Anchoring Bias Lyme Disease: When Diagnosis Goes Wrong Anchoring bias Lyme disease errors can occur when clinicians fixate on an initial diagnosis and fail to adequately adjust their thinking as new information emerges. Conversely, this same cognitive bias may also occur when Lyme disease is incorrectly diagnosed and the true underlying illness is missed. Aguirre […]
Getting the diagnosis correct and avoiding ‘anchor bias’ Read More »
The New York Times article, written by Apoorva Mandavilli, the mother of a 9-year-old boy who developed Lyme disease, portrays it as a relatively insignificant disease. It is, as she states, “An easily treated infection with no long-term consequences for children, or even the vast majority of adults.” However, she goes on to cite several
Article outrage: Lyme disease easily treated? Read More »
(Updated: 6/24/19) In the Prevention article, doctors describe how Lyme disease can impact a person’s vocal cords. “Lyme can affect the nerves that are responsible for controlling the muscles in the vocal cords,” says Amesh A. Adalja, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “As a result, someone could technically lose their
Should Lyme disease be added to the causes of vocal cord paralysis? Read More »
Lyme Literate Doctor: What Does It Really Take? So, what does it take to be a Lyme literate doctor? The term is often used—sometimes dismissively—yet rarely defined with clinical precision. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0} argues that “Lyme disease conforms to the same fundamental rules and principles applicable to other infectious diseases.” However, Baker does not define what it
Lyme Literate Doctor: What Does It Really Take? Read More »
Bourbon virus is a rare but deadly tick-borne illness with no approved treatment—until now. In 2017, a 58-year-old woman from Missouri, who initially presented with generalized weakness, myalgia, nausea, and a rash, was diagnosed with the virus. She had been exposed to ticks one week earlier. She died after 23 days in the hospital. What
Bourbon Virus: Potential Treatment Discovered Read More »
Powassan virus in Maine is a growing concern. While the Powassan virus is considered rare, it can be dangerous and is fatal in 10% of the cases. In 2013, a Maine woman died from the disease and as of 2017, 10 residents had been infected. An increase in cases of Powassan virus is particularly alarming,
Prevalence of Borrelia infections and Powassan virus in Maine Read More »
Fatal Lyme Carditis in a Teen: When Lyme Tests Are Negative In the summer of 2013, a young man from Poughkeepsie, NY, died suddenly from what was later confirmed to be fatal Lyme carditis, after suffering flu-like symptoms for nearly three weeks. Initial reports suggested he had died from complications due to the Powassan virus,
Relying on a negative Lyme disease test can prove deadly Read More »
Powassan virus can cause polio-like illness, as this case report demonstrates. While vacationing in rural Newfoundland, the man developed nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, double vision (diplopia) and impaired coordination (ataxia). He was admitted to a hospital where his symptoms worsened. The man became febrile and experienced slurred and slow speech (dysarthria), weakness, and respiratory distress.
Powassan Virus Polio-Like Illness: First Case Report Read More »
To explore the possible association, Žákovská and colleagues from Masaryk University in the Czech Republic conducted a pilot study using an in vitro method. Blood from volunteers was placed on the perimeter of filter paper placed on a Petri dish. Researchers collected 100 nymphal Ixodes ricinus ticks in Ruda, near the Brno Reservoir. These are
What blood type do ticks prefer? Read More »
The working group, led by Dr. John Aucott of Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center, released its first report in 2018. The report included multiple suggestions to address the “serious and growing threat of tick-borne diseases.” Authors of the report called on the government to invest more funds in research, prevention and treatment of
The third rail of Lyme disease: how Borrelia bacteria persist Read More »
