more on Lyme

[vom Dufenshmirtz]

http://www.macleans.ca/society/healt...-lyme-disease/

For decades, Gabriel Magnotta, the well-known Ontario wine-industry firebrand, went hunting with a group of friends. These expeditions took them into the wilds of almost every Canadian province. In time, three of the men would share something else: symptoms associated with “neurological” diseases—numbing of limbs, tremors, dizziness. Two were diagnosed with Parkinson’s when only in their 40s. Magnotta—co-founder with his wife, Rossana, of Vaughan, Ont.-based Magnotta Winery—was not as readily diagnosed. He began having balance problems in 2003, but test after test in Canada and the U.S. came back negative. Meanwhile, his health deteriorated—he had difficulty walking and talking, cognitive fog, double vision and intense joint aches.

[Sharon]

Wow. I'm speechless. Definitely saving that article. Thanks.

"Doctors aren’t to blame, she says: “They don’t know what to look for.” Canadian medical students are taught about tropical infections like malaria, yet bacteria in their own backyard are ignored, she says: “We are a country of valleys and trees and forests; we need to be talking about Lyme.” quote

[mark_t1012001]

Thanks for a great read. It's so frustrating in this country sometimes. We have a ton of great traits as a nation, but our politicians sticking their heads where the sun doesn't shine and ignoring science seems to be an epidemic.

[terrym]

Excellent article and scary also. I don't have ten's of thousands of dollars to get out of country treatment.

[Waftrudnir]

Don’t think you can blame the politicians for it.
On the other hand, if you blame them for global warming, you can certainly blame them for Borreliosis (at least in Canada).
It’s been known south the border and in Europe since the 80s and around for god knows how long there. However, it’s more recent to Canada.
What concerns me is how the medical society treats it:

1. Prolonged overdose of antibiotics that will do all kind of unpleasant things, or
2. Giving a modest amount of antibiotics that might kill the bacteria. Problem is if one continues to have the syntoms, they’ll likely to tell them that they make it up, because they cannot find any Borrelia.

Either way, it shows that (even if diagnosed properly), they don’t really know how to treat it safely and effectively.
Real problem is that it’s going to spread dramatically over the next couple of years.

[spinster]

Avoid New Lyme Culture Test, Say CDC and FDA
Published: Apr 18, 2014
By Nancy Walsh, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today

CDC and the FDA have again cautioned the public about the use of an unapproved test for diagnosing Lyme disease...

...The culture technique, published in the International Journal of Medical Sciences, "incorporates [a] two-step process that consists of a short-term starter culture that is used to seed a long-term phase, each utilizing different cultivation environments. Combining the two phases allows for more rapid initial growth and ultimately a higher yield than has previously been reported," the authors stated.

They further reported that they were able to demonstrate growth of the pathogen from 50 seropositive individuals and an additional 72 patients with Lyme disease, with positive cultures in 47% after 6 days and in 94% after 4 months.

However, CDC subsequently reviewed the methods and results. The analysis raised "serious concerns about false-positive results caused by laboratory contamination and the potential for misdiagnosis," the agency said in its weekly report....

Read article and get links at http://www.medpagetoday.com/Infectio...sDisease/45318