Topic: Wash Post: Lyme Disease Relapse Often a New Infection
CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 7136
posted
I knew it- this was timed to go witht he other one- this way they can deny blood positive chronics!!!! **************************************
Lyme Disease Relapse Often a New Infection Thursday, October 4, 2007; 12:00 AM
THURSDAY, Oct. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Many people who believe they're suffering a relapse of Lyme disease may actually have been bitten by another tick and have a second, completely new infection, a new study suggests.
"It is striking how often re-infection appears to occur," lead author Dr. Robert B. Nadelman, professor of medicine at New York Medical College, said in a prepared statement. "Our findings support clinical evidence that a surprising number of patients experience more than one episode of Lyme disease and that recurrent infections are unrelated to the original infection."
Lyme disease, which affects about 20,000 Americans a year, is caused byBorrelia burgdorferi, a bacterium that's transmitted to humans by deer ticks. About 95 percent of patients recover completely and quickly with two to three weeks of antibiotic treatment. Left untreated, the infection usually goes away within a month. However, untreated patients can relapse and/or develop late complications that affect the joints, heart, or nervous system, according to background information in a new release about the study.
Many patients who are diagnosed and successfully treated for Lyme disease develop the infection again, likely because they live in areas where deer ticks are common, the researchers said.
They analyzedB. burgdorferigenotypes from skin biopsies of 272 people diagnosed with Lyme diseases between 1991 and 2005. The team found that some of the patients had suffered separate Lyme disease-causing tick bites.
The findings "underscore the importance of preventing exposure to ticks, by covering exposed skin, using tick repellants, and performing self-examination for ticks on a regular basis during the tick season," Nadelman said.
The findings were to be reported Thursday at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, in San Diego.
More information
The American Medical Association has more about Lyme disease.
SOURCE: Infectious Diseases Society of America, news release, Oct. 4, 2007
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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Geneal
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10375
posted
Well.....at least they didn't say the possibility of continued infection
Was all in our heads .
That sounds just like the beginning of a PR campaign to "explain"
The continued presence of bb in our systems.
Clever, very clever.
They can give another "reason" for signs of infection other than the term "Chronic".
Thanks for posting this Sarah.
Always interesting reading as well as thought provoking.
Hugs,
Geneal
Posts: 6250 | From Louisiana | Registered: Oct 2006
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TerryK
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 8552
posted
I have often wondered if Dr. Robert B. Nadelman's daughter has become a chronic lyme victim. I hope not but I read an interview where he said she was infected and he admits that he missed diagnosing it. Maybe this is his way of rationlizing her situation if she is still sick.
What I really love about these articles is that NONE of them ever talk about co-infections and how many times they are missed as a cause for continuing illness.
Also, what about the people who are chronic but live in States where we often hear "We don't have lyme here"? How do they explain that?
Terry
Posts: 6286 | From Oregon | Registered: Jan 2006
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Greatcod
Unregistered
posted
"The team found that some of the patients had suffered separate Lyme disease-causing tick bites"
What's some, 3, 6, 22? Oh ,I get it, some is many.
"Many people who believe they're suffering a relapse of Lyme disease may actually have been bitten by another tick and have a second, completely new infection, a new study suggests."
I RELAPSED AFTER 3.5 YEARS, IN JANUARY, WHEN IT WAS BELOW ZERO OUT, AND I LIVE IN AN AREA WHERE THERE ARE NO KNOWN VECTORS. I ALSO DID NOT HAVE ANY SORT OF BITE, ETC.
WHO IS PAYING THESE GUYS TO SHOVEL THIS CRAP?
I have never been a conspiracy-theororist...until now. These !@#holes have given me reason.
I hate to say this, and I know he never will, but I really hope he gets it and has some (or all) of the experiences that brought most of us here.
LM
Posts: 212 | From Eastern CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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posted
Just another excuse to deny treatment: You've had Lyme before, so the positive bands are left over from that infection.
No way to tell if it is from a new infection or not, so we still lose.
Posts: 115 | From USA | Registered: May 2006
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Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
This theory goes straight down the drain with their own studies and previous comments.
Plus.. what about STARI and the 300 plus OTHER strains they don't have tests for yet?
Then there is this statement..
"Our findings support clinical evidence that a surprising number of patients experience more than one episode of Lyme disease and that recurrent infections are unrelated to the original infection."
If that is so.. we should be treated again and again and again.. as long as the tests are positive.
But WAIT! That would mean their OTHER theory is wrong.
Supposedly they say that once you are positive.. for a long time you stay positive with NO live spirochetes or infection.. and you DON'T need treatment.
Did they forget that too?
Geeze.. what idiots!
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2005 Dec;73(12):7869-77.
Demonstration of OspC type diversity in invasive human lyme disease isolates and identification of previously uncharacterized epitopes that define the specificity of the OspC murine antibody response.
Earnhart CG, et al.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298-0678, USA.
Outer surface protein C (OspC) of the Lyme disease spirochetes is an important virulence factor that has potential utility for vaccine development.
Of the 21 OspC types that have been identified, it has been postulated that types A, B, I, and K are specifically associated with invasive infections.
Through an analysis of isolates collected from patients in Maryland we found that OspC types C, D, and N are also associated with invasive infections.
This observation suggests that there is greater diversity in the group of OspC types associated with invasive infection than has been previously suggested.
Detailed knowledge of the antigenic structure of OspC is essential for vaccine development. To determine if the antibody response to OspC is type specific, recombinant proteins of several different OspC types were immunoblotted and screened with sera from mice infected with isolates having known OspC types.
These analyses revealed a high degree of specificity in the antibody response and suggested that the immunodominant epitopes of OspC reside in the variable domains of the protein.
To localize these epitopes, OspC fragments were generated and screened with serum collected from infected mice.
These analyses led to identification of previously uncharacterized epitopes that define the type specificity of the OspC antibody response.
These analyses provide important insight into the antigenic structure of OspC and also provide a basis for understanding the variable nature of the antibody response to this important virulence factor of the Lyme disease spirochetes.
quote:What I really love about these articles is that NONE of them ever talk about co-infections and how many times they are missed as a cause for continuing illness.
Exactly. I'm also tired of hearing ticks - ticks - ticks - ticks.
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
AND what about those who never got treated right away - or for years - or are still waiting for the real treatments and doing the best they can to hold it at bay ?
It does not just disappear because it's been a while - even a long while - since it began.
Maybe these guys all went to medical school in a time warp.
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
I am trying to better understand the IgM/IgG and chronic vs acute state of Lyme infection.
My IgM had 11 of 14 positvive bands per IgenX. My IgG was positive for only a few bands. I suspect I have had this for decades.
Had my first visit to a supposed LLMD last week. He questioned whether I was positve for Lyme, considering my negative IgG. I ran this by a doctor I work with and he said IgG does not convert to IgM with a flare of infection, that if there is a return of infection, the IgG will stay elevated WITH the rise in IgM.
Does anyone understand this well enough explain?
Posts: 70 | From AZ | Registered: Sep 2007
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Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
Hey bark..
Fishing pond time.
If you go fishing and don't catch any fish.. it doesn't mean there are no fish in the lake. It simply means you dipped in there and didn't catch them that time.
Your few positive bands on the IGG may appear negative by CDC standards but does not mean it IS negative. It only means that the few spoons of blood drawn didn't have enough detectable evidence to register on that one test that specific day.
Your IgG can be negative at any point.. but that is the way it goes. Our BEST tests only are able to detect a positive about 60-80 percent of the time.. so do NOT depend on them as gospel to eliminate the Lyme diagnosis.
If the IgM is elevated.. you've got active Lyme.. in MY book.
After treatment.. if the IgM goes down.. then later you relapse and the IgM goes positive again.. you've got paper proof of Lyme coming back at ya.
Depend on YOUR body to fill in the blanks and determine treatment... as the tests are NOT reliable enough to determine everyone who may have Lyme at any one given time.
There has NEVER been any published evidence from any CREDIBLE research that documented the eradication of Bb after a short course of antibiotics.
There has NEVER been any published evidence from any CREDIBLE research that chronic lyme disease does not exist.
We need to say this OVER and Over and over in the media.
Then ILADS, with the help from chronic lyme patients, need to PROVE over and over and over that chronic lyme DOES indeed exist.
Posts: 339 | From nowhere | Registered: May 2007
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posted
I could not BELIEVE my eyes when I read this article! And, in the Washington Post of all papers! This group is soooo incredibly power, with connections across the board.
IDSA has very obviously planned a PR campaign against the Lyme community - brilliant moves too. This article was just CLASSIC!!! Oh, so now the explanation as to why people have chronic Lyme infection is that they were bit by a new tick without noticing it!!! I'd like to hear him explain this in debate form. He would be going around and around in circuitous fashion.
I, too, have wondered what has become of Nadelman's daughter. I've wondered it since I first heard the news around Jan.
There has GOT to be a whistle blower somewhere who will expose this cover-up.
In the meantime, I am trying to take the little steps as my outlet for my rage. Today I wrote a letter to the editor of a CT newspaper who did a piece on the NEJM and Stricker's response.
This community owes him a huge debt of gratitude.
Posts: 364 | From California | Registered: Sep 2005
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tailz
Unregistered
posted
quote:Maybe these guys all went to medical school in a time warp.
Sort of - it's the cell phone towers. I don't think they are able to comprehend logic any longer.
I like the fishing analogy though. I'll have to remember that one.
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