Norwegian patient diagnosed with Borrelia Miyamotoi.
What is Borrelia Miyamotoi
Borrelia miyamotoi is a species of spiral-shaped bacteria that is closely related to the bacteria that cause tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF). It is more distantly related to the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, Borrelia Burgdorferi.
Symptoms include include fever (usually relapsing), headache, muscle pain, fatigue and possibly encephalitis and can be very dangerous for immunodeficient people.
It was first identified in 1995 in ticks from Japan, Borrelia Miyamotoi has since been detected in two species of North American ticks, the black-legged or “deer” tick (Ixodes scapularis) and the western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus). These ticks are already known to transmit several diseases, including Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, and babesiosis. Borrelia Miyamotoi has also been dicovered in ticks in several European countries, including Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Borrelia Miyamotoi was first identified in ticks in Norway in 2015 . See published study from Science Direct. So far there has been no reported human cases in Norway until now.
Currently there are no commercially available tests for Borrelia Miyamotoi, and regular Lyme tests cannot be used. The most accurate way to diagnose is to use DNA testing.
The Norwegian patient in question had blood tested using FISH analysis by Dr. Alan MacDonald. The blood tests show presence of Borrelia Burgdorferi and Borrelia Miyamotoi. See full report below.
Picture in courtesy of Dr. Alan MacDonald, copyright 2016.
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.
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.
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.
Read the whole blog entry here.
New study shows that Borrelia miyamotoi may be an emerging tickborne infection in the northeastern United States.
Read the whole study in the Annals of Internal Medicine
Av Trine Dahlman. Hentet fra bloggen: Koffiehart
“Jeg ble fullstendig sjokkert da jeg ble kjent med disse pasientene. Å se hvor dårlig de blir behandlet, eller mer riktig, ikke behandlet, gjør meg rasende,” sa Lise Askvik da hun entret scenen under årets NorVect-konferanse. Som konferansier guidet hun foredragsholdere og publikum gjennom to dager med vitenskapelige artikler og erfaringsbasert kunnskap om vektorbårne sykdommer, hovedsakelig fra flått.
For å lese hele intervjuet se her
Doctors who prescribe longer courses of antibiotic treatments for Lyme disease have new protections under state law today.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill late Wednesday that prohibits the state Office of Professional Medical Conduct from investigating a licensed physician based solely upon the recommendation or provision of a treatment that is not universally accepted by the medical profession.
Those treatments include, but are not limited to, those for Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.
The measure was passed unanimously by the state Legislature in the spring, and had been under review by Cuomo’s lawyers for months.
Read more here
