Posted on 09/20/2011 8:51:39 PM PDT by neverdem
A new tick-borne disease that may be stealthily infecting some Americans has been discovered by Yale researchers working with Russian scientists.
The disease is caused by a spirochete bacterium called Borrelia miyamotoi, which is distantly related to Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete that causes Lyme disease.
B. miyamotoi has been found — albeit relatively rarely — in the same deer tick species that transmit Lyme, and the Yale researchers estimate that perhaps 3,000 Americans a year pick it up from tick bites, compared with about 25,000 who get Lyme disease.
But there is no diagnostic test for it in this country, so it is not yet known whether it has actually made any Americans sick.
The same short course of antibiotics that normally cures Lyme also seems to cure it.
In Russia, where a team in the Siberian city of Yekaterinburg developed a test that can distinguish miyamotoi from other tick-borne spirochetes, it caused higher fevers than Lyme disease typically does. In about 10 percent of cases, the fevers repeatedly disappear and return after a week or two.
The study by the two teams is to be published soon in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. Since the disease was only recently discovered, it is unknown whether it does serious long-term damage, as untreated Lyme disease can.
The Yale medical school researchers — Durland Fish, an entomologist, and Dr. Peter J. Krause, an epidemiologist — have recently won a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the symptoms and develop a rapid diagnostic kit.
Dr. Fish found B. miyamotoi in American ticks 10 years ago, but was repeatedly refused a study grant until the Russians proved it caused illness. “It’s been like pulling teeth,” he said. “Go ask the N.I.H. why.”
The discovery will no doubt add to the controversy...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
So shall this new malady be dubbed Lemon-Lyme disease?
Ping
Humans Infected with Relapsing Fever Spirochete Borrelia miyamotoi, Russia
So there is a diagnostic test somewhere, maybe Russia?
… won a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the symptoms and develop a rapid diagnostic kit
We need to spend tax dollars making our own test. Seems wasteful.
What's a hypochondriac to do?
Maybe they have to culture the bug in special media.
"… won a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the symptoms and develop a rapid diagnostic kit"
We need to spend tax dollars making our own test. Seems wasteful.
Maybe not, the Russkies are not known for being very generous. Maybe their test is too expensive.
Ticks: from Albuquerque to yekaterinburg...
Ticks: from Albuquerque to yekaterinburg...
Lyme is only one of the diseases spread by ticks. The drs around here can’t recognize tick caused diseases and rarely order tests even when the patient tells of tick bites. They say it isn’t part of their new flow-chart diagnostic routine.
But it will be much better under obamacare.......................
From the article linked in comment# 5:
“We used improved antibody and PCRs to compare the relative frequency and clinical manifestations of B. miyamotoi infection with those of B. garinii infection in Russia and B. burgdorferi infection in the United States.”
PCR is polymerase chain reaction, a technique for making more copies of genetic material, DNA & RNA.
In case you missed this...(Thanks, decimon and neverdem for the pings!)
If I had pinged you then you would be welcome. ;-)
Because our government isn't really interested in us being healthy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioN0ehlyyXI&feature=player_embedded
What’s a hypochondriac to do?
If you have a pet or a Viking Kitty, buy a copy of Merck Manual and the kitty will come down with something in every chapter.
Thanks for the ping!
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