I said there is an LLMD in Louisiana and she said yes he has 200? patients and he sends labwork to a lab in California with "all positive results."

I just didn't engage. This is what the biggest university in the South is teaching!

Somewhere I have a reference that shows babesia WA-1 was discovered at a primate lab in that state. Since this is a western type of bug, my guess is that moving those primates around between labs in this country is transferring germs to other places. So, her place of business is spreading disease! That ought to fix her red wagon.

As to Lyme, it has been reported from every state except Montana and they seem to have some lyme like ailment too.

Don't know if any studies have been done specifically surveying mice, deer and ticks in LA, but this has been done in nearby states, including TX, AL, GA. There was also a report from north FL in the last year or so. This was published in a journal. If you want this citation, let me know. So her info on the range of lyme in the south is incorrect.

quote:

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Originally posted by aliyalex:
I spoke to a woman studying tropical diseases (PhD) and she works in a primate lab where they study lyme and she said there is no lyme south of Somewhere, Georgia.

What would you say?

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The CDC says there is Lyme in Louisiana. From this link http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Retreat/1593/louisiana.txt

"Including the 9 cases for 1999 and the 4 cases for 2000, the grand total of CDC reported Lyme disease for Louisiana,
for the years 1982-2000, is 86 cases." As the above site notes, that's probably the tip of the iceberg. How many doctors or patients in Louisiana would even think to look for Lyme?

By the way, you might want to ask this woman if she is aware there is Lyme in South America. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11696846&dopt=Abstract

Do any of these know-it-alls know how to use Google? Tell her, next time she mouths off, to try doing a Google search using the relevant geographical location plus "Lyme" or better yet "Borrelia".

J Med Entomol. 2003 Nov;40(6):964-7.

Ixodes scapularis ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) from Louisiana are competent to transmit Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme borreliosis.

Jacobs MB, Purcell JE, Philipp MT.

Division of Bacteriology, Tulane National Primate Research Center, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, 18703 Three Rivers Road, Covington, LA 70433, USA.

The principal vector of Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme borreliosis spirochete, in the Northeast and Midwestern regions of the United States is the blacklegged tick Ixodes scapularis. Because of a favorable environment, I. scapularis is also plentiful in the South; however, a correlation with Lyme borreliosis cases does not exist in this region of the United States. Concern existed that something intrinsic to ticks found in Louisiana could mitigate their ability to transmit B. burgdorferi. Therefore, we set out to assess the ability of I. scapularis ticks from Louisiana to become infected with and transmit B. burgdorferi using mice as hosts. In the laboratory, mating adult female ticks collected in southeastern Louisiana were fed on the ears of rabbits. After oviposition and egg hatching, the resulting larvae were fed on mice that had been needle-inoculated with two different strains of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto, B31 and JD1. Larvae were found to be positive for spirochetes. Additional fed larvae were allowed to molt into the nymphal stage. Flat nymphs remained infected with B. burgdorferi. Infected nymphs were allowed to feed on naive mice, all of which became infected as shown by culture of ear biopsy specimens. Naive larvae were then fed on these same mice to assess transmissibility. The resulting engorged larvae harbored spirochetes. We have demonstrated that the I. scapularis ticks found in Louisiana are fully competent to carry and transmit B. burgdorferi infection.

If you look in the links section of this website, under Art Doherty's Lyme disease in the U.S. and Canada, there is an entry for just about every state that sums up the studies in that state that show the existence of lyme.

Lyme Disease State Info http://www.lymeinfo.net/support.html

I know this, because once on a vacation to and fro, I spotted a tick family in their tick mobile standing at the welcome to Louisiana sign.

They were talking their tick talk and saying " Gee Murtle, we can't cross ... that thar is Louisiana"

Lord, I believe there is lyme in Texas, maybe in Mexico too. I wonder can a deer cross the river. There is also the tick who likes to hitch a ride on birds, and they also like to hitch a ride on the white footed mouse Peromyscus leucopus. These little critters are found everywhere.

I am a biologists and during college, we would capture the critters in traps and study them.

California has a lot of Lyme disease, right. Do you think it is possible that deer could roam from California along the Rio Grande and make it to Texas.

Yes, i am being facetious, but I'm just a little ticked off about it all. Going to an OWCP doctor for a second opinion to see if i have Lyme disease.

Sorry you are going through this. This forced validation on top of lyme.. There is so much ignorance. And they seem to be so righteous, don't they?