and become bed bounded. He is still working, and feel better after a "light treatment".

Following KDM, 75% of the husband/wife of a lyme patient. And 50 % of the kids, if their parents are positive before pregnancy...

Have a nice day

clodomir