posted
www.lymenation.net - has articles on the upcoming NY Times Lyme protest action Sept 17, Lyme tax idea, a mother and kids with Lyme, Lyme in S Africa (also hitting the lions), Lyme disease stories, etc.
[ 08-29-2014, 01:28 AM: Message edited by: Robin123 ]
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- First, I applaud their efforts. Truly, I do.
I wish them luck and sure hope they understand that The NYT is one of the most illiterate of news organizations when it comes to lyme. And this goes back for years. Consistently, they just can't find it in themselves to learn the truth.
Their medical "chief" journalist (or one of their top ones) (Lisa Sanders) simple does not believe in chronic lyme, does not want to believe in chronic lyme and will likely never come to understand that it does, indeed, exist.
She, The NYT and the IDSA are tight, tight, tight.
As well, many of those who post reader comments to any of the articles about a medical condition that could be lyme (they often have "puzzlers"). Anytime someone posts that it "could be lyme (or other TBD)" comments just pour on denying that lyme is much of a problem - or when it is - it's so easily and quickly fixed.
Any reader comments so bold as to have the term "chronic" with lyme get blasted doubly hard. This is a pattern I've seen many times over the years with The NYT.
I just hope any protesters who think The NYT is going to listen have done their homework on this.
The NYT, itself, should be called upon to wake up. But that does not sound like what this protest is all about. The protesters will not be shown in an educated light by The NYT, that is guaranteed.
Still, I don't have the energy to connect to the group to know if they know all this, they may well and that may be why that location is chosen.
I do wish that the professional journalism organizations, themselves, would attend the ILADS conferences, as attendees - for the full conference time. They keep saying this does not exist but few journalists (and none of national stature) ever bother to look beyond the IDSA as their sole source. -
[ 08-28-2014, 07:15 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
lymie_in_md
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14197
posted
Robin after you posted about S Africa I took the opportunity to look world wide and it isn't a pretty picture.
Robin -- should be a different topic ? Let me know I'll repost it.
I felt really sad for the Australians and the Chinese. There is a variant of the disease in china which is not tick based infection instead it is delivered by a louse. And this changed my mind on the disease, bed bugs can be carriers for example. It may be based on the idea the organism is vampiric.
It appears china is more endemic for boreliosis then in the US
quote:Louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) is caused by Borrelia recurrentis and is transmitted from human to human by the body louse, Pediculus humanus humanus. The pathogen multiplies in the gut of the louse and is transmitted when an infected louse is crushed or scratched while feeding on a human host. No human skin wound or scratch is necessary for inoculation to occur. Uninfected lice acquire the bacterium when feeding on infected humans; no other animal serves as a reservoir for B. recurrentis.
LBRF tends to occur in epidemic waves, usually in times of human crisis such as war, deep poverty and/or overcrowding. Epidemics of LBRF followed both World War I and World War II, resulting in over a million deaths. It is now primarily a disease of the developing world, with foci in East Africa, South America and parts of China. It is not endemic in the United States.
-------------------- Bob Posts: 2150 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
| IP: Logged |
lymie_in_md
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14197
posted
Keeb's as long as they aren't targeting any benefit from NYT. I hope it's more nationally oriented and the NYT is just a symbol. However you know my views on the political side of the issue as to activism (not much for it).
-------------------- Bob Posts: 2150 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Lymie_in_MD - we can keep discussing here - I just edited the heading of the thread. It's something else to think that all the animals are going to die out - this is crazy.
The lions are going, in the S Africa report. Then any animal that can survive tick bites will be at the top of the food chain. This will really change animal existence, the nature of foraging, etc.
Re your India link, the affected people are coffee pluckers. That's our coffee beans, folks. It says the government is educating everyone about protection.
Re your link on world stats, it's all over the world, but the numbers must all be much higher if all they can say is that the US has 100K infected - ha.
Keeb, I think the group has picked the NY Times location for the reasons you're writing about.
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
| IP: Logged |
lymie_in_md
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14197
posted
Your right Robin about the world stats. So I did a little guessing based on our very good friends at the CDC who've always had the patients interest at heart. 300k and only 5 percent of all real cases of lyme.
it says 100k in the us, the cdc says 300k and only 5 percent are reported based on the cdc. My guess there are 12mm (mm=million) based on 300mm in the us only 5 percent with lyme where 5% means 300k is only 1/20th of the number of cases and I'll bet they are still only 1/2 of all. (300k times 20 times 2) = 12 million lymies in the US.
I don't believe ticks are the only carriers of lyme, why couldn't bed bugs be carriers, they are very much like ticks. The more avenues for getting lyme increases the numbers.
If you take each number and multiply by 3 times to match the CDC's ratio. Then multiply by 20 for what the CDC is saying is under-reported then multiply by 2, I'm guessing the CDC is conservative. You might come to a reasonable number. 3 times 20 times 2 or just multiply each countries number by 100 to make it simple. It would give you a magnitude of the problem. China might be the most endemic country for lyme. Because it doesn't need a tick bite to transfer it. It can be passed with lice. And maybe someday we'll find out the lyme in this country can transport it this way.
so the us would have:
country lyme occurrence ----------- --------------------- us 10 million mexico 4 million canada 1.1 million china 50 million india 40 million
So about 2 percent of the world has lyme. what happens if it become 10 percent hence how bad the epidemic is becoming. I believe it's growing exponentially.
The problem, most people don't tell doctors. Woman I believe are much better at reporting then men. My neighbor has never reported. I talked to his wife and he just denies symptoms. He's got lyme, he's had several tick bytes. he has rash that covers one calf on his leg that he's had for 4 years.
-------------------- Bob Posts: 2150 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
| IP: Logged |
Marnie
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 773
posted
Very interesting link!
Banners should read - "5,600 cases of ALS, 30,000 cases of Lyme per year"
Posts: 9424 | From Sunshine State | Registered: Mar 2001
| IP: Logged |
TNT
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 42349
posted
Marnie, I thought the CDC admitted at least 300,000 new cases annually in the U.S.?
Posts: 1308 | From Eastern USA | Registered: Oct 2013
| IP: Logged |
lymie_in_md
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14197
posted
Playing with numbers ( I used some numbers that might infer 12mm lymies exist whether they know it or not):
From the CDC site it first said 30,000 but revised it to 300,000 cases per year.
If we polled who is part lymenet who thinks they are part of the 300,000, I'll bet a 50/50 split. Personally I may or may not have showed up this year, because I showed positive for lyme (did the CDC capture me as a lymie, hard to say -- the doctor has to write it up I'm guessing).
Prior to this year I'm certain I wasn't on the CDC list. Many folks on this forum don't meet the criteria and why it so under-reported.
Of the 300,000 reported by the CDC in 2014, imagine linear growth from 1960, so 1960 - 2014 we'll say 10,000 in 1960 linear growth to 2014 with 300,000 = 8.5 million lymies who are diagnosed via the CDC guidelines.
We'll say 80% got supposedly well by the IDSA treatment guidelines = 1mm cronic lymies.
Another 8.5 million or more might not know the have lyme and only express minor symptoms because their bodies do a better job of repressing symptoms (according to my doctor I had repressed symtoms for 40 years -- I have a growth on my arm I had as a teenager, and my doctor suspects lyme).
Someday many who harbor lyme will eventually be cronic like I was. If year by year linear growth we should have 10.5 million in 2020.
Instead of linear it's more realistically a hyperbolic curve, it could become from 20mm to 30mm folks with lyme.
Supposing it is a hyperbolic curve for those who didn't know they had lyme and there is something in the environment which lowers their immune system and in greater masses become cronic.
What if in 2 to 6 years we have 12mm cronic lymies on disability. At that point someone will take it very serious (because of the impact on the economy) or maybe it has become serious right now and the CDC is being set up. Don't care one way or another.
Personally, I'm motivated to make cronic lymie's number go to "0", might be dreaming, but nothing is accomplished without one.
From our buddies at the CDC's home page:
quote:Preliminary estimates released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that the number of Americans diagnosed with Lyme disease each year is around 300,000. The preliminary estimates were presented Sunday night in Boston at the 2013 International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis and Other Tick-Borne Diseases.External Web Site Icon
This early estimate is based on findings from three ongoing CDC studies that use different methods, but all aim to define the approximate number of people diagnosed with Lyme disease each year. The first project analyzes medical claims information for approximately 22 million insured people annually for six years, the second project is based on a survey of clinical laboratories and the third project analyzes self-reported Lyme disease cases from a survey of the general public.
Each year, more than 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported to CDC, making it the most commonly reported tick-borne illness in the United States. The new estimate suggests that the total number of people diagnosed with Lyme disease is roughly 10 times higher than the yearly reported number. This new estimate supports studies published in the 1990s indicating that the true number of cases is between 3- and 12-fold higher than the number of reported cases.
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/