Master's Disease (aka STARI) was described in the early 1990's by Dr. Ed Masters of Cape Girardeau, MO, when a number of people were bitten by lone star ticks and developed Lyme disease symptoms. Many patients had a
classic rash, nearly identical to the one described in people infected with the more well known strain of Lyme, however, the standard Lyme disease tests were not able to detect evidence of the infection in humans.

Recently DNA from a strain of spirochete similar to the one that causes Lyme
disease was detected in lone star ticks collected from nine different states,
according to the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine in Aberdeen, MD. Borrelia lonestari, or STARI (Southern Tick Associated Rash Illness), the nick name used to describe this strain, was also detected in the blood of white tail deer, in Sika deer skin samples, and in ticks removed from wild raccoons. In 2004,
visualization of live lonestari spirochetes were reported for the first time by
researchers at the University of Georgia using dark field microscopy.

According to the CDC, a skin biopsy from a rash resembling the one that can appear in Lyme disease patients was tested for the Borrelia lonestari. The patient reportedly had exposure to ticks in Maryland and North Carolina. The biopsy of the Lyme-like rash, along with the tick that was removed from
the patient, both showed evidence of the lonestari strain. Standard blood tests
for Lyme disease again failed to detect the presence of infection from this strain of Lyme disease.

People who have been told they do not have Lyme disease and/or who were denied treatment based on negative blood tests should be re-evaluated by an experienced physician if they remain ill, have fluctuating symptoms, or develop additional symptoms. Anyone who has been denied treatment because the tick that bit them was not a ``deer tick'' may want to take a closer
look for the source of any ongoing or worsening symptoms they may be experiencing.

Lone star ticks are able to transmit STARI to humans, as well as a number of other tick borne diseases, such as Erhlichiosis (various strains), Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Tularemia (rabbit fever), and possibly additional, yet to be discovered, bacteria and viruses. Some of these infections can become chronic or fatal if not promptly or properly treated.

Lone star ticks, Amblyomma americanum, have been found in approximately half of the states in the US. They have also been collected from migrating birds returning to Canada from southern locations. The ticks
current known range in the US extends from Texas to Oklahoma, eastward towards the Atlantic coast, and northward to Maine. These ticks are extremely aggressive and actively search for blood meals. Residents from areas with high tick populations have reported removing over 100 of these
ticks after a single outing.

Adult lone star ticks are larger than deer ticks, however, the nymph stage ticks can be as small as the period at the end of this sentence. A light colored patch, or star, is displayed on the back of adult female ticks, giving the tick their common name.

Ticks infected with STARI have been found just outside major city limits, posing risks to rural residents and city dwellers alike. Cardinals, wrens, sparrows, woodpeckers, brown thrashers, wild turkeys, bobwhite quails, and other birds are known to transport ticks from site to site. Raccoons,
opossum, fox, squirrels, rabbits, mice, and deer are also hosts to this species of tick and provide necessary blood meals during their various stages of growth.

People infected with STARI may develop the rash that may also be seen in approximately 50 percent of the patients who have the more well known strain of Lyme disease. Other STARI symptoms can include fatigue, headaches, possible fever, muscle aches, stiff neck, and joint pains. Untreated or under treated STARI has not yet been documented by the CDC to cause the same debilitating effects found in chronic Lyme disease patients with the similar strain, however, research is ongoing and by no means,
complete. The International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS), has noted in the past, ``surveillance studies show that these patients [seronegative] may have a similar risk of developing persistent, recurrent, and refractory Lyme disease compared with the seropositive population.''

The CDC has recently been requesting samples of blood, urine, and skin biopsies from suspected STARI patients in order to study this specific strain. Unfortunately, the current standard Lyme disease tests on the market were not developed to detect evidence of infection from a variety of strains of
spirochetes found in ticks. As experienced physicians know, these standard tests are very limited in their ability to aid in a proper clinical diagnosis of tick borne diseases. The discovery of this specific strain of Lyme may help explain why ILADS has noted that up to 90 percent of people with Lyme disease are being missed using the current two-tier testing procedures. This
outdated testing method is still recommended by the Centers for Disease Control, the Territorial Public Health Laboratory Directors, and was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a diagnostic tool, however they warn that negative tests are not to be used to rule out Lyme disease.

According to Dr. Nick Harris, the Western Blot and PCR Lyme tests developed for use at IGeneX Lab in California are broad enough to be able to detect various Borrelia strains across the US, rather than just one single
strain. "IGeneX tests are sensitive to the lonestari variety of Borrelia, as well
as burgdorferi,'' explains Harris. Patients with various strains of Lyme have been detected in a number of states. IGeneX Lab offers testing for other tick borne infections such as Babesiosis, Erhlichiosis, and Bartonella.

Lyme disease is the fastest growing infectious disease in the nation. The
CDC and state health departments admit considerable underreporting of Lyme disease, with as many as 7-12 cases being missed for each one reported in some states.

A knowledgeable doctor, use of a high quality lab for testing, and a proper tick borne disease diagnosis and treatment would be especially important to people in endemic areas who continue to have fluctuating or relapsing symptoms and/or have developed late stage neurological, arthritic,
psychological, or other related Lyme disease symptoms. Untreated or improperly treated Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi) can become a devastating chronic illness that can severely affect individuals, as well as
entire families.

Late stage or chronic Lyme disease symptoms can mimic other diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimers, MS, Lou Gehrigs (ALS), depression, arthritis, Scleroderma, Lupus, heart problems, chronic fatigue
syndrome, Fibromyalgia, ADD, panic attacks, pain syndromes, thyroid disorders, or other conditions.

Although no official treatment protocol has yet been standardized for this specific strain of Borrelia, antibiotics normally prescribed for acute or chronic Lyme disease have been provided to patients suspected of having STARI, and the patients have improved.

For more information please contact-

Lyme Disease Association-

toll free at 1-888-366-6611

www.LymeDiseaseAssociation.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS)

www.ilads.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IGeneX, Inc.

www.igenex.com

1-800-832-3200

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[This message has been edited by Tincup (edited 24 February 2005).]

Did you put this article together?

Guess you know me pretty well, eh?

Hope you are doing well... been missing seeing you. Hmmmmmmm... Did that make sense?

VERY tired.

Yes.. I have been doing a good deal of research.. till it feels like my head might fall off.

Best go eat some chocolate real quick. I hear that is the way to prevent heads from falling off.

You best git some too!

Boy, thanks for all the hard work on this one. Been hearing a thing or two about this Lonstari thing.

Could be what I've been pulling off my dog, (he's fine so far). I'll have to get a magnifying lense but I think they have a white spot in the center or something.

I responded to another post of yours about the 2 ticks I've kept for over a year, (dead of course)that I have in a baggie in the kitchen.

Thought I'd hang onto them for awhile.

It's articles only in ths one site; have never looked in detail at the rest of the site. Betty G., Iowa ... only so much time!

Remind me not to eat any raisins at your house.. especially if they are in baggies in the refrigerator.

Beverly..

You are always so nice to everyone. I am sooooooooo happy to know you don't want my head to fall off. THANKS!

Tree...

Back at ya.. guy.

Bettyg..

No.. I don't do email groups.. except one.. and even that is too much for me. So thanks for letting me know.

Good to hear that they have it there already. I want it to be available for anyone who may need the info.

Those Lymeinfo folks are on the ball. Good for them!

Like to add one thing -
STARI stands for Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness.

This name is very mis-leading, because Lone Star ticks are certainly not limited to the South.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tincup:
STARI- THE OTHER LYME DISEASE

Well dippity do dah... I thought I was editing the other post.. the original one.. but must have hit the wrong button! Go figure... over 17,000 posts here.. and NOW I mess up?

DUH...

And yes.. cbb...

I overlooked that in this version. I have been trying to put together three different articles.. all on the same topic.. all worded differently... all in a hurry. I just missed it here.... but it IS in the other two, thank goodness!

THANKS for pointing that out for me!!!!

I will change it now.. IF I can find the RIGHT button this time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

---

Great writing, Tincup!!

Also, www.lymeinfo.net sends a daily digest of 1-4 newspaper articles about lyem, co-infections, and other related articles.

I've learned a lot thru their daily mailings. Doesn't take long to read or skim the 1-4 articles IF you want to read something you hadn't before.

I HOPE you will think hard about STARI and the reasons we need to shout it from the roof top.

No longer should insurances be able to deny us coverage due to a negative test.

No longer can a duck quack about us NOT having Lyme because of a negative test.. and then refuse treatment.

This info is duck stuff.. and they have confirmed it. They can't deny it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bettyg.. sweet pea... woah is me... set me free...

I don't "see" the post as "wide" like you describe. SORRY!

I KNOW what you mean.. and those posts irritate me.. but I don't know what to fix cause from here it looks normal?? What do I do?

Just Don-

Was thinking about you yesterday.. and some sweet candy at the dulcimer shop that you shared with me while we were on vacation.

Yum YUM..

And the candy was pretty good too!

------------------
If you get the choice to sit it out or dance...

I would buy a MUCH bigger sack of candy for us to snarf down in return for the chance to see YOU again.

I might even learn music(am I saying this?) so I can seranade you with the flat lap banjo machine that sounds so cool..

Or maybe I just better learn how to make them like they did there. Chances for success in that venture would be MUCH more likely than ME learning music.

I think it's this line of text that has caused the post to go "wide" for me....

Looks like the
www.ilads.org[/URL] is what made it longer. It's my best guess, but thanks TC for the feedback, my friend.

International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS)
www.ilads.org[/URL]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Betty G.

A banjo man bringing me sacks of candy.

Be still my heart.

That's every girl's dream!

Bettyg..

I tried 2 times.. hope that helps? Let me know.

1: J Med Entomol 2001 Sep;38(5):665-74 Related Articles, Nucleotide, Protein,
Books, LinkOut

Isolation and characterization of Borrelia parkeri in Ornithodoros parkeri
(Ixodida: Argasidae) collected in Colorado.

Gage KL, Eggleston ME, Gilmore RD Jr, Dolan MC, Montenieri JA, Tanda DT,
Piesman J.

Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, Fort Collins, CO 80521, USA. [email protected]

This study describes the identification of Borrelia parkeri spirochetes in
Colorado. Two isolates of B. parkeri (6230 and 6232) were recovered from
Ornithodoros parkeri Cooley ticks collected at an inactive prairie dog town in
Moffat County. Both isolates were partially characterized by sequencing and
subsequent parsimony and neighbor-joining analyses of appropriate regions of
the 16S ribosomal RNA, flagellin and P66 genes. Analyses of the 16S gene
sequences from the Colorado isolates indicated that they were more closely
related to B. parkeri and B. tucatae than to B. hermsii or the other species of
Borrelia investigated in this study. Additional analyses of amino acid
sequences for flagellin and P66, however, clearly demonstrated that isolates
6230 and 6232 were most closely related to B. parkeri. The possible
significance of B. parkeri as an agent of human disease is discussed.

Link

Well, you tried, and I won't comment anymore on this one! Yes, I know ... don't hold your breath! LOL.