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(A Microbiology Tutorial)
by, Thomas M. Grier
(An excerpt from the Lyme Disease Survival Manual 2000)
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This abstract
showed that under the old criteria, all of 66 pediatric patients with
a history of a tick bite and, Bull’s Eye rash who were symptomatic,
were accepted as positive under the old Western Blot interpretation. Under
the newly proposed criteria only 20 were now considered
positive. That means 46 children who were all symptomatic, would probably
be denied treatment! That’s a success rate of only 31 %.
66 Children with Bull’s Eye rash Old W. Blot Criteria 100 % positive.
New NIH Criteria 31% positive. The number of false positives under both
criteria was ZERO %.
* Note: A misconception about Western Blots is that they have as many false positives as false negatives. This is not true. False positives are rare.
The conclusion of the researchers was: “the proposed Western Blot Reporting Criteria are grossly inadequate, because it excluded 69% of the infected children.” The Accuracy of Laboratories Using the ELISA/EIA Lyme Tests.
We are told by manufactures, health departments, and clinics that the Lyme ELISA tests are good, and that they are useful, but in two blinded studies that tested laboratories accuracy, they failed miserably. In two studies by Lorie Bakken MS/MPH she showed that there was not only inaccuracy and inconsistency between competing laboratories, but also between triple identical samples sent to the same lab. In other words identical samples often resulted in different results! In the latest study by the College of American Pathologists, 516 labs were tested. The overall result was terrible, there were almost equal numbers of false positives as false negatives. Overall the labs were 55 % inaccurate! You are actually better off to flip a coin!
(98, 99) 98- Bakken LL, Callister SM, Wand PJ, Schell RF. Interlaboratory Comparison of Test Results for the Detection of Lyme Disease by 516 Participants in the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene/College of American Pathologists Proficiency Testing Progrm. J Clin Microbiol 1997; Vol 35, No 3:537-543
Repeatedly there have been patients who are seronegative for antibodies, yet culture positive. Despite this our medical community is dependent on these tests and rely upon them as though they were 100 % accurate. No matter how bad the tests are, as long as we have them doctors will use them. This is why doctor Samuel Donta MD asked for a complete ban of the Lyme ELISA test at the 1996 LDF Lyme Conference, at least until the tests could be standardized and made reliably accurate. He found that in his long term treatment study, that some ELISA tests were more than 70 % inaccurate. Yet many doctors continue to rely upon these tests as though they were the last word in diagnosis, and all too often it is.
The worst problem for chronic Lyme patients is that after they are treated with antibiotics, they are told they are cured, even if they have a recurrence of symptoms. There is a persistent dogma in medicine that 28 days of IV antibiotics cures all Lyme Disease. In fact the on going six year old Nantucket Island Lyme Treatment Study, showed IV antibiotics to have the highest relapse rate in late Lyme disease! This was because doctors put too much faith in IV antibiotics, as being so powerful, that they did not follow up IVs with oral antibiotics. The key to treating late Lyme appears to be the length of antibiotic treatment, not the method. If IVs are followed up by six months or more of oral antibiotics, the relapse rate dropped to 13%. (Dr. Leslie Fein MD, MPH, Magnarelli MD, MPH 96 LDF Conference)
I have included in the references, several published studies, case histories and abstracts, that deal with culture positive patients who had been previously treated aggressively with antibiotics, often including Intravenous antibiotics. Most of these cases are patients who are seronegative for any Lyme antibodies, yet are culture positive. If we are repeatedly culturing this bacteria out of patients who have been treated, and who are negative by all other tests, we need to re-think our understanding of this disease! We need to treat symptoms not tests, we need to recognize that while Lyme is a treatable disease, it in some cases appears to be incurable.
I would not like to be the doctor who under treats this disease, now knowing that relapses are potentially more dangerous than treating until the symptoms are gone. (4,6,42,49,67,68,70-96) Too often I have seen the word cured used in Lyme Disease Studies, only to find that the researchers have redefined the word cure to mean seronegative. Seronegativity is not synonymous with cure. The numerous culture positive cases in recent years should have negated that kind of logic years ago, and yet in 1997 researchers are still publishing studies that use antibodies, and PCR as the end point for cure. Its time to ask the patients one simple question: How are you feeling?
So lets say hypothetically you are bit by an infected tick, you get a rash, you get sick, and you have a positive test. So you get 2-4 weeks of antibiotics, and you get better, but then you get sick again. No problem you go back to your doctor and he says “Well, we better give you another Lyme test” and its negative? Why?
Even though you have an active infection, the antibiotics cleared that infection from your blood stream. That is where your immune system is. The rest of the pathogens are hiding from the immune system inside your joints, your tendons, and your brain. Only now you don’t have antibiotics to fight the infection, or any antibodies!
In a study by Dr. Musher MD, he looked at incompletely treated Tertiary Syphilis patients, and compared them to those Tertiary Syphilis patients that never got antibiotics. He found that the incompletely treated group went into dementia faster. Why? Because they had no natural immunity left. Their ability to make sufficient antibody was diminished, because the antibiotics eliminated the stimulus from the blood stream, but the infection was still hidden in the brain! (35,61,62,65,74,83)
page - one - two - three - four - five - six - seven - eight - nine - ten -
* Note: A misconception about Western Blots is that they have as many false positives as false negatives. This is not true. False positives are rare.
The conclusion of the researchers was: “the proposed Western Blot Reporting Criteria are grossly inadequate, because it excluded 69% of the infected children.” The Accuracy of Laboratories Using the ELISA/EIA Lyme Tests.
We are told by manufactures, health departments, and clinics that the Lyme ELISA tests are good, and that they are useful, but in two blinded studies that tested laboratories accuracy, they failed miserably. In two studies by Lorie Bakken MS/MPH she showed that there was not only inaccuracy and inconsistency between competing laboratories, but also between triple identical samples sent to the same lab. In other words identical samples often resulted in different results! In the latest study by the College of American Pathologists, 516 labs were tested. The overall result was terrible, there were almost equal numbers of false positives as false negatives. Overall the labs were 55 % inaccurate! You are actually better off to flip a coin!
(98, 99) 98- Bakken LL, Callister SM, Wand PJ, Schell RF. Interlaboratory Comparison of Test Results for the Detection of Lyme Disease by 516 Participants in the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene/College of American Pathologists Proficiency Testing Progrm. J Clin Microbiol 1997; Vol 35, No 3:537-543
Repeatedly there have been patients who are seronegative for antibodies, yet culture positive. Despite this our medical community is dependent on these tests and rely upon them as though they were 100 % accurate. No matter how bad the tests are, as long as we have them doctors will use them. This is why doctor Samuel Donta MD asked for a complete ban of the Lyme ELISA test at the 1996 LDF Lyme Conference, at least until the tests could be standardized and made reliably accurate. He found that in his long term treatment study, that some ELISA tests were more than 70 % inaccurate. Yet many doctors continue to rely upon these tests as though they were the last word in diagnosis, and all too often it is.
The worst problem for chronic Lyme patients is that after they are treated with antibiotics, they are told they are cured, even if they have a recurrence of symptoms. There is a persistent dogma in medicine that 28 days of IV antibiotics cures all Lyme Disease. In fact the on going six year old Nantucket Island Lyme Treatment Study, showed IV antibiotics to have the highest relapse rate in late Lyme disease! This was because doctors put too much faith in IV antibiotics, as being so powerful, that they did not follow up IVs with oral antibiotics. The key to treating late Lyme appears to be the length of antibiotic treatment, not the method. If IVs are followed up by six months or more of oral antibiotics, the relapse rate dropped to 13%. (Dr. Leslie Fein MD, MPH, Magnarelli MD, MPH 96 LDF Conference)
I have included in the references, several published studies, case histories and abstracts, that deal with culture positive patients who had been previously treated aggressively with antibiotics, often including Intravenous antibiotics. Most of these cases are patients who are seronegative for any Lyme antibodies, yet are culture positive. If we are repeatedly culturing this bacteria out of patients who have been treated, and who are negative by all other tests, we need to re-think our understanding of this disease! We need to treat symptoms not tests, we need to recognize that while Lyme is a treatable disease, it in some cases appears to be incurable.
I would not like to be the doctor who under treats this disease, now knowing that relapses are potentially more dangerous than treating until the symptoms are gone. (4,6,42,49,67,68,70-96) Too often I have seen the word cured used in Lyme Disease Studies, only to find that the researchers have redefined the word cure to mean seronegative. Seronegativity is not synonymous with cure. The numerous culture positive cases in recent years should have negated that kind of logic years ago, and yet in 1997 researchers are still publishing studies that use antibodies, and PCR as the end point for cure. Its time to ask the patients one simple question: How are you feeling?
So lets say hypothetically you are bit by an infected tick, you get a rash, you get sick, and you have a positive test. So you get 2-4 weeks of antibiotics, and you get better, but then you get sick again. No problem you go back to your doctor and he says “Well, we better give you another Lyme test” and its negative? Why?
Even though you have an active infection, the antibiotics cleared that infection from your blood stream. That is where your immune system is. The rest of the pathogens are hiding from the immune system inside your joints, your tendons, and your brain. Only now you don’t have antibiotics to fight the infection, or any antibodies!
In a study by Dr. Musher MD, he looked at incompletely treated Tertiary Syphilis patients, and compared them to those Tertiary Syphilis patients that never got antibiotics. He found that the incompletely treated group went into dementia faster. Why? Because they had no natural immunity left. Their ability to make sufficient antibody was diminished, because the antibiotics eliminated the stimulus from the blood stream, but the infection was still hidden in the brain! (35,61,62,65,74,83)
page - one - two - three - four - five - six - seven - eight - nine - ten -
Ticks carry more than just
Lyme disease! Including:
0 -Ehrlichia;
o -Bartonella;
0 -Babesia;
o -Q- Fever;
0 -Tularemia;
o -Tick-borne Encephalitis;
0 -Mycoplasma;
o -Relapsing Fever;
0 -Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and others.
Never WAIT and SEE about a tick bite, please! Quickly and properly treated infections are less likely to progress to later stage or chronic disease.
Sometimes tick bites are
mistaken for spider bites!
Some diseases may be spread by animal bites or scratches and from mosquitoes, fleas or lice.
There is still so much to learn about Lyme disease and related infections.
Sometimes Lyme disease and related infectious diseases are undiagnosed for years, even decades!
Watch closely for symptoms after tick bites. Some never see a tick or a bulls-eye rash.
Don't ignore tick-borne disease symptoms!
If you feel sick, ask a doctor!
SYMPTOMS may include:
0 -Tick bites;
o -Fever; Flu symptoms;
0 -All kinds of Rashes;
o -Muscle; Joint; Neck Pain;
0 -Body Aches; Weakness
o -Light /Sound Sensitivity;
0 -Bells Palsy; Nerve pain;
o -Insomnia; Poor memory
0 -Headaches; Numbness;
o -Mood disorders; Confusion;
0 -Extreme Fatigue; Exhaustion
Never let tick-borne diseases progress!
Lyme and associated diseases are often MISTAKEN FOR OTHER ILLNESSES, Including:
0 -Chronic Fatigue;
o -Fibromyalgia;
0 -Hypochondria;
o -Multiple Sclerosis;
0 -Lupus;
o -Rheumatoid Arthritis;
0 -Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS);
o -Alzheimer's and
0 -Parkinson's disease
******************
Don't be fooled about ticks and their diseases.
******************
Directly affecting humankind, worldwide:
W H A T H A P P E N E D
when the U.S. Senate addressed the Centers for Disease Control regarding Lyme disease?
Consult a good doctor!
Visit ILADS, LDF, LymeNet or LDA to find a specialist in your location.
Protect your children and your family.
Learn about ticks and their many diseases.
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TICK
BYTES:
Tick-borne diseases are spreading rapidly
in many countries across the world including,
UK, Scandinavia, Hungary, Scotland, USA,
France, Germany, China, and Australia.
There is NO 100% accurate Lyme disease
TEST available to detect infection or cure.
Ticks can be found in and around
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bird feeders; and deer, mice, squirrel,
and other small animal habitats.
Tick-borne diseases are spreading rapidly
in many countries across the world including,
UK, Scandinavia, Hungary, Scotland, USA,
France, Germany, China, and Australia.
There is NO 100% accurate Lyme disease
TEST available to detect infection or cure.
Ticks can be found in and around
leaf litter; grass; logs; animal fur;
bird feeders; and deer, mice, squirrel,
and other small animal habitats.
How
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Tick-borne diseases can
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organ, and any system
of the body.
Lyme disease and Syphilis are both caused by a type of bacteria called a spirochete.
Tick-borne diseases can KILL!
Ticks travel on mice!
ALWAYS Get Ticks Tested!
Never let tick-borne
infections progress !
Tick-borne diseases can
affect any body part,
organ, and any system
of the body.
Lyme disease and Syphilis are both caused by a type of bacteria called a spirochete.
Tick-borne diseases can KILL!
Ticks travel on mice!
ALWAYS Get Ticks Tested!
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