LDA NEWS & UPDATES
July 31, 2022
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A new study by Richard Horowitz, MD and Phyllis Freeman, MD has been published in Antibiotics that evaluates the efficacy of using short-term, high dose, and pulsed dapsone combination therapy (HDDCT) in the treatment of Chronic Lyme disease/Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS).
This new study builds upon past studies conducted by Dr. Horowitz et al., and included 25 patients with histories of Lyme and other associated co-infections. Read more.
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In the journal, Healthcare, Sarah P. Maxwell, et al., lay out the limited information from public health reports on psychological and neurological symptoms of tick-borne diseases (TBD). "Out of the fifteen neuropsychiatric symptoms reported in the medical literature for common TBDs, headaches and fatigue and/or malaise are the only two symptoms fully recognized by public health officials. Read more.
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*Note: This is a preprint
and is in the process
of being peer-reviewed.
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News Medical covered a study that was recently published in the preprint server Research Square in which researchers report that those who have had a Borrelia burgdorferi infection are at greater risk for severe COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2.*
A Microblot-Array for Borrelia species was used to analyze three patient groups: severe COVID-19 (hospitalized); mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 (treated at home or unaware of infection); and not infected with SARS-CoV-2. Read more.
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A preliminary study published in Healthcare, July 2022, out of the Columbia University Lyme & Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center, (Murray, L.; Fallon, B., et al.) examined the potential benefits of Kundalini Yoga (KY) for post treatment Lyme disease. Eight weeks of a KY group and a control group were assessed for primary outcomes: pain, pain interference, fatigue, and global health, and for secondary outcomes: multisystem burden, mood, sleep, physical & social functioning, cognition, and mindfulness. KY participants reported improved multisystem burden and cognition over the study course. Results of the study support the need for a larger study to determine if KY reduces symptom burden and enhances cognition. Read more.
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Brian Fallon, MD, MPH; Director, Columbia Lyme Research Center |
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A recent study published in Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases compared the efficacy of transmission routes, both horizontal (between life stages of developing ticks) and transovarial (from infected female tick to larvae), of Borrelia miyamotoi from Ixodes scapularis (blacklegged ticks). Results show that although multiple transmission routes contribute to maintenance of B. miyamotoi in the ecosystem, transovarial transmission is likely the primary contributing factor to infected ticks in nature. Read more.
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Blacklegged Deer Tick (Ixodes scapularis), courtesy Jim Occi, PhD; LDA Advisory Board
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An article in Martha Vineyard Times announced that Phase 3 trials for the Valneva-Pfizer Lyme disease vaccine candidate, VLA15, will take place on the Vineyard. This trial phase will investigate the extent to which the vaccine provides protection.
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Michael Loberg, president of Vineyard Medical Care, and a member of the Tisbury board of health, said the plan is to have four customized medical trailers with staff who will administer the vaccine to hundreds of trial participants who are expected to take part. Read more.
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According to an article from The People’s Pharmacy, 7.28.22, by Joe Graedon, pharmacologist, from 2007 through 2016, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identified ‘adulterated dietary supplements’ and sent 700 + warning letters to the manufacturers after detecting undeclared and potentially harmful drugs in the products. The article provides a summary of the problem and reveals that some of the companies have taken no action.
Graedon cites as a basis, a research letter in JAMA, by Cohen, P.A., et al., 7.26.22, where researchers looked at 31 of the reviewed
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products that were subject to the warning letters and found that some are still being sold. Read more.
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Venice Servellita, et al., published the results of a study in Communications Medicine that was designed to address the urgent need for new diagnostic tests with improved sensitivity and specificity for Lyme disease.
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The study carried out transcriptome modeling via RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq), targeted RNA-Seq, and/or machine learning-based designation of 263 peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples collected from 218 study participants. Read more.
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Farm Journal has published an article on the increasing presence of Haemaphysalis longicornis, the Asian longhorned tick (ALT), in the U.S. Since arriving in the country four years ago from Southeast Asia, ALT has now been detected in 17 of the nation’s states.
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This tick was first detected in the U.S. in 2017 on an Icelandic sheep in New Jersey and later verified by the Rutgers Center for Vector Biology. ALT is a difficult species to manage for various reasons, one being that it reproduces by parthenogenesis which means it doesn’t require a mate. Read more.
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Photo: James Occi, PhD., LDA Advisory Board
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The Center for Vector Biology (CVB), part of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, launched New Jersey Ticks 4 Science!, a citizen-led science project supported by the state that asks New Jerseyans to submit tick specimens that they find to help track tick populations and help prevent tick-borne diseases.
Submitted ticks will be tested for pathogens and parasites, and the data will be used to create tick distribution maps. New Jersey residents who submit ticks will be contacted within 48 hours with results of the testing which will include the tick species, and any detectable diseases. Read more.
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Blacklegged Deer Tick (Ixodes scapularis), courtesy Jim Occi, PhD; LDA Advisory Board |
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Lyme patient advocate Monica White, President, Colorado Tick-Borne Disease Awareness Association (pictured), had verbal comments accepted at the July 2020 meeting of the HHS Tick-Borne Diseases Working Group (TBDWG). Here is some of her testimony:
"I’ve lived with chronic Lyme, co-infections & conditions for nearly 16 years due to lack of an early diagnosis & treatment. Formally a fully functional wildlife biologist & wildland firefighter for the US Forest Service, I am functional now only with repeated courses of combined antibiotics, antimicrobial, & immune therapies." Read more.
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A study was published in Brain, which describes the vascular pathology and inflammatory changes, as well as the cellular and humoral immune responses by immunohistochemistry observed in autopsied brains of patients that died suddenly after a short duration of COVID-19 illness. Some patients exhibited minimal respiratory symptoms with the illness but all had evidence of lung involvement at the time of autopsy. Confirmation of COVID-19 was made post mortem. Read more.
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On December 10, 2021, a joint news release by the Winnebago and Northeast Nebraska Public Health Departments was published by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in Nebraska announcing that Borrelia burgdorferi has been detected in the state - in both ticks and in humans - for the first time in Thurston County. Thurston is the fourth county to record blacklegged tick populations in Nebraska. Other counties with recorded populations of blacklegged ticks include Douglas, Sarpy, and Saunders, which were identified in 2019. Read more.
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Western blacklegged tick (Ixodes pacificus); courtesy
of Bob Lane, PhD.
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A study in Journal of Medical Entomology by Christopher D. Paddock, et al., took a deeper look into Rickettsia tillamookensis (Rickettsiales: Rickettsiaceae), a unique Rickettsia species that may possibly be pathogenic and occurs in I. pacificus (Acari: Ixodidae), the Western blacklegged tick. The R. tillamookensis agent was first mentioned in 1978 and has been recently recognized as a novel transitional group agent. Historically, incidence rates and distribution levels of R. tillamookensis have been widely unknown. Read more.
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Nature, (Adamo, S., et al.) July 29, 2022, published an article on the discovery of a new and natural acaracide - a chemical agent that kills ticks. There are synthetic pesticides that can reduce tick numbers but they come with environmental concerns about their effects on beneficial insects. Read more.
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