Lyme Science Blog

There is increasing evidence of bacterial persistence in microbiology. “Though its applicability to B. burgdorferi has been controversial, persistence is a widely-accepted phenomenon in microbiology which in some instances can have therapeutic implications,” according to Cabello. [1] “While still a matter of dispute, there are numerous reports of antimicrobial treatment unable to completely eliminate B. […]

A team of researchers at Yale School of Medicine describe three premature infants — all in one neonatal intensive care unit — who contracted Babesia from a single 24-year-old blood donor. The report was published in the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Journal. [1] LISTEN TO PODCAST: Three premature babies who contract Babesia from blood transfusions Babesia is a

Alpha Gal is a sugar molecule that can be spread through the bite of a Lone Star tick. Once bitten, a person’s immune system begins making antibodies to a-Gal. Red meat is rife with it. So most patients become aware of the allergy or illness after they eat red meat. In an interview with National Geographic,

Congenital transmission has been described in 7 previous cases, in which the infants presented with fever, anemia, and thrombocytopenia, explains Saetre from Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York. “They all required a blood transfusion.” But these are the first cases, to the authors’ knowledge, in which the mother was diagnosed with

To determine the prevalence of the disease, specifically in Manitoba, Canada, Kadkhoda and his team tested randomly selected blood samples from 250 individuals living in that area, who had suspected or confirmed Lyme disease. Samples had been submitted to the Cadham Provincial Laboratory in Manitoba between 2011 and 2014. The authors found that 10% of

Ticks were collected in 2015 and 2016 by tick dragging at 5 sites in Suffolk County, New York (Southampton, Mannorville, Southold, Islip, and Huntington) and 3 sites in Connecticut (Mansfield in Tolland County and Stamford and Greenwich in Fairfield County). “As expected, B. burgdorferi (Bb) was the most frequently detected agent in ticks from Suffolk

In the International Medical Case Reports Journal, researchers describe a 31-year-old woman with PTLDS “whose pain was refractory to treatment options such as radiofrequency ablation, vitamin infusion therapy, opioid analgesics, and other pharmacotherapies.” [2] Her pain began gradually, 3 years prior and a short time after being diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease, explains Hanna

Bransfield’s colleagues from Howard University, Rush University Medical Center and the University of North Dakota agree with his assessment, stating, “We would like to applaud the author for conducting such an important study by performing a comprehensive assessment of suicide and its association with Lyme-associated diseases (LADs).” [2] In their article “Suicidal and homicidal tendencies

According to investigators, 2 of the 35 Ixodes spp ticks identified tested positive for Bb s.l. [1] The discovery, however, was not unexpected following reports of borreliosis-like disease in Brazil. “During 2009–2016, Brazil registered 4078 suspected cases of borreliosis-like disease, also known as Baggio-Yoshinari syndrome,” states Dall’Agnol from the Instituto de Pesquisas Veterinárias Desidério Finamor

Greenberg’s Letter to the Editor states, “The recently published article by Shapiro et al hoped to be topical in this age of ‘alternative facts’ but fell short, providing mainly biased viewpoints that prevent independent assessment of existing research in chronic Lyme disease. Presenting this conclusion as unquestionable is misleading.” [1] Shapiro and colleagues began their