Lyme Science Blog

“Recently, sporadic cases of human babesiosis caused by several species of Babesia have been reported in other countries,” write the authors of “Imported Human Babesiosis, Singapore, 2018.” [1] These imported Babesia microti cases include: Babesia microti (Germany, Australia, South Korea) Babesia microti-like (Japan, Taiwan, China) Babesia duncani (United States, Canada) Babesia divergens (Europe) Babesia venatorum […]

In their article, the authors summarized discussions from a public workshop, organized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The workshop, addressing babesia and tick-borne infections entitled “Emerging Tick-Borne Diseases and Blood Safety,” included experts on tick-borne diseases, representatives from blood centers, academia, government agencies, and manufacturers of diagnostic kits. The workshop’s goal was to

Click here to watch a 13 second video of a Lyme patient with a service dog Service dogs, the authors explain, can assist people with functional physical disabilities, such as the visually impaired or individuals who require diabetic or epileptic monitoring. “Mobility service dogs can assist those with physical disabilities by performing tasks such as

Typically, there is a delay in diagnosing dogs with Lyme disease. Based on their review of the literature, the authors summarized several reasons for this: “The first signs of clinical disease in dogs are non-specific, including fever, general malaise, lameness, and swelling of local lymph nodes. These symptoms are likely to be overlooked by dog

“We estimate that migratory birds disperse 50 million to 175 million I. scapularis [deer] ticks across Canada each spring, implicating migratory birds as possibly significant in I. scapularis range expansion in Canada,” wrote Ogen and colleagues¹ in their discussion of birds and Lyme disease. A study by Scott et al., however, finds that migratory songbirds,

Can Bell’s palsy lead to nonflaccid facial palsy in Lyme disease?. “Nonflaccid facial paralysis is a spectrum of hypokinetic and hyperkinetic movement,” wrote Markey and colleagues in the journal Otolaryngology.¹ Hypokinetic movement involves less movement, while hyperkinetic movement involves more movement. “Clinically, this manifests as contraction of the orbicularis oris muscle simultaneous with eye closure

The study, “Patient-reported outcome after treatment for definite Lyme neuroborreliosis” by Eikeland and colleagues, describes 258 patients treated for definite Neurologic Lyme disease. Many of them with chronic neurological lyme disease remained symptomatic an average of 5 years after their initial treatment. According to the authors, a higher proportion of their chronic neurological Lyme disease

The authors highlight the case of a 23-year-old woman who presented to their hospital “with a chief complaint of dyspnea and chest pain and was found to have a third degree AV-block on the electrocardiogram (ECG)” in their discussion of Lyme carditis symptoms. A temporary pacemaker was implanted. And after an exhaustive work-up for other

I can’t trust single-dose doxycycline to prevent Lyme disease. A perspective: A single 200 mg dose of doxycycline administered orally was reported to have been successfully used to prevent the development of erythema migrans at the bite site of Ixodes scapularis ticks,” writes Wormser in an article entitled “Doxycycline for Prevention of Spirochetal Infections-Status Report.”

Understanding how ticks move is important in developing ways to minimize our risk of tick bites and infection. As the authors point out, “less is known about the distances adult ticks are willing and able to travel in the short term and when a host is in close proximity.” The study looked at how adult