treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 4117
posted
Characteristics of Lyme disease spirochetes in archived European ticks.
Matuschka FR, Ohlenbusch A, Eiffert H, Richter D, Spielman A.
Institut fur Pathologie, Virchow-Klinikum, Medizinische Fakultat der Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Germany.
To determine whether the characteristics of the Lyme disease spirochete (Borrelia burgdorferi) in Europe may have changed during the past century, DNA was amplified from archived Ixodes ricinus ticks. Tick DNA could be amplified, even when ticks had been stored under museum conditions for nearly a century. Spirochetal DNA was detected by polymerase chain reaction in 6 ticks preserved for as long as a century; the oldest was collected in 1884. Borrelia garinii, which predominates in modern ticks in the region, infected 3 of these older ticks, and the presently infrequent B. burgdorferi sensu stricto infected 2. These data indicate that residents of Europe have been exposed to diverse Lyme disease spirochetes at least since 1884, concurrent with the oldest record of apparent human infection. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8699081&dopt=Abstract http://www.smw.ch/pdf/1999_31-32/1999-31-139.PDF
Posts: 10564 | From PA Where the Creeks are Red | Registered: Jun 2003
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Already at the time of Hippokrates some of the manifestations of Lyme such as the Acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans (ACA)were described as a disease that occurs "in the dark and moist forests of the north".
posted
Pity all those people who got lyme before WW1 and 2. Ducks must have had a field day.
Posts: 77 | From Chester NJ 07930 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Yes, it sure is a pity about all those people who got sick before ~1980 or so.
Darn, it's a pity for those who got sick after 1980 as well...lol.
Anyway, as I'm getting sicker by the month here (i.e., abx ain't helping for 4 months now), my mind is constantly thinking how I could have gotten infected.
And for some reason, I've beent assuming all along that I must have gotten infected in the US since Lyme is such a "big deal" in the North east where I live.
I moved here in 1990 from Denmark.
However, when I learned that Lyme is the fastest spreading infectious disease in Denmark, I was surprised to say the least. So maybe I got infected there.
In fact, I had symptoms of memory loss, confusion, trouble learning and had occasional joint pain while in Denmark. So then I started thinking about my mom.
My mom had severe palpitation and migraine for 20+ years or so. The doctor never could cure her. He described her condition as "uneasy heart". Told her to lie down, and gave her anti-depressants (I think.)
My mom also suffered from confusion, memory loss and spacing out. She also had trouble learning. My grandmother had the same symptoms. Then my I recalled that my grandfather died of MS.
So if I did get infected with Lyme and coinfections in Denmark, are the test in the US able to pick up these variations of the bacteria.
posted
I've harped on this before, but "Malaria" means "bad air". It used to be any disease you get from going into swamps, etc. where the air is "bad". Recently (last 100 years) they have redefined it to only be mosquito born blood parasites.
As you may know Quinine was the first treatment for "malaria". Quinine (tree bark) has been replaced with plaquinil and other synthetics. They kill babesia, malaria, and are cyst busters. The disease may have been renamed but the treatment is still the same.
Of course we have added other antibiotics over recent years. Another old antibiotic is wormwood (a plant). Now artemesia is extracted from the plant and is also used to treat babesia and malaria.
Posts: 499 | From Western NY | Registered: Dec 2000
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If my LLMD and my assumptions are correct - I was most likely infected in 1966 at age 3.
I had flu-like symptoms, swollen painful knee joints, fever, sore throat, etc. They didn't know what it was - I also had a "strange" round rash that they didn't know what it was. They never saw this type of rash before.....
Posts: 416 | From Southeastern PA | Registered: Sep 2003
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I can't remember where I saw this, but I remember reading a report from the 1730's describing a person with Lyme symptoms and the classic bull's eye rash. I wish I could remember where I saw this, but my brain fog isn't letting me.
Posts: 58 | From Palo Alto, CA, U.S.A. | Registered: Jan 2004
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And if Lyme can be passed from mother to baby, and if it can be passed through sex and what not...
This is gonna explode over the next few years as the "common man" starts to realize that that occasional numbness in his right foot and the random dizzyspells is due to Lyme.
No wonder then that there are estimates that 10% of the population may have this disease.
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I think it has been running in families for a long time. Many times I think I was born with this. My mother was considered to be mentally ill, and complained of heart probelms that the ducks said was all in her head and anxiety from a young age.
She died of severly advanced heart disease for her age of 55. She did not take care of herself so I can only wonder, what was up. My father died young too. Age 45, had many health problems, but didn't take care of hisself either, so again who knows. But interesting since, I have had health problems of one type or another since birth. My mom and I both had 5 day labours and emergency c-sections. Just too weird sometimes.
Kara Tyson
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 939
posted
Lyme is much older than you think. Here is an exerpt from a paper I did some time ago--
The official name of Lyme disease is Borrelia burgdorferi infection. The Lyme bacteria was named for Dr. William Burgdorfer who was the discoverer of the pathogen in the 1980's. The infection is called Lyme disease in honor of Old Lyme, CT where in 1977 the illness was discovered after higher than normal rates of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis had been reported in the local children. The condition at the time was called ``Lyme Arthritis'' by Dr. Allen Steere. However, the first confirmed case in the United States was reported by Dr. Rudolph Scrimenti in 1970 after treating a patient who became ill after a tick bite while hunting in Wisconsin. (1) It is not true, however, that Lyme originated in Connecticut (or Wisconsin). The first recorded case of what is believed to have been Borrelia burgdorferi infection was in Germany in 1883 identified by Dr. Alfred Buchwald. In 1909, Dr. Arvid Afzelius presented a report to the Swedish Society of Dermatology an illness that came from the bite of a tick. This illness was referred to at the time as Lipschutz's Syndrome, Afzelius's erythema, & Lipschutz' erythema. (2)
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