As I continue to research, I have noticed that there is a very "high" incidence of ALS on Guam, so I got to checking in to see if Guam has a lot of ticks [realizing of course, Guam is not an endemic area...yeah, whatever- note sarcasm]. As it turns out, there are ticks on Guam. Does anyone have any idea if this has been studied or if there is a correlation between ALS and positive testing for Borrelia, Mycoplasma, Babesia...etc ? Surely, someone has had to look at this?
There were a lot of links given a few days ago on ALS and Lyme.
Posted by ShangSD (Member # 9899) on :
Very interesting. I have travelled to Guam many times.
This is what comes to my mind:
1. There are articles which show those that return from the Gulf War have a greater chance of getting ALS.
2. Guam has a very large Military post and I personally know many of the civilians there sign up to help fight the "war".
3. The best treatment that recent researchers have had success with is IV Ceft.
We know Lyme is very responsive to abx including IV ceft. So now we can just go and try figure........
Shangs
Posted by Troup Brazelton (Member # 6297) on :
ALS on Guam is not from a tick vector. It is from something the natives eat. The bats also eat the same plant. Tribal traditions have the men hunting and eating the bats and they are the only ones to be effected.
The same germ is in both the form the women make the bread from the plant and the form the bat eats. the women water it down by washing it over and over before cooking.
Their hasn't been a new case since 64 I believe. People studying Guam for other reasons discovered that for years the men had ALS in low numbers when they hunted bats with bow and arrows. The war came to Guam and guns were available and they hunted the bats to extention, almost. Now their are not enough to hunt. The number of ALS cases track closely the hunting method and thus the conclusion. I think it is the CACA plant or something like that.