Monthly Archives: October 2015

Dr. Mozayeni talks about Bartonella as one of the major co-infections of Lyme disease. It’s more prevalent than Lyme, as there are many more ways to contract the disease (eg. flees, cats). In a study, that Dr. Breitschwerdt and himself published in The Journal of Emerging Diseases, about 60% of Lyme patients tested positive for Bartonella.
Dr. Mozayeni also talks about the importance of looking at Biofilm when treating Lyme, Bartonella etc as biofilm can harbor many of these microbes and be the cause of many symptoms.

Dr. Armin Schwarzbach talks about the terrible situation for Lyme patients and that they are not getting treated properly. In Germany there is some more openess and doctors are allowed to treat somewhat longer than the guidelines.

He talks about the the bacteria; Borrelia Burgdorferi and its complexity, which again is why this subject is so controversial. Had it been an easy bacteria to diagnose, there would not be so much controvercy. He talks about that the two sides of this controvercy and that they need to come together, as the truth is always in the middle.

Increasingly more ticks studies show that the tick is a dirty needle. There are so many co-infections that can be transfered in one tick bite. This makes the testing system also very complex.

The board of the Swedish Lyme organization (Borrelia och TBE Förenigen Sverige) invites to a 1-day Lyme Symposium November 22nd (9am-4pm) in Stockholm. Presenters from Germany and UK will hold presentations.

See PDF in Swedish for more information:

Dr. Cameron is the current and past president of ILADS. In the interview he talks about his understanding of Lyme disease. He is humbled by doctors that are trying to help patients that have gotten lost in the system. He is also seeing a growth in clinicians that are interested in learning how to better diagnose and treat Lyme disease.

Eikeland is the head The Norwegian National Advisory Unit on Tick-borne Diseases in Kristiansand, Norway.

In the interview, Eikeland talks about Borreliosis and whether it can turn chronic. She does not believe that patients that get Lyme disease and not get well can have a persisting infection. In the interview she claims that there is not enough evidence showing that this is the case in vivo. She also goes on to tell about patients that believe they are ill with Lyme disease, but maybe they have something completely different. She does not advocate long term antibiotics.
She explains that certain Lyme literate doctors and patients live in a different world from the one Eikeland and her colleagues live in. She however claims that it’s a good thing to meet at conferences like NorVect to discuss even though one is of different opinions.

Prof Ying Zhang from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health explains why Lyme disease is so difficult to treat. Having worked with Tuberculosis (TB) for many years, he sees the similarities and differences between these to bacteria. With Tuberculosis it is known that you have to treat with certain drug combinations that kill the growing form and the non-growing form (persisters) and if you treat shorter than 6 months, the patient will get a relapse.

The bacterium that causes Lyme disease is much more advanced than the TB bacterium, and the main reason is that it also takes a persisting form. These persister forms of the Borrelia bacteria cannot be cultured.

The two views – ILADS and IDSA are two different ways of seeing the same disease. Prof. Zhang thinks they are both right. When it comes to acute Lyme disease, IDSA is right. Then you only need shorter courses of treatment. When the disease turns chronic, longer courses of treatment with the right drug combinations are needed (ILADS view).

Dr. Phillips talks about what is the best treatment for Lyme disease. Sometimes it is enough to use shorter courses of antibiotics, other times longer courses are required.
He also talks about the CDC study that shows that the majority of US doctors treat Lyme disease with more than 4 weeks of antibiotics, and do not follow the IDSA standard.

Dr. Stricker talks about Lyme disease, a growing epidemic world-wide, and the controversies surrounding this disease. Amongst others, he compares Lyme to the HIV epidemic. The interview took place at the NorVect Conference 2015.