Julie Merolla, LDA RI Chapter Chair, Maggie Schaeffer, LDA LymeAid 4 Kids Coordinator at RI School Nurses Conference 2023

More than Sixty RI School Nurses Attended

The Rhode Island Chapter of the Lyme Disease Association recently provided Lyme disease educational information to school nurses. On 3.21.23, the Rhode Island Certified School Nurse Teachers Association presented a conference in Warwick, RI entitled “What Rhode Island School Nurses Should Know about Vector-borne Diseases.” Speakers included Sandi Delak, MEd, BSN, RN, NCSN-E, FNASN and Thomas Mather, PhD, Professor of Entomology at URI and Director of the TickEncounter Resource Center. Read more.

Unsettling Routine Practice Revealed

According to a Propublica, non-profit newsroom, article by Patrick Rucker, Maya Miller and David Armstrong, 3.25.23, Cigna health insurance doctors are routinely rejecting patients’ claims for medical care, without ever opening a patient’s file. With a click of a button, patients’ claims are being deemed as not “medically necessary.” The article states that documents for these claims show that Cigna doctors denied over 300,000 requests over a two month period. Read more.

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A Look at the Dissemination and Persistence of Bb 

International Journal of Molecular Sciences (Corak, N., et al.) 3.15.23, published “Pleomorphic Variants of Borreliella (syn. Borrelia) burgdorferi Express Evolutionary Distinct Transcriptomes.” The study examined the lifecycle of B. burgdorferi, and its development of numerous pleomorphic forms, to gain clarity regarding possible biological and medical importance. Read more.

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Significant Advances 

Journal of Bacteriology (Castro-Padovani, T., et al.) 3.15.23 published “Gac Is a Transcriptional Repressor of the Lyme Disease Spirochete’s OspC Virulence-Associated Surface Protein.” The study investigated the processes by which the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, controls production of OspC. Read more.

Potential for Therapeutics

Nature Immunology (Muri, J., et al) published a letter on 3.6.23 “Autoantibodies against chemokines post-SARS-CoV-2 infection correlate with disease course.” During this investigation, it was discovered that the antibodies against specific chemokine were most common post-COVID-19. These antibodies were also associated with favorable outcome of disease and negatively related with the development of long COVID. Read more.

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Early Lyme Warrior and Advocate: NY Tri-State Area

Who could forget the bright red hair, endearing smile, enthusiasm, and kindheartedness of my dear friend, Janet Jemec? Janet was a dynamo during the early struggles of the tri-state area’s Lyme community and remained active until 12 years ago. 

Janet passed away on February 24, 2023, and the family has requested that donations be made to Lyme Disease Association, Inc. in Janet’s memory. DONATE.

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Lone star ticks, Credit: James Occi, PhD, LDA Scientific & Professional Advisory Board 

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Human Death in Mid-Atlantic

Emerging Infectious Diseases (Liu, S., et al.) 5.23, published “Fatal Case of Heartland Virus Disease Acquired in the Mid-Atlantic Region, United States.” The article describes a reported fatal case of Heartland virus (HRTV) in the Maryland and Virginia region, states that are generally not recognized as having human HRTV disease cases. Read more.

May Provide Considerable Therapeutic Benefits 

International Medical Case Reports Journal (Kinderlehrer D.) 3.3.23, published “The Effectiveness of Microdosed Psilocybin in the Treatment of Neuropsychiatric Lyme Disease: A Case Study.” The report illustrates the case of an immunocompetent male patient with serologically positive neuropsychiatric Lyme disease who had not been tolerating antimicrobial or psychotropic treatments. Read more.

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1st Director, JHU Lyme & TBD Institute

Baltimore Magazine article (Woolever, L.) 3.23, “Game Changer: Nicole Baumgarth was named director of the new Johns Hopkins University’s Lyme & Tickborne Diseases Research and Education Institute.” The Institute hopes to be “the basic arm of research work surrounding tick-borne diseases at Hopkins.” Focus areas included ticks, tick ecology, pathogen, and immune response. Read more.

  LDA ANNOUNCES DUKE LAW AWARD

Duke Law Lyme Disease Advocacy Project 

Lyme Pro Bono Partnership with LDA

   Wins  Duke Law D.O.N.E. Award

for

Great Service to Outside Community for an Organization

Read LDA & Duke U. Law Students Join Forces to Educate on Lyme

The Lyme Disease Association Inc. (LDA) does not charge any membership fees. Most of our

materials are free to download and most of our videos are free on YouTube. Our nationwide

doctor referral system is free to access. Printed brochures can be ordered for the cost of S&H.