Author Archives: anur

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.

Doctors and researchers from all over the world were gathered in Oslo, Norway May 30th-31st 2015 to share the latest knowledge on vector-borne diseases.

All together 24 lectures and 4 panel discussions were filmed which amount to around 16 hours of viewing time. The topic was ”Connecting the Dots on Vector-borne Diseases”.

You now have the opportunity to watch the whole NorVect conference at home at your own convenience.

Click here to register.
Price: NOK 499

All lectures:

Raphael B. Stricker, MD
Lyme disease history and evolution of tick-borne disease

Daniel Cameron, MD, MPH
Essentials for Lyme disease diagnostics and evidence based treatment

Steven Phillips, MD
Exploring the Evidence for Chronic Infection in Lyme

Armin Schwarzbach, Ph.D, MD
Tick-borne coinfections – A European overview

Garth L. Nicolson Ph.D
Chronic Bacterial and Viral Infections in Neurodegenerative and Neurobehavioral Diseases and other Chronic Illnesses

Volkhard Kempf, Ph.D, MD
Bartonella: “Sticky lollipops” & Angiogenesis

Gad Baneth, DVM, Ph.D, Dipl. ECVCP
Babesiosis – A Group of Tick-Borne Protozoal Diseases with Zoonotic Importance

Gad Baneth, DVM, Ph.D, Dipl. ECVCP
Ehrlichiosis – Tick-Borne Bacterial Diseases of humans and animals

Steven E. Phillips, MD
Exploring the Evidence for Chronic Infection in Brucellosis

Gad Baneth, DVM, Ph.D, Dipl. ECVCP
Dirofilariases- Emerging Filarial infections in Europe

Ritchie C. Shoemaker, MD
Correlation of volumetric brain imaging with Western blot testing for Lyme disease

Randi Eikeland, Ph.D, MD and Harald Reiso, Ph.D, MD
The Norwegian National Advisory Unit on Tick-borne Diseases (NKFS)

Robert Mozayeni, MD
Bartonella: Clinical Expression of Small Vessel Disease, Treatment Experience and Overlap with Lyme Disease

Brian A. Fallon, MD, MPH, MED
Neuropsychiatric Lyme disease – madness or reality?

Armin Alaedini, Ph.D
Immunologic Mechanisms in the Persistence of Symptoms in Lyme Disease

Ying Zhang, Ph.D, MD
Borrelia Persister Drugs: Implications for Improved Treatment

Brian A. Fallon, MD, MPH, MED
When Lyme symptoms persist – biological and treatment results from the U.S. Clinical Trial of Lyme Encephalopathy

Raphael B. Stricker, MD
Sexual transmission of Lyme Disease

Neil Nathan, MD
Rebooting – A New Paradigm for Complex Medical Issues in Chronically ill patients

Garth L. Nicolson Ph.D
Loss of Mitochondrial Function in Chronic Illnesses and Infectious Diseases and its Treatment with Lipid Replacement Therapy

Neil Nathan, MD
The Importance of Evaluating Mold Toxicity and Methylation for Chronic Lyme Patients

Peter Andras Csango, MD
Molecular detection of tick-borne bacteria in ticks in southern Norway

Carl Morten Motzfeld Laane, Ph.D
Silent Babesia Infections in Norway

Ravilya Yegemberdiyeva, Ph.D
Spectrum Of Tick-Borne Diseases Pathogens In Kazakhstan

Questions and Panel discussion sessions

Oslo kvinne tok opp 300.000 kroner i lån for å avslutte Borrelia-mareritt!

“Etter ti år med borreliose og sviktende behandling i Norge, så 23-åringen fra Oslo mørkt på fremtiden. Et lån og en tur til utlandet var nøkkelen til at hun i fjor fikk livet tilbake.” Les hennes historie her

Woman from Norway had to loan 300 000 NOK (38 000 $) in order to get treatment for Lyme disease. She is now finally healthy thanks to international doctors. Read also the interview with Dr. Richard Horowitz in the article.

A short-term Borrelia burgdorferi infection model identifies tissue tropisms and bloodstream survival conferred by adhesion proteins.

Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease in the United States, is able to persist in the joint, heart, skin, and central nervous system for the lifetime of its mammalian host. Borrelia species achieve dissemination to distal sites in part by entry into and travel within the bloodstream.

Read the full study here

Researchers have found ticks that carry the parasite Babesia in Sweden, as well as detected antibodies in some people. This malaria-like parasite can cause severe illness in humans. Another study has already showed that 7% of Danish ticks carry Babesia.

The bacteria that cause syphilis and Lyme Disease have something extraordinary in common: they manage to propel themselves through their environment in spite of the fact their tails are located inside their bodies.

The remarkable engineering of these bacteria are probably a major reason spirochetes have been such successful pathogens in humans and other animals. Syphilis and Lyme Disease are better at penetrating our bodies than almost any other organisms. Spirochetes cross barriers that are impenetrable to almost anything else, including basement membranes and the linings of organs like intestines called endothelium that function to keep the kajillions of bacteria in your gut out of the rest of your body. In humans, syphilis and Lyme Disease bacteria easily penetrate the normally sacrosanct blood-brain barrier to infect the central nervous system. Syphilis can invade the placenta and infect an unborn child.

A new study published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotheraphy shows that Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria form drug-resistant persister cells that are not easily killed by antibiotics.

Link to article here

En ny studie viser at borrelia bakterien ikke blir drept av standard antibiotikabehandling som gis her i Norge. Bakteriene kapsler seg inn for å beskytte seg mot immunsystemet og antimikrobiell behandling. Dette kan være en årsak til at mange får tilbakefall etter behandlingsstopp.

Link til engelsk artikkel her