Climate Change Increases Worldwide Lyme Distribution

ILLNESS RISES WITH HEAT
Jim Efstathiou (22 November, 2009 - New York)Extracted direct from from website http://www.smh.com.au/environment/illness-rises-with-heat-20091121-is6b.html

KIDNEY

stones, malaria,
LYME DISEASE, depression and respiratory illness may INCREASE WITH GLOBAL WARMING , researchers at Harvard Medical School say.
Climate change from the burning of fossil fuels will add to risks to public health, said Paul Epstein, associate director of Harvard's Centre for Health and the Global Environment in Boston.
The centre, and groups led by the American Medical Association (AMA), presented data at a briefing in Washington yesterday as part of a call for action to curb emissions.
Global warming causes flooding, heatwaves and wildfires that worsen health, especially for children and the elderly, the Harvard researchers said.
"We expect an increase in hospital admissions for things like pneumonia, chronic lung disease, asthma and other respiratory diseases," said Cecil Wilson, the AMA's president-elect.

"Increased heat also increases the risk to people who have other diseases."

The AMA sent a letter to US President Barack Obama last week citing the "significant public health impacts" of climate change. The letter said children, the elderly,

people suffering from chronic diseases and the poor would be most affected.

Mr Obama has backed climate-change legislation in Congress but he and other leaders at an Asia-Pacific conference last week agreed that a binding global-warming accord is out of reach at next month's climate summit in Copenhagen.
With today's briefing preceding the Copenhagen conference, "we are hopeful that meeting will embody some of the concerns about health", Dr Wilson said.
Climate change is making parts of the United States warmer, raising the risk of kidney stones because of low urine volume linked to heat exposure, according to a study cited by the Harvard centre.
The portion of the US population in high-risk zones for kidney stones will grow from 40 per cent in 2000 to 56 per cent by 2050, and to 70 per cent by 2095, a 2008 study by the University of Texas found.
Costs would increase from $US900 million ($982 million) to $1.3 billion a year, 25 per cent more than current expenditures.
Warmer temperatures in New Mexico are contributing to the proliferation of mountain pine beetles, a pest that has killed 2.6million hectares of trees in the US, setting the stage for wildfires, according to the Harvard findings. Fires release air pollutants and cancer-causing chemicals, raising the risk of respiratory illness and lung disease.
Climate change also increases air pollutants such as ozone and sulphur dioxide, raising the risk of asthma, especially in children, said Jerome Paulson, of the Child Health Advocacy Institute in Washington.

The Harvard centre also found climate change will increase deaths from heatwaves, raise the incidence of waterborne diseases and spread afflictions such as Lyme disease and malaria.

Dislocation and job losses caused by changing climate might contribute to depression and anxiety disorders.

Tick picture from http://www.hhmi.org/news/fikrig20091120.html

Australian Lyme in the News - Nov 2009

COFFS COAST MUM BATTLES LYME DISEASE
Graeme Singleton, 26 Nov, 2009 quoted direct from the Coffs Coast Independent

TICKED OFF ... Natalie Young (standing) said she was often covered with ticks during her working day as a conservation officer, but never realised they could infect her with Lyme Disease. She now wants others who work in the bush and on farms to be aware of the dangers posed by ticks.

NATALIE Young knows far more about Lyme Disease than she ever wanted to.

The Glenreagh mum was diagnosed with the chronic tick-borne infection earlier this year, but not before it had taken a stronghold in her body and turned her life upside down.
“You can’t believe what its like to live with Lyme Disease,” Natalie said.

“I’m forever tired and in constant pain. My muscles and nerves ache and I get migraines all the time.

“I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”
Natalie first went to her doctor in January this year.
The 33-year-old was employed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service as a conservation officer, but now doubts whether she will ever work again.

“My hands and knees were aching, I was constantly fatigued, I had breathing difficulties because my throat was in spasms,” Natalie said. “One day my arm actually seized up for a couple of hours.”

Initially Natalie thought her illness was related to the Ross River Fever condition she’d earlier been diagnosed with, but after that along with heart disease, lupus, chronic arthritis, fibromyalgia and even multiple schlerosis had been ruled out, she pursued the possibility that ticks could have been responsible.

“I remember different times when I came home from working in the bush covered in ticks,” Natalie said.
“Once I had more than 100 ticks on me. I had to get a friend to pull them out of my back.”

Her diagnosis with Lyme disease came in late March after she had consulted a GP in Laurieton and had a series of blood tests.
They returned mixed results before positive antibody results from laboratories in Germany, The Untied States and Sydney.
Compounding the many challenges she faced was the fact that health authorities do not acknowledge the presence of Lyme Disease in Australia.

“It is a big problem in America and elsewhere in the world, but apparently not here,” Natalie’s husband Steve said.
“The authorities are only too happy to warn about the dangers posed by ticks to pets and livestock, but for some reason they won’t accept Lyme Disease occurs here.
Steve said if health authorities acknowledged that Lyme Disease exists in Australia, Natalie may have been diagnosed sooner.
“As with most diseases, early diagnosis enables more effective treatment,” Steve said.
”It has devastated her.
“I doubt whether she’ll ever be able to work again. I can now only hope that she can escape the constant pain she is in.”
Natalie is surprisingly more upbeat.
“My doctor is confident that while I will probably never fully recover, it shouldn’t get any worse for me.” she said.
“That I can live with.”

Humans estimated to contract Lyme 1/2 rate of Dogs

Diagram from: http://underourskin.com/blog/

L-form (CWD) Bacteria ABX resistant genes found

Lyme l-form to spirochete morph from: http://www.actionlyme.org/BOGUS_4.gif

BACTERIAL ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE GENES DISCOVERED
By Aleena Lakhanpal - 5 November 09 -Quoted direct from http://media.www.jhunewsletter.com/media/storage/paper932/news/2009/11/05/ScienceTech/Bacterial.Antibiotic.Resistance.Genes.Discovered-3824803.shtml

Antibacterial soap, hand sanitizer and antibiotics are all substances that we use in an attempt to kill bacteria that might make us sick. Whether we are concerned about getting strep throat, bacterial meningitis or something else, these prevention methods can offer protection.
However, some bacteria, such as those that cause Staph and MRSA infections, are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. Since the 1930s, researchers have been aware that bacteria may be able to resist treatment because they can morph into the L-form, or bacteria lacking cell walls.

Until the 1980s, not much else could be known about the L-form, but now, researchers at the Bloomberg School of Public Health have used a wide variety of modern molecular tools to learn more about the origin and biological functions of the L-form bacteria.
Ying Zhang, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at Bloomberg, is the senior author of the study, which was published in PLoS ONE last month.

Not all bacteria can transform into the L-form, but those that can include Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), Treponema pallidum (syphilis), Mycobacterium tuberculosis (tuberculosis), Heliobacter pylori (stomach ulcers and cancer), Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease) and Escherichia coli (food poisoning). Zhang's team used E. coli to create a culture of L-form bacteria.

Although it had been difficult to culture L-form bacteria before, Zhang and his team created a new method that more closely simulated the in vivo conditions in which these bacteria form.
"The presence of antibiotic stress is cell wall inhibiting, like penicillin," Zhang said. To prevent the cells from bursting because of this increased stress, Zhang's team added sucrose to the cell media.
This culture represented the mechanism that occurs in the body. "L forms are formed in response to stress," Zhang said. "They have a different mode of survival and replication from classical bacteria." The cell wall-deficient bacteria cluster together in the shape of a fried egg rather than the smooth, homogeneous appearance of wild-type bacteria cultures.

Not only are L-form bacteria difficult to culture and therefore study, but this "fried egg" cluster is part of what makes the L-form bacteria resistant to antibiotics, in addition to the fact that they do not have cell walls for commonly used antibiotics to disintegrate.

Once Zhang and his team were able to successfully culture L-form E. coli, they screened for and identified mutants that fail to grow at the L-form. From these mutants, they were able to discover a series of genes that were linked with the inability to grow in the L-form.
"These fall into four to five different categories involving extracellular matrix synthesis, membrane proteins, membrane biogenesis, DNA repair as well as iron metabolism and energy metabolism," Zhang said.
Their identification of these genes and their effect on L-form bacterial expression is a resounding discovery because it was impossible to do before, what with the difficulty of culturing the L-forms of various bacteria. Zhang noted, however, that although his team managed to create and study a culture of L-form bacteria, their study cannot be universal.
"What we can culture is only a small percentage - probably less than 1 percent - of all bacteria on earth," Zhang said.
"They exist in nature and grow easily, but we're limited to what we can grow and the form of bacteria that can grow. Bacteria can grow a variety of different forms even for the same species, and can change forms under different conditions. L-forms are one example of changing under antibiotic stress."

These L-forms of various bacteria may be the underlying reason for chronic resistant and recurring diseases, such as sarcoidosis, various forms of inflammatory bowel diseases and rheumatoid arthritis. Zhang is confident that there will be many practical applications of this discovery.

"It is possible, with our discovery of the L-form genes to develop new antibiotics and more effective ones that can be used with current ones as well as new vaccines to . . . allow these forms to be eliminated by the immune system," he said."

Nanoparticles cause damage despite Blood Brain Barrier

Nanoparticle coupled synthesis & self-assembly vs "Rouleaux" Red blood cell pattern

Transcript directly quoted 6 November 2009 from ABC News Website

MORE EVIDENCE NANOPARTICLED DAMAGE DNA

Nanoparticles can be found in common household items including sunscreen and cosmetics. (7.30 Report)
Researchers in the United Kingdom have found some nanoparticles - which can be found in common household items - can damage DNA without even penetrating the cells.

They found the nanoparticles can indirectly damage DNA inside cells by transmitting signals through a protective barrier of human tissue.

The stunning discovery adds to a growing body of research highlighting proven and potential health hazards from the rapidly expanding universe of engineered objects measured in billionths of a metre.
Nanoscale products already widely in use range from cosmetics to household cleaning products and sporting goods.
But the new findings, reported in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, could also point to new ways in which nanotherapies might zero in on disease-causing tumours, say researchers.

They could even shed light on how poorly understood pathogens penetrate into human organs.

In laboratory experiments, scientists led by Dr Charles Case of Southmead Hospital in Bristol, grew a multi-layer 'barrier' of human cells to mimic specialised protective tissues found in the body.
For example one such barrier separates blood from the brain.
Underneath this layer, three-to-four cells thick, they placed human fibroblast cells which play a key role in the formation of connective and scar tissue.
And on top they put nanoscale particles of cobalt-chromium, an alloy that has long been used in the making of hip-and-knee-replacement joints, and more recently in drug-delivery mechanisms used inside arteries.

'As if it weren't there'

Earlier studies had shown that direct exposure to large quantities of the alloy could severely damage DNA is some cells and the researchers wanted to find out how well the laboratory grown barrier would protect the fibroblast cells below.
"We never imagined that it wouldn't," said Dr Case.

"But to our great surprise, not only did we see damage on the other side of the barrier, we saw as much damage as if we had not had a barrier at all."

At first, the researchers speculated that the tiny particles, barely 30 billionth of a metre in diameter, had slipped through microscopic cracks in the cellular blockade.
But there was no sign of the alloy on the other side and when the experiment was repeated with far larger particles, the result was essentially the same.

"We could only conclude that the DNA damage occurred after indirect exposure depending on a process of signalling between cells rather than the passage of metal through the barrier," said Dr Gevdeep Bhabra, a surgeon at Southmead and co-author of the study.
Professor Thomas Faunce from the Australian National University in Canberra says the study is significant.
"Nano-toxicological research has focused on looking at what happens if we put nanoparticles inside these type of cells," said Professor Faunce.

"What [this latest research is] saying is once nanoparticles are in the body they have a capacity to cause toxocological effects at a distance."

Previously, Professor Faunce has expressed concern regarding the over-use of nanoparticles in products such as nano-silver bandages and undergarments.
He says in light of this recent report any future investigation into the use of nanoparticles and their associated levels of toxicity may need to be rethought.
His views were echoed by the researchers themselves and experts not involved in the study.
"What it tells me is that the precaution with which some scientists and regulators say we should proceed is the right way to go," said Professor Vyvyan Howard, a pathologist at the University of Ulster who founded the Journal of Nanotoxicology.

Prion diseases

But the newly uncovered mechanism holds promise too.
"The first exciting question is, can we deliver novel therapies across barriers without having to cross them?" said Professor Ashley Blom, an orthopaedic surgeon and researcher at the University of Bristol.

"There are also implications as to how nanoparticles that we all have in our bodies might act across membranes - small particles like prions and viruses may use some of these mechanisms.

"This opens up a whole new field of research."
Prion diseases occur when a mutated form of the prion protein runs amok, destroying brain cells.

Testing

Professor Howard says when considering the safety of nanoparticles, one must distinguish between medical and broader industrial applications.
New drugs are carefully tested, reducing the chances of widespread harm. And even if nanodelivery and imaging systems turn out not to be risk-free, that does not necessarily mean they should not be used.
"Depending on the kind of disease you have, you will accept some very nasty therapies," he said. For example a chemotherapy for cancer.
"But there is a world of difference between accepting a therapy under informed consent and involuntary exposure."
He pointed out most industrial uses are not regulated at all."

Quoted from ABC Website:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/06/2735612.htm?section=justin

Pathology picture from: http://www.sheerorganics.net/Sheerprevention/Blood%20Test%20without%20Green8.png

Nanoparticle picture from: http://www.nanopicoftheday.org/2004pics/May2004/NPChains.htm

Australian Strongyloides parasite parallels to Lyme

Cartoon from site: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/77/203046826_96475380c0_o.gif

An online BLOG site (5 Aug 2008) by U.S. Doctor known as "LymeMD" confirms that "...doctors are afraid to treat this disease appropriately." He recently (11 October, 2009) described how patients are suffering from LYME DISEASE and are being given inadequate antibiotic therapy (if diagnosed) as per current IDSA Treatment Guidelines with devastating consequences:


THREE WEEKS OF DOXYCYCLINE

"Childhood friend's daughter in ICU for two weeks with-- Lyme disease---It is one thing after the next."
Keith Olbermann on health care.
THREE WEEKS OF DOXYCYCLINE.
"I just saved your life (diagnosing Lyme disease in friend's wife)." Larry David.
THREE WEEKS OF DOXYCYCLINE.
"I heard you never get over Lyme disease; I have a friend in a wheel chair; so many people are so sick, its a very scary disease." A patient.
THREE WEEKS OF DOXYCYCLINE.
"I used to function at a high level (computer engineer), now I can no longer do my job" A patient.
THREE WEEKS OF DOXYCYCLINE.
"I have been to 40 doctors. No one ever took me seriously--thank God you are listening to me."
THREE WEEKS OF DOXYCYCLINE.
" I would like to help you--but we have a two tier test--you never had a rash--NIH studies--
IDSA recommendations--and CDC--I can't treat you I might get in trouble--those ILADS, LLMDS are--I don't know, out there--you don't want to miss another "real" diagnosis like fibromyalgia or depression."
THREE WEEKS OF DOXYCYCLINE."

DOCTORS 'INTERFERED WITH' OVER PARASITE TREATMENT
By Katrina Bolton
Posted Tue Oct 13, 2009 10:30am AEDT

Dangerous parasite rife in NT

"It's an easy enough test ... but I was told not to do that too often" ... Dr Len van Ingen.
Two doctors say the Northern Territory health department stopped them from treating people who tested positive to a parasite that can breed in the body indefinitely.
One doctor, who asked not to be named, says their clinic was told it could no longer prescribe the drug for treating strongyloides.
Another doctor, Len van Ingen, who used to be the medical superintendent at Gove Hospital, says he was told he could not test people for the parasite unless they were already clearly sick.
He says he felt his professional judgement was interfered with.
"It's an easy enough test to check for strongyloides but I was told not to do that too often," he said.
"Basically the line was there are other more significant diseases that they want to concentrate on."
He says he decided to start actively testing people for strongyloides because of the sheer number of people who seemed to be sick with with it.
"[They had] symptoms of unexplained cough, abdominal pain or general ill health," he said.
When he tested them, more than 50 percent of people returned positive samples and when he treated them, he says the community became a lot healthier.
He says the department's instructions not to give treatment until people are visibly sick goes against the policy of the federal immigration department.
"I'm aware that if people come in from overseas, like refugees, the public health department specifically looks for infestation with strongyloides and treats them," he said.
"This of course is a totally different situation in the Northern Territory where they [do] not look and [do] not treat if they don't have to."
The health department has issued a statement saying that people judged to be ill with strongyloides are given the appropriate treatment, and cost is not a factor.

Quoted direct from ABC Website: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/13/2712432.htm?section=justin

DEADLY PARASITE 'HYPE'BEMUSES AMA
By Gina Marich

Posted Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:43am AEDT
Updated Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:48am AEDT
Strongyloides parasite
'Silent killer' ... the Strongyloides parasite as seen through a microscope. (ABC TV)

The Australian Medical Association says the issue of a deadly parasite common in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities has been blown out of proportion.
Strongyloides is a small parasitic worm that burrows under people's skin and into the heart, lungs and gut and can cause serious illness or death.
Doctors and Aboriginal groups have raised concerns that the parasite is being ignored.
But the AMA's Northern Territory president, Dr Paul Bauert, says medical professionals have been aware of the parasite for a long time now and routinely treat people who have it.
"People who have been here a long time who are aware of the parasite and have been not only treating the parasite but using prophylactic medications to prevent infection are a little bit bemused by all the hype about it at the moment because we are aware of it, we do treat it," he said.

Quoted direct from ABC Website: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/12/2711241.htm

HEALTH DEPT WARNED TO TAKE DEADLY PARASITE SERIOUSLY

Posted Sun Oct 11, 2009 10:08am AEDT
Updated Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:24am AEDT
Strongyloides parasite

Richard Trudgen says the parasite is common among Indigenous people living in the Territory, but many do not realise they have it. (ABC TV)
The Aboriginal Resource and Development Service in the Northern Territory says a deadly parasite is going undetected, partly because Territory Heath Department lab technicians do not want to carry out the test.
Strongyloides is a small parasitic worm that burrows under people's skin and moves into the heart, lungs and gut.
The service's Richard Trudgen says the parasite is common among Indigenous people living in the Territory, but many do not realise they have it because there is no routine testing.
He says his organisation has been lobbying the Territory Government to do something about it for many years, to no effect.
"We're asking the professionals in the Health Department to take strongyloides seriously, to do exactly what they would do if this was a disease in the northern suburbs of Darwin," he said.
"Aboriginal citizens are sick of being sick, and they're sick of dying."
Mr Trudgen says the Health Department refuses to take the issue seriously.
"Blood tests will show you a positive reading or a semi-positive and there's all sorts of arguments that that's not conclusive, but as far as I'm concerned if someone comes back with a positive blood test or any elevated antibody test you can go on and test faeces and all that but that person should just be treated," he said.
"We know that it is affecting people in central Australia and is in Alice Springs and so on.
"We've also heard that tourists now coming to the Northern Territory have contracted it and it'll probably become an issue then soon as we say that.
"But until it's a notifiable disease also we don't know just how many people are dying of this disease."
The Territory Health Department says it is waiting on federal funding to do a pilot screening program.
The department says it is in the process of changing its guidelines, and that other diseases are more pressing.

Quoted direct from ABC Website: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/11/2710662.htm

DOCTORS CONCERNED OVER KILLER PARASITE

By Katrina Bolton
Posted Sat Oct 10, 2009 6:00am AEDT
Updated Sat Oct 10, 2009 9:16am AEDT
Strongyloides parasite
'Silent killer' ... the Strongyloides parasite as seen through a microscope. (ABC TV)

Doctors are alarmed about a "silent killer" infecting people in Australia's north amid claims authorities are failing to take the threat seriously.
Strongyloides is a parasite that crawls in through intact skin and breeds in the body indefinitely.
The available evidence suggests more than a third of people in some remote Northern Territory communities have it.
It makes people sick, and if they are given the wrong drugs it can be fatal.
The Immigration Department says it tests refugees and humanitarian migrants before and after they come to Australia, and if they test positive, they are treated.
But the current manual the Northern Territory Health Department gives doctors says to treat people with the parasite once they show symptoms.
It is advice that goes against instructions given in the medical textbook Harrison's, which says "even in the asymptomatic state" it must be treated because of the potential for fatal "hyperinfection".
The territory's guidelines are in the process of being changed, but Professor Rick Speare from James Cook University feels the lack of action on strongyloides amounts to institutional racism.
"I think that would be quite hard to defend against to say there hasn't been," he said.
"The evidence is there."

Silent killer

Elcho Island elder Djiniyini Gondarra says he was hospitalised several times before doctors tested for strongyloides.
"This is another disease, a silent killer that is happening now," he said.
He later found two other members of his family were infected.
"What's wrong with us that this is not being really seen seriously?"
The territory's Health Department believes other diseases are more important, and that limited health dollars are better spent elsewhere.
"There are other, more important priorities," the Health Department's Dr Peter Markey said.
"There's diabetes, there's heart disease, there's rheumatic heart disease which kills people."
Blood tests from government clinics do not routinely test for strongyloides, and post mortems do not either.
Deaths associated with the disease have been documented in Central Australia.

Burrows through skin

Dr Wendy Page who has worked in communities for years says there is a culture within the department of "don't look, don't find".
Data she has collected at the Miwatj Health Clinic at Nhulunbuy suggests the prevalence is near 40 per cent.
Strongyloides travels in faeces and in the soil or grass where sanitation is bad.
It burrows through intact skin and crawls up into the heart and lungs, before being coughed and swallowed into the gut, where it breeds indefinitely.
One Australian study tracked returned prisoners of war, and found they were still carrying strongyloides 35 years later.
Medical texts list symptoms from rashes to abdominal pain or breathing difficulties, and say if people with strongyloides are given immuno suppressive drugs, it can be fatal.
West Australian pathologist Miles Beaman has seen cases of grey nomads bringing strongyloides back from their travels in the territory and it going undiagnosed.
"Some of those patients have even seen gastrointestinal specialists and still the diagnosis hadn't been made," he said.
The manual the territory government gives doctors spells out the hope that strongyloides will die out "with improving socioeconomic status, as the environmental reservoir diminishes and the infected population ages and dies".

Coordinated campaign

Other doctors suggest that is not going to happen anytime soon, and that a coordinated campaign would be needed to rid the communities of the parasite.
Health Minister Kon Vatskalis believes a special education campaign is not needed because general hygiene campaigns should get the necessary message across.
"We continue to run campaigns about hygiene, washing hands, washing vegetables, don't let dogs come into the houses," he said.
The Government wants to take part in a trial in conjunction with the Menzies School of Health Research that would do mass screening and treatment at one community on Elcho Island.
It has applied for but is yet to secure federal funding.
Mr Vatskalis says if the funding application is not successful, he will consider helping pay from it from territory funds.
But sufferers like Djiniyini Gondarra say the disease needs to be made notifiable and routinely tested for.
"Strongyloides is serious," he said. "And it's not been thought about, not been seriously taken."

Fellow sufferer Nancy Bukalatjpi puts it in just three words: "Help us, please."

Quoted direct from ABC Website: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/10/2710313.htm

Swine Flu Perspective on a Hidden Lyme Pandemic

[LYME DISEASE]is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the United State making it more prevalent than AIDS, yet is it also one of the most widely misdiagnosed. Those suffering from Lyme disease are often misdiagnosed with maladies ranging from chronic fatigue syndrome to multiple sclerosis to Lou Gehrig's Disease."
Except from an article that quoted the 'Under Our Skin' Documentary

"W Lee Cowden, M.D., of Richardson, Texas, a world-renowned consultant and integrative medicine educator; states that "There are very few symptoms where you shouldn't consider Lyme, especially given that
A QUARTER OF THE U.S. POPULATION
may be affected. More than 50% of chronically ill people may have Lyme contributing to their condition." Dr. Whitaker, who specializes in advanced testing methods for Lyme, suspects that the great majority of people in the U.S. are infected with Bb because the hundreds of tests she performs every year now invariably come out positive.

All the other clinicians with whom the authors spoke agreed that Lyme has reached epidemic proportions. How is this possible? Obviously 25% of Americans haven't been bitten by one of a select few species of ticks.

THE ANSWER IS THAT LYME IS NOT TRANSMITTED JUST BY TICKS.

"Of the more than 5,000 children I've treated, 240 have been born with the disease," says Dr. Jones, who specializes in Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. "Twelve children who've been breast-fed have subsequently developed Lyme. Bb can be transmitted transplacentally, even with in vitro fertilization; I've seen eight children infected in this way. People from Asia who come to me with the classic Lyme rash have been infected by fleas and gnats."

Gregory Bach, D.O., presented a study on transmission via semen at the American Psychiatric Association meeting in November 2000. He confirmed Bb DNA in semen using the PCR test (Polymerase Chain Reaction). Dr. Bach calls Bb "a brother" to the syphilis spirochete because of their genetic similarities. For that reason, when he treats a Lyme patient in a relationship, he often treats the spouse; otherwise, he says, they can just pass the Bb back and forth, reinfecting each other.

Dr. Tang adds other avenues of infection: "Transmission may also occur via blood transfusion and through the bite of mosquitoes or other insects." Dr. Cowden contends that unpasteurized goat or cow milk can infect a person with Bb."

Table from: http://www.ilads.org/files/harvey.pdf
Representative Diagram at top from: http://pharmagossip.blogspot.com/
Quoted Study Extraction from: http://www.avonhistory.org/bug/l13.htm

Spiroplasma - Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Australia

Look familiar? Sounds alot like spirochete + mycoplasma. These Spiroplasma travel in the same spiral drilling motion as spirochetes however hide their protein (identifing markers) from immune system etc by essentially turning inside out. Lyme Borellia has been shown to turn itself inside out and form spheroplast or cystic form in a hostile environment - immune or antibiotics etc.

These invasive pathogens are so dangerous that surgical equipment standard sterilization doesn't work so notification must be provided. They have not proved blood transfusion transmission yet...though infection has been confirmed from organ transplant studies.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (looks like evolved lyme to me...and it comes from arthropod (incl ticks), insects and vertebrates, and seems to have similar vector life cycle patterns from what I gather. The 2009 Australian Health Report has implemented a strategy to help monitor this disease:

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare disease of the central nervous system, which results in death after a relatively rapid course of muscle weakness and dementia. There is no definitive diagnostic test and no known cure.

CJD occurs sporadically in the community with an incidence of one case per million population per year and may have a symptom free incubation period of more than 30 years. CJD is also known to have been transmitted as a result of certain medical interventions, such as human pituitary hormone treatment. This iatrogenic form is similar clinically to sporadically occurring CJD. The symptom free incubation period of this form of CJD ranges from 4 to 30 years with an average of 15 years based on international experience...

For more info visit: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-phi-index.htm


Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs, also known as prion diseases) are a group of progressive conditions that affect the brain and nervous system of many animals, including humans. According to the most widespread hypothesis they are transmitted by prions, though some other data suggest an involvement of a Spiroplasma infection.[1] Mental and physical abilities deteriorate and myriad tiny holes appear in the cortex causing it to appear like a sponge (hence 'spongiform') when brain tissue obtained at autopsy is examined under a microscope. The disorders cause impairment of brain function, including memory changes, personality changes and problems with movement that worsen over time. Prion diseases of humans include classic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (a human disorder related to mad cow disease), Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome, fatal familial insomnia and kuru. These conditions form a spectrum of diseases with overlapping signs and symptoms..."