0 Freedom Of Information Request On Vancouver Complex Chronic Disease Clinic

The Vancouver Sun recently reported on the results of a freedom of information request on the upcoming Complex Chronic Disease clinic in Vancouver, Canada. Gwen Barlee, Lyme disease advocate, was disappointed with the results of her request, saying that she thought "the government appears to be dropping the ball again on taking a proactive approach to managing, diagnosing and treating Lyme disease in British Columbia." Both pros and cons of the clinic are examined in this article. Read More Here: http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2011/12/28/freedom-of-information-request-yields-info-about-lyme-other-chronic-diseases-clinic-opening-at-bc-womens-hospital/ This...

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0 Wishing You Peace This Holiday Season

Happy Solstice, Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to all observing. Peace on earth for everyone from Camp Other Blog....

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0 Science Article: Oral Bacteria Opens Door To Allow Pathogens In

In today's Science Daily, there is an article on a study showing how one specific oral bacteria, Fusobacterium nucleatum, can provide a gateway for other bacteria to enter human blood vessels and make people sick. READ MORE Here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111215113521.htm Original Source: Yann Fardini, Xiaowei Wang, Stéphanie Témoin, Stanley Nithianantham, David Lee, Menachem Shoham, Yiping W. Han. Fusobacterium nucleatum adhesin FadA binds vascular endothelial cadherin and alters endothelial integrity. Molecular Microbiology,...

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0 New Ehrlichiosis Strain Causing Disease In Sweden

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy have discovered a brand new tick-borne infection. Since the discovery, eight cases have been described around the world, three of them in the Gothenburg area, Sweden. The disease-causing agent is bacteria known as Neoehrlichia mikurensis. This bacterium was identified for the first time in Japan in 2004 in rats and ticks but had never before been seen in Sweden in ticks, rodents or humans. One notable symptom of the disease - alongside typical tickborne infection symptoms such...

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0 Comments On 2011 Lyme and TBD Conference Summaries

I have a few comments to make as they come up on October's 2011 conference. I may add and repost to this entry a few times - stay tuned. 1) I looked at this part of the summary on Dr. Reinhard K. Straubinger's talk on “Canine and Equine Lyme Borreliosis” focused on Lyme borreliosis in animals, especially in dogs and horses: "The highly variable surface protein VlsE is, according to current knowledge, exclusively expressed in the mammalian host. The invariable region IR6, and even a shorter peptide sequence of IR6 called C6 were found having...

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0 Review Of The 2011 Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases National Conference

In October 2011, a national conference on Lyme and tick-borne diseases was held in Philadelphia by Columbia University and the Lyme Disease Association. Here is a brief overview of the topics presented: Dr. J. William Costerton’s riveting talk on “The Role of Biofilms in Chronic Bacterial Infections” reviewed the history of the discovery of biofilms, demonstrating that these biofilms enable micro-organisms to resist host defenses and antibiotics, enabling infections to become chronic. Dr. Eva Sapi’s talk on “Killing Borrelia – an impossible...

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2 News: Substantial Increase In Tick Activity Concerns Canadian Officials

Good news from Canada about increasing Lyme disease awareness: The Kingston Whig Standard newspaper has written about the record number of ticks residents sent into the health unit for Lyme disease testing and the number of ticks found positive so far. Excerpt: "Following a substantial increase in the number of ticks submitted for testing this year, officials with the local health unit hope to draw a bullseye around the issue of Lyme disease in order to prevent a rash of new cases in 2012. Joan Mays, manager of health protection for the Leeds,...

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0 News: Judy Mikovits To Be Released On Bail

The latest report on the Mikovits case comes from the AAAS Science Insider: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/11/inmate-mikovits-meets-judge.html?ref=ra Regarding the outcome of today's proceedings, the judge granted a request for a continuance on the extradition demand and asked Mikovits to return on the 19th of December. Mikovits, who has denied wrongdoing through lawyers handling her civil suit, posted bail shortly after the hearing and has been expected to be released this evening. More details on the case and discussion of...

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0 Article: The Mouse Trap: How One Rodent Rules The Lab

Slate recently posted a three part series on the use of mice in biomedical research and how that use has helped as well as hindered drug development and scientific understanding of human illness. This three part series kicks off with "The Mouse Trap: the dangers of using one lab animal to study every disease", which examines the rise in the use of the murine (mouse) model  to test new pharmaceuticals and get a better understanding of human processes in illness. We also learn that this model - useful as it has been - has its drawbacks.  Mark...

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0 News: Judy Mikovits, CFS Researcher, Has Been Arrested

While not directly about Lyme disease, any news about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) can be notable to the Lyme disease community as some patients have been diagnosed with CFS and any research on persisting fatigue and its cause has been of interest. This is big news. While all the specifics behind the charges are unknown at this time, Retraction Watch just published that Judy Mikovits, a researcher involved in the XMRV controversy, has had a warrant out for her arrest for felony charges and was arrested in Ventura County, California, yesterday. More...

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5 News: Infected Ticks Found In New Brunswick

Dear Canadian doctors: Yes, Virginia, there IS Lyme disease in Canada. Please step up to the plate and diagnose and treat the growing number of Canadians with Lyme disease. Thank you... Deer ticks found on Grand Manan The provincial Health Department recently identified a breeding population of blacklegged ticks, properly Ixodes scapularis, sometimes called deer ticks, infected with Lyme disease at North Head, Grand Manan. "We only confirmed that in the last week or so," New Brunswick's Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eilish Cleary said...

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2 Article: Anaplasmosis Plus Lyme Disease In Dogs = Sick As Dogs

The West Salem Veterinary Clinic reposted part of an August 2011 article on its site in the La Crosse Tribune in Wisconsin recently. The original article is found here: http://westsalemvetclinic.vetstreet.com/blog/ticks Here are two paragraphs I want share with all dog lovers out there: Anaplasmosis phagocytophilum, previously known as Ehrlichia equi, is very prevalent in this area. It is spread by the same ticks as Lyme Disease and it can be a co-infection (both infections occurring at the same time) with Lyme Disease. Experts at IDEXX Laboratories,...

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0 News: Massachusetts Proposal For Lyme Research Institute Trust Fund

News from The Cambridge Chronicle, where the Beacon Hill Roll Call records the votes of local representatives on seven roll calls and local senators on two roll calls from the week of October 31-November 4. One of this week's proposals is for establishing a special trust fund for Lyme disease research at the Universty of Massachusetts Medical School at Worcester: LYME DISEASE RESEARCH (H 349) - The Higher Education Committee is considering a proposal that would establish a Lyme disease Research Institute Trust Fund to provide grants to the University...

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0 Two Notable Antibiotic Articles - Long-term Effects & Alternatives

H. pylori: Friend or foe? Answer: It depends... I know some of you reading along may have already seen this, but I think it bears mentioning again and also bears mentioning for those who may not have seen it: The New York Times recently published an article on the long-term effects of antibiotic usage, "In Some Cases, Even Bad Bacteria May Be Good". After reading the above link, I found it fascinating and disturbing that antibiotics not only could contribute to obesity - the hypothesis originally being test driven by the writer - but that...

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2 Admin Update: Lyme Disease Awareness and Outreach

There are a lot of ways to spread support for Lyme disease awareness. Some people make web sites, some people make Lyme disease related clothing, some people make bracelets and other jewelry, and then others make the popular Lyme disease support ribbons. Some people hold fundraisers like Lyme walks or benefits at local bars. Here in the virtual world, we can't really give each other tangible items to wear and hold, but we can make representations of them. I've been searching far and wide to find something that would represent my strong desire...

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0 News: Tickborne Disease Outbreak Hits Australia

Brushtail possum While there has been some controversy over the existence of Lyme disease in Australia, there is no debate over the existence of another tickborne illness, Tularemia - also known as rabbit fever caused by the bacteria, Francisella tularensis. There are now two reported cases of Tularemia in residents from Tasmania, though the disease is more common in Asia and the US. Reading about this news originally reminded me of a film I watched a few years ago, Rabbit Proof Fence - and it made me think that more surveillance than ever...

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0 Science Articles: Probiotics As Anti-inflammatories, Bacterial Gene Transfer

Probiotics Effective in Combating Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea, Studies Find; 'Good Bugs' Look Promising as Anti-Inflammatory Agents In four different studies presented at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 76th Annual Scientific meeting in Washington, DC, researchers explored the effectiveness of probiotics for antibiotic-associated diarrhea; as an anti-inflammatory agent for patients with ulcerative colitis, psoriasis and chronic fatigue syndrome; and for people with abdominal discomfort and bloating who have not been diagnosed...

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0 Institute of Medicine Final Report on October 2010 Tickborne Disease Workshop

Back in October 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) held a workshop which was broadcast online live (and remains available at TV worldwide), Critical Needs and Gaps in Understanding: Prevention, Amelioration, and Resolution of Lyme and Other Tick-Borne Diseases: The Short-Term and Long-Term Outcomes. The workshop participants were members of the Institute of Medicine, various researchers, doctors, and members of the Lyme disease patient advocacy community. A preliminary summary report on the workshop was published by the IOM in April 2011....

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6 ILADS 2011 Conference

I was kinda expecting that at some point, this sign would show up on my feed: No Burrascano. Missed part of Maloney. Horowitz was also MIA. Only got to see part of Jones, as I'd already taken a coffee break. Maybe tomorrow will be better if I can haul myself out of bed early on a Saturday... If. More on this event in the future - especially if there is more to see. This work by Camp Other is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Licen...

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0 Stony Brook Young Investigators Series On Lyme Disease

Ixodus ticks that carry B.burgdorferi. Photo Credit: http://www.freewebs.com/ lymeandautism/GF-596-4ticks_cm.jpg Stony Brook University has an online journal of science called The Young Investigators where students from the school write an in-depth article with citations on different topics. Nadya Peresleni, Editor in Chief of the journal and undergraduate class of 2011, wrote a report on Lyme disease that I think is pretty good - it's detailed, touches upon the controversy over treatment in a matter-of-fact manner, describes the immunological...

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0 News: New Molecular Test Could Detect Early Lyme Disease

The Guardian has written about a new molecular test using nanoparticles which was developed by Alessandra Luchini, of George Mason University, to initially detect cancers. The new test is being used in clinical trials to detect early Lyme disease - even if there is no rash present in the infected patient. Excerpt that will be of interest to readers: "Q: In years to come, is this something that could be available in hospitals? That's the hope we have. The first clinical trial is on the detection of Lyme disease. A fraction of patients get...

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0 News: Antibiotic Shortages Affect Patients

This just in from the Internal Medicine website: Antimicrobial Shortages Affect Patient Quality. For those who are treating tickborne illnesses, this excerpt may be particularly of importance to you: "The drugs reported most frequently to be unavailable or in short supply include the intravenous formulation of trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim), amikacin (Amikin), aztreonam (Azactam), foscarnet (Foscavir), and penicillin G." Other drugs are listed as well, of which the shortage will affect many people this flu season as one of them is Tamiflu. (Now...

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0 Where Have All The Sane Lyme Patients Gone?

Here is an exchange I've seen elsewhere on the internet, names removed to place more focus on the content: Do you think that morgellons stuff is a joke? Or lida mattman saying that Lyme can be transmitted by doorknobs and pens? Or that every sample she's ever seen shows Lyme? No, those who put forth these theories are not joking. And no, I do NOT believe these things. And YES, I think they are damaging. there are minions ready to believe anything. This is true --patients who remain ill and find themselves fighting mainstream...

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0 Abstract: European neuroborreliosis: neuropsychological findings 30 months post-treatment.

European neuroborreliosis: neuropsychological findings 30 months post-treatment. Eikeland, R., Ljøstad, U, Mygland, Å., Herlofson, K., Løhaugen, G. C. European Journal of Neurology.1468-1331. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-1331.2011.03563.x Background:  The aim of this study was to compare neuropsychological (NP) functioning in patients with Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB) 30 months after treatment to matched controls. Methods:  We tested 50 patients with LNB and 50 controls with the trail-making test (TMT), Stroop test, digit symbol...

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1 Chalcolithic Iceman Had Lyme Disease Over 5,000 Years Ago

Ötzi, The Iceman, Cometh... Thanks goes out to Joanne, from the Looking At Lyme Disease blog for posting about an article from National Geographic on the Iceman, a mummified man who had died over 5,000 years ago and has been a treasure trove of information for scientists ever since. The original article is found here: Iceman Autopsy - Unfrozen: There was only one way scientists could unlock the mystery of the famous Iceman. Take away his ice. Source Link: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/11/iceman-autopsy/hall-text The entire article...

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0 Reader Mail Bag: What Lyme Disease Research Is Needed?

A reader, Misty, recently commented on my request for topics for discussion this week: "I like all your ideas for topics - and hope you'll be able to continue posting. I love your "blog - it is one of the most sane Lyme sites on the web, if not the most sane and balanced. What I wonder is - do we have enough information and diagnostic tools to be able to design useful studies on Lyme? - we can't tell reliably who has it or doesn't - the manifestations of Lyme in each person can be different and based on complications of co-infections and the...

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