LymeNet Flash: black flies transmit lyme?

This is topic black flies transmit lyme? in forum Medical Questions at LymeNet Flash.

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Posted by trailsgrl (Member # 7285) on :

Just for my own little head I am still curious as to whether I was RE-infected with lyme and co-infections in summer of 2000 in the back woods of Maine because black biting flies chewed me up BIG TIME.

I am just coming back onto the lyme scene from a 4 year remission, and am wondering if there is new information about other transmitting insects that has developed since 2000?

Any links or personal stories?
Thanks! Trails (originally got lyme with rash (lucky!)in 1991)

Posted by WildCondor on :

I am eaten by balck flies every summer, all summer. I have a head net and bug net to sleep out with but they still get me when I am out canoeing and stuff. I bet they carry all sorts of germs. I wish there was more research on this. We have to do it ourselves! I want to get going on my microbiology testing too!!

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http://www.wildcondor.com

Posted by map1131 (Member # 2022) on :

trailsgrl, I can't give specific black flies info, but reading your post made me wonder if your immune symstem had the lyme/co's in check and then when you were biten by the flies they were carriers of some other bacteria, virus or parasite.

Then your immune system lost it. Overwhelmed!! This is a gross thought, but no telling what those black flies had been feeding on.

I'm sorry you are ill again after a 4 yr remission. Hopefully, you'll get lucky again in 05.

Take care, Pam

Posted by Biting Back (Member # 6018) on :

We asked our LLMD the same question about blackflies, fleas, and mosquitos this April. He told us yes, documented in blackflies and fleas, but to be wary of any insect that draw blood.

Posted by levity101 (Member # 1528) on :

Regarding mosquitoes...I know that they have been found to carry Bb, but it hasn't been proven that they have then infected humans. I know of one local person who swears that it was a mosquito that infected her.

After initially improving dramatically with IV therapy, my son relapsed within a few days of getting some kind of bug bite in his scalp...we never knew for sure what it was, but I thought flea or mosquito.

~Nancy

Posted by levity101 (Member # 1528) on :

I knew I had that mosquito article somewhere...turns out this is from the Czech Republic

Isolation of the spirochaete Borrelia afzelii from the
mosquito Aedes
vexans in the Czech Republic.
Halouzka J, Postic D, Hubalek Z.
Institute of Landscape Ecology, Academy of Sciences of
the Czech Republic.
During the years 1993-1995, a total of 3580 culicine
mosquitoes of six species were
collected in South Moravia, Czech Republic, and
examined by dark-field microscopy
for the presence of borreliae. Females of Aedes
cantans, Ae. sticticus, Ae. vexans,
Culex pipiens and Cx pipiens biotype molestus (but not
Ae. geniculatus or Culiseta
annulata) harboured spirochaetes, the frequencies
ranging from 0.7% to 7.8%. One
isolate (BR-53) from Ae. vexans was identified as
Borrelia afzelii genospecies. The
potential role of mosquitoes in the epidemiology of
Lyme borreliosis should be
investigated.
PMID: 9513946 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

~Nancy

Posted by levity101 (Member # 1528) on :

Here's another article documenting mosquitoes carrying Bb, again from the Czech Republic. They also mention that in other studies Bb has been found in black flies and deer flies.
http://www.aaem.pl/pdf/aaem0238.pdf

Posted by trailsgrl (Member # 7285) on :

Thanks nancy, And everyone else! I remember reading that every biting insect has now been documented to carry Bb, Wait, that is not the exact statement I want to make. Not that ALLLL insects that bite HAVE Bb but that it has been documented in all. See the difference? Trying to make sense here.

Whether they can transfer it or not is the question.

Personally I think yes.

As I said somewhere else, why does west nile get all the money and research?

trails

Posted by timaca (Member # 6911) on :

Trailsgrl~

If you do a google search on "biting flies lyme" you will come up with many articles that state that lyme is found in many insects (as you mentioned in your post). Which of those insects can transmit lyme to humans, is the question, as you stated.

I KNOW I've read an article about a man who was bit by flies, and developed the rash afterwards (indicating lyme). I cannot, find that article, unfortunately.

I like you, wonder where I got mine....I think mine may have come from petting deer at a deer farm near my home....then I had a bite on my finger (that I thought was a spider bite)....and later a rash on my body....

Who knows? But, yes, flies can transmit lyme...at least according to that article that I can't find.

Tina

Posted by hatsnscarfs (Member # 6562) on :

I was bit by black flies last May. The bites on my ears turned into huge blisters and a bite on my arm got very red and sore a few weeks later.

After the bites I developed a petechial rash, hot flashes, cold sweats, strange flushing sensations in my hands that became very painful in the afternoon. My palms would get kind of mottled and then turn red, hot and painful.

A few months later I was bit by a tick. 3 1/2 weeks later I had Bell's Palsy and began taking doxycycline. The symptoms from the black fly bites lessened but my Lyme symptoms got worse.

I think I got something from the flies other than Lyme. Whatever it was seemed to be cleared up by the doxy. I wasn't taking enough doxy to clear up the Lyme.

I was bit by another black fly in September but did not have any sort of reaction like the earlier bites.

hatsnscarfs

Posted by DolphinLady (Member # 6275) on :

Map1131's thoughts make sense to me.

Posted by trailsgrl (Member # 7285) on :

hatsnscarfs,

I had similar experience, but I was bitten around the ankles mostly soooo many times that my ankles swelled up and I was actually very sick for a few days following. My friend remembers me saying in a hangover like state, "I feel like I have some sort of poison or something running through my blood from those black flies."

I was also eaten alive by mosquitoes that night. I will never again visit the stunning and fabulous back woods of Maine. or maybe in the dead of winter.

Who knows, maybe we have other illnesses scientists havent gotten around to yet. We know there are tons of TBDs that don't even have tests yet. This is scary and sad for me. Lyme and Co's are enough to deal with. Thanks again to all!

Trails

Posted by Kara Tyson (Member # 939) on :

The French have documented biting fly transmission.

I believe that mosq. carry lyme, hept., and HIV. If they can carry malaria, they can logically transmit over blood born pathogens.

But the gov. will never admit to this. Just as for years they told medical personel you could not be infected with blood borne pathogens thru a single needlestick.

Posted by hodologica (Member # 6408) on :

Kara,
Do you have refs on that French transmission-by-flies work? I'd be interested in looking it up.

How bout for the fact that medical workers were once told needle sticks couldnt transmit infection? That seems very surprising.

Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :

The way I see it, if the bug bites an infected host [mice, deer, moose, dogs, etc] and then bites YOU, you could get it.

I actually read in the newspaper that the very same thing can happen with the West Nile Virus, so why not with Lyme??

I think there's mention in here of other insects, and bugs transmitting Lyme:

The cause and spread of Lyme http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/032259.html

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Lymetutu