Topic: My response to Scientific American Article.
Ann-OH
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 2020
posted
To the Editor,
In his Scientific American article, "Study Assesses Impact of 'Superspreaders' of Disease" a review of a study published in Nature, Kaspar Mossman makes a very dangerous statement, highlighted in his paragraph below.
[quote] " It's relatively easy to predict how sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS will spread, because it's possible to estimate who is at risk, and to ask victims how many partners they've had. [Bold] The same is true of vector-borne ailments such as Lyme disease, which is acquired through the bite of an infected tick. You know where to find ticks, and you usually know when you've been bitten by one.[end bold]
Much more difficult is the task of forecasting the course that diseases transmitted through casual contact, such as smallpox or influenza, will take through a population."
In most cases, Lyme disease victims do not know where they got bitten by the tick, and most of them never see the tick and don't know they have been bitten.
The tick injects a sort of saliva which acts as an anesthetic as well as a blood thinner and a glue to help keep the tick attached. The smallest stage of the tick that carries Lyme disease is the size of a period at the end of a sentence... The nymph stage is the size of a poppy seed, and the adult, the size of a sesame seed. They are easily overlooked.
Ticks who have obtained their first blood meal from migrating birds are then deposited in any place the bird alights on its travels, so they can be anywhere.
All this is common knowledge, or at least available to someone who does his research before making such an erroneous blanket statement. I checked out the study, Mr. Mossman was reviewing, and there was no such statement about Lyme disease included there. For that I am thankful.
I hope some correction will be made by your publication.
posted
Good for you Ann-OH! I was thinking of responding and also mentioning that there is some evidence for Lyme being also a STD based on Bb being found in semen. However, I could find the reference for that. Do you happen to know where that reference is from?
Posts: 546 | From Cascadia subduction zone | Registered: Mar 2002
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
Ann, great follow-up letter you have written. Keep it up and thanks for keeping us informed too of what is going on.
I'm glad you took the initiative to respond to them. I hope they publish your reply. Next time you get a chance to reply to erroneous info, you might consider citing studies that support your position. I know that, for example, ilads.org says in its basic brochure that fewer than 50% of all victims recall being bitten and that in some studies this percentage is as low as 15%. As your letter stands, SA must take your word for it. Maybe your letter will prompt someone to do more research.
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