posted
Hi! I discovered in August 2014 that I have Lyme disease as a result of some tick bites from a year prior. When I told my sister, who lives in Mexico, she told me that she had been bitten in June 2014 by a tick (in Mexico) and it gave her a bulls-eye rash!
Knowing what I now do, I told her to please get tested immediately and at the least begin taking Doxycycline, although she didn't.
Fast forward 3 months later and she got what I think is the equivalent to our Elisa test. Her results just came back:
She had requested the Western Blot test there, but the laboratory told her that was a test for HIV/aids.
My question - is the WB test exactly the same for testing Lyme as it is for testing HIV or is there a difference in the way she should request it?
It makes no difference of course what the name of the test is, as long as the results will help determine the infections. I think the WB test should be her next step. We just need to know what to ask for, since the testing names are different.
Another note - my sister has Hepatitis-C from a blood transfusion given to her after a car accident in 1970. Her liver function test results currently show very elevated AST (SGOT), ALT (SGPT) and GGT if this has any bearing.
Thanks for any light you can shed.
LauraJ
Posts: 35 | From North Texas | Registered: Sep 2014
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TF
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 14183
posted
The Western Blot is used for HIV testing and for lyme testing and for other disease antibody testing also. Perhaps in Mexico it is used nearly always for HIV, if that is the disease people are worried about there. So, that may be why she is being told that it is an HIV test. That just isn't true, of course.
I would advise her to tell them that she wants Borrelia burgdorferi Western Blot testing. This way, she is telling them which antibodies she wants them to look for.
If this doesn't help, then call Igenex in California and ask them the name of the test in Mexico. It may be that the labs in Mexico don't do lyme testing.
I wish her the best.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
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