UNF Researchers Make Big Discovery About Lyme Disease

[Bob]

UNF Researchers Make Big Discovery About Lyme Disease

Dr. Kerry Clark, University of North Florida associate professor of public health, and his colleagues have found two species of Lyme disease bacteria previously unknown to infect humans in patients.

These two Lyme disease species, Borrelia americana and Borrelia andersonii, were found in symptomatic patients living in the Southeastern United States.

Current testing methods and interpretation criteria, designed to detect just one species, may explain many of the complaints involving the unreliability of Lyme disease tests in the U.S.

“Additional evidence presented suggests that some people may develop chronic infections, and the current antibody testing approach for Lyme disease may not identify the infections.”

http://news.wjct.org/post/unf-researchers-make-big-discovery-about-lyme-disease#.Uc4RT7Y_NR0.twitter

 

[Bob]

Here's the research paper:

Lyme Borreliosis in Human Patients in Florida and Georgia, USA
Kerry L. Clark, Brian Leydet, Shirley Hartman
Int J Med Sci 2013; 10(7):915-931.
doi:10.7150/ijms.6273
http://www.medsci.org/v10p0915

Abstract
The aim of this study was to determine the cause of illness in several human patients residing in Florida and Georgia, USA, with suspected Lyme disease based upon EM-like skin lesions and/or symptoms consistent with early localized or late disseminated Lyme borreliosis. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays developed specifically for Lyme group Borrelia spp., followed by DNA sequencing for confirmation, we identified Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato DNA in samples of blood and skin and also in lone star ticks (Amblyomma americanum) removed from several patients who either live in or were exposed to ticks in Florida or Georgia. This is the first report to present combined PCR and DNA sequence evidence of infection with Lyme Borrelia spp. in human patients in the southern U.S., and to demonstrate that several B. burgdorferi sensu lato species may be associated with Lyme disease-like signs and symptoms in southern states. Based on the findings of this study, we suggest that human Lyme borreliosis occurs in Florida and Georgia, and that some cases of Lyme-like illness referred to as southern tick associated rash illness (STARI) in the southern U.S. may be attributable to previously undetected B. burgdorferi sensu lato infections.

 

[PhoenixBurger]

As I live in Miami, and have tested positive twice on Lyme Antibody but negative on Western Blot and C6 Peptide, I may just call these people and see if they want to poke me with their needles.

 

[Sushi]

As I live in Miami, and have tested positive twice on Lyme Antibody but negative on Western Blot and C6 Peptide, I may just call these people and see if they want to poke me with their needles.

I'd guess that you haven't had the best tests. I just had PCR and genetic sequencing for Bartonella. The antibody tests had been negative.

Also, for Borrelia, one of the better new tests is the LTT from Infectolab in Germany.

Sushi

 

[Lotus97]

On a slightly related note, I was reading in Buhner's book, Healing Lyme, that those infected in the Wisconsin/Minnesota area would experience a Herxheimer reaction from teasel, but those infected on the east coast (of the US) generally wouldn't. However, I didn't experience a herx from it even though I was bitten in Wisconsin.

 

[anciendaze]

Has anyone heard any more about availability of the culture test for borrelia in Florida? Last I heard there were still legal restrictions, even if you are willing to pay out of your own pocket.
http://www.betterhealthguy.com/new-borrelia-culture-test-available
There is also the use of "classic microscopy" in a research paper from Norway.
http://phys.org/news/2013-06-classic-microscopy-reveals-borrelia-bacteria.html

If that isn't enough, we still have to fight the invented category of STARI, which has exactly the same appearance, yet miraculously avoids any long-term consequences of Lyme.

If that defense proves inadequate for business as usual, what I already see developing is a new means of denial based on "seminal research" showing bacteria in brains of "healthy people". Please note that if I were to die in a way consistent with their protocol my brain might be used as a healthy control sample, because doctors are sure all my problems are mental. Some of their samples were derived from resection of brains during operations for epilepsy, which could well be the result of long-term infection. I still need to read the details to understand what effect this has on results, but I have more than a little suspicion many of their controls were in fact sick but undiagnosed. This also omits any possibility that people now considered healthy would have gone on to develop Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, etc. -- diseases for which there is presently no known etiology.

(Aside: bacterial infections of the brain just might be connected with reports of schizophrenia symptoms reversing if patients are treated with minocycline soon after onset. Unfortunately, some research on the subject defines "recent onset" as within two years. Care to guess what would happen if you tried similar research on syphilis, which is caused by treponema pallidum, another spirochete.)

Showing bacteria in blood is not enough. Now, even showing bacteria in the brain is not enough to prove illness. What is the defining characteristic based on then? "Vast clinical experience", the collective ignorant opinions of doctors who have been disregarding this illness for generations.

And, this is only one possible differential diagnosis for our symptoms.