Mosquitoes, Lyme Infections & Why Some People Get Bitten More Than Others

[Wayne]

I've believed for years--similarly to many Lyme researchers--that Lyme bacteria can be transmitted by mosquitoes. A recent study apparently has confirmed this for the first time. Below is the introduction to an article on this, and below that is the link to the article. -- Personally, I believe a number of other disease carrying bacteria--as of yet unidentified or discovered by medical science--can also be transmitted by mosquitoes, ticks, etc.

Specifically, one 2015 study performed at Goethe-University and the University of Frankfurt has found that mosquitoes have the equipment after all to enable Borrelia spirochetes the ability to survive for the durations necessary to be viable vectors of Lyme disease.

“This study, for the first time, found that Borreliae endure the metamorphosis from larvae to pupae, and again from pupae to mosquito. The study confirmed this by capturing larvae which tested to have Borreliae. Then, while monitoring the laboratory-hatched specimens each stage of their metamorphosis, the researchers were able to confirm that the mosquitoes maintained the Borrelia in their organism through the changes despite never having a blood meal.”

MOSQUITOES, LYME INFECTIONS & WHY SOME PEOPLE GET BITTEN MORE THAN OTHERS​

 

[Wolfcub]

Whoah!....you have made me ominously interested in this thread @Wayne
I always though it was only Ticks (black-legged deer Ticks) that transmit Lyme. So I have been super-vigilant about Ticks for ages now.

So Mosquitoes can also transmit Lyme?

I am always getting bitten by mosquitoes. They make a bee line for me and I live almost always outdoors. My "getting bitten by anything that flies, has blood lust, and is mean" season starts late summer and doesn't stop until October -every year. I have a store of Benadryl cream. Other people do not get bitten like I do.
My GP did order 2 Lyme tests over a space of time (via bloodwork) and they came back negative but now I know that isn't the way to diagnose Lyme, and most GPs don't know.
I have not had a more advanced Lyme test. I'm not even sure my GP knows about such things. He says I'm good to go.

I never ever had a "bullseye rash" but now I have learned it isn't always present.

 

[lafarfelue]

Direct link to the CDC press release (as found in the blog linked to in Wayne's original post): https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2018/p0501-vs-vector-borne.html

:edited for clarity:

 

[brenda]

I had a mossie bite maybe 12 years ago and had a bullseye rash develop. At that time I did not understand what that meant but it was following a presumed Lyme infection already there from perhaps another 5 or so years previously. Mosquitoes make a beeline for me too and the allergic reaction to the bites is very bad.