Yeah, when will they ever get it?

Thanks Kara for the link.

My lord, how many poor people did they treat with 4 (four) Zithromyacin pills and tell they were cured! This is right on par with one doxycycline pill for Lyme disease.

Spirochetes can change shape, size, coating, form,and go dormant. This is no mutant form of syphilis; it is just the same old diabolical organism.

Ann - OH

(quote)
Mutant syphilis strain resists common cure
Thursday, July 8, 2004 Posted: 2:35 PM EDT (1835 GMT)


(AP) -- A fast-spreading mutant strain of syphilis has proved resistant to the antibiotic pills that are offered to some patients as an alternative to painful penicillin shots.

Since the late 1990s, doctors and public health clinics have been giving azithromycin to some syphilis patients because the long-acting antibiotic pill was highly effective and easy to use. Four pills taken at once were usually enough to cure syphilis.

But now researchers at University of Washington in Seattle have found at least 10 percent of syphilis samples from patients at sexually transmitted disease clinics in four cities had a strain resistant to azithromycin.

"That suggests that this mutation is pretty widely distributed geographically," said Sheila A. Lukehart, research professor of infectious diseases.

The percentage of samples from San Francisco with the mutant strain jumped from 4 percent in 1999-2002 to 37 percent in 2003, with the increase taking place largely among gay or bisexual men with multiple partners.

The study was reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Experts say doctors should switch to penicillin or other antibiotics if azithromycin does not work. But some of those antibiotics can cause nausea and other side effects and must be taken for two weeks; some patients do not complete their treatment and are not cured.

Experts said the findings also show that syphilis patients treated with azithromycin must have follow-up tests to be sure they are cured. After syphilis sores disappear, the disease can silently attack the brain and cause dementia, paralysis and death.

Penicillin has long been the recommended treatment for syphilis. But it must be given in two buttocks injections much more painful than typical shots, because a large amount of the solution must be forced into the muscle.

Syphilis decreased in the United States through the 1990s, then climbed 19 percent from 2000 to 2003 to about 7,100 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC attributed the spike to a twelvefold rise in cases among gay and bisexual men, many of whom are also infected with the AIDS virus.

Lukehart studied 114 syphilis samples from Seattle, San Francisco, Baltimore and Dublin, Ireland, finding 28 percent were resistant to azithromycin, including 88 percent of the Dublin samples.

Dr. John Douglas, director of the CDC's division of sexually transmitted disease prevention, said the agency is formulating a plan to test for resistant strains in some areas.

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. (end quote)

If we were tested for Syphilis, would it show up as positive?

quote:

---

Originally posted by die_lyme_die:
Do these people testing positive for Syphilis really have Lyme Disease?

If we were tested for Syphilis, would it show up as positive?

Anybody know?

---

Syphillis like lyme has specific bands related to its OSP's and it has a specific DNA signature. However, the screening tests, may cross positive with Lyme screening test. For example, Lyme Band #41, is really a band that finds flagellan, (tail of a spirochete) antibodies. This band says...yes you have a spirochete without really identifying WHICH spirochete.

The darksfield studies, show a spirochete, but do not identify exactly what kind of spirochete, so a darksfield alone is not a good test either (bowen photos are darksfield tests pictures). They only identify the presence of a spirochete bacteria.

Hope this helps!