0 Poll: Cause Of Post Treatment Lyme Disease Symptoms

A couple months ago, a non-scientific poll was placed on the site which asked readers to select from a number of choices for what they think causes post treatment Lyme disease symptoms: persistent infection, an autoimmune disorder, b-cell dysfunction, all of the above, and none of the above. During the two months the poll was open, only 18 votes were cast by readers who were given the option to select more than one response.  This time, the poll will be open again with the same question - and in the interest of collecting more votes,...

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11 Rant: Why Dealing With Lyme Disease Drives Me Crazy. (Part 1)

Note: The content that follows is part one of a personal rant and is atypical of most content as well as context covered by this blog.  I've been meaning to write this entry for a long time. Many attempts have been made before this - many which have been scrapped because they neither met my general standards for publication nor managed to convey what I wanted to express.  But I have to get it off my chest because face it, I've been dealing with this condition and its complications for years now and every so once in a while I've...

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5 Two New Hypotheses For Chronic Lyme Disease Symptoms?

There have been a few hypotheses as to why some people experience persisting symptoms after antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease. The predominant hypothesis supported by most of the Lyme disease patient community is that a chronic and persisting infection is caused by spirochetes sequestered in immune privileged sites - possibly dormant at stages - and difficult to beat without long term high doses of antibiotics. The predominant hypothesis supported by the IDSA Lyme disease guidelines panel appears to be divided between one where patients...

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0 Paper: Vector Competence of the Tick Ixodes ricinus for Transmission of Bartonella birtlesii

This paper's abstract was recently posted to Lymenet Europe. For those not familiar with one of the debates over the issue of tickborne coinfections, for some time some researchers have claimed that Bartonella can not be transmitted by ticks - while others claim it can be. Up to this point, Bartonella DNA has been found in ticks, there have been positive PCR results in questing ticks which indicate that the bacterium (or at least its DNA) can survive in the tick through the molt from one life stage to another - and there has been...

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0 US HR Bill 3699 Would Put Tax Payer Funded Science Behind Pay Walls

US HR Bill 3699: I have a stake in this one. Many people have a stake in this one. I think that tax payer funded scientific research should be open access and published online as it has been in PLoS ONE and PubMed. I value high quality peer-reviewed research. It's important. And peer-reviewed journals with high standards and ethics are necessary. Given the amount of work involved, I think it's okay for privately funded research to be behind a pay wall for certain period of time - publishers need to recoup their money for editing and...

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2 Blog Post: A Letter To A Patient With Chronic Disease

This blog post from Dr. Rob Lambert got passed on to me by a friend. Although the blog post is from 2010, the advice given of how to approach a doctor when you have a chronic illness is good advice any time. And with over 250 comments, those who posted and exchanged comments with the good doctor had their own advice and concerns to share.  I highly recommend checking out Dr. Rob's post in Musings Of A Distractible Mind blog: A Letter To A Patient With Chronic Disease: http://distractible.org/?p=3912 You also might want to check...

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0 Dr. Alan MacDonald Discussing Spirochetal Biofilms on LNE

There are a series of discussions going on right now on Lymenet Europe I want to point out. It looks like Dr. Alan Macdonald is having an involved exchange about biofilms in different spirochetes with someone (Henry) who has identified as a microbiologist in previous entries. You might want to check out this thread now: Biofilms of still yet spirochetal type - Treponema: http://www.lymeneteurope.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3607 Also follow the following related threads: Structure of Biofilms of Borrelia Lecture link: http://www.lymeneteurope.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3602 Biofilms...

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4 Admin Update: Comments on Embers Research; Site Changes Coming

Quick update here from Camp Other: First, I've finally written some comments on select excerpts from Embers et al's most recent publication, Persistence of Borrelia burgdorferi in Rhesus Macaques following Antibiotic Treatment of Disseminated Infection. Read more here: http://campother.blogspot.com/2012/01/paper-persistence-of-borrelia.html Second, I'm looking to overhaul the site in the coming days. So expect some changes - possibly major changes - as I want to streamline Camp Other blog. Comments are welcome on the process as it unfolds. Over...

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9 Paper: Persistence of Borrelia burgdorferi in Rhesus Macaques following Antibiotic Treatment of Disseminated Infection

Lymenet Europe scooped this first, and it's important enough that I had to share it here... Persistence of Borrelia burgdorferi in Rhesus Macaques following Antibiotic Treatment of Disseminated Infection (2012) Monica E. Embers, Stephen W. Barthold, Juan T. Borda, Lisa Bowers, Lara Doyle, Emir Hodzic, Mary B. Jacobs, Nicole R. Hasenkampf, Dale S. Martin, Sukanya Narasimhan, Kathrine M. Phillippi-Falkenstein, Jeanette E. Purcell, Marion S. Ratterree, Mario T. Philipp Source Links: http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchArticle?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0029914 PLoS...

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8 What I'd Like To See The IDSA Do For Lyme Patients In 2012

Since Camp Other is not on Facebook and has only had the link and comments list (including deleted comments) passed along, I've decided to post here what my answer is to the IDSA's question, "What would you like to see from your society in the coming year?" I realized in reviewing all the comments I've seen to date that some people are thinking along similar lines as I am. But anyway, here's my proposal: I would like to see the IDSA publish a paper which characterizes all the data on those patients who have stated they have been diagnosed...

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0 IDSA Requesting Feedback On Facebook

Well, the past 24 hours in Facebook Lymeland have certainly been interesting... The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA), of whom a subset are authors of the 2000 and 2006 Lyme Disease Treatment Guidelines, decided to solicit comments from their readers on Facebook at the below link: https://www.facebook.com/IDSociety/posts/357764004239867 The question they posed was simply this: "What would you like to see from your society in the coming year?" And with that question, the floodgates opened, and a rush of disgruntled sick Lyme...

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0 Camp Other Blog: 2011 In Review

A little over a year ago, I set out to write about the Chicago Tribune's article, "Chronic Lyme: A Dubious Diagnosis". My analysis of that article formed the basis for this blog, and from there, I hit the ground running. I didn't know how long I'd write here or how often. Or know whether or not wrestling with chronic illness would interfere with writing. Sometimes it has. Sometimes it hasn't. One year later, and I'm still here. Perhaps a bit battered around the edges. Tired. Exhausted. Overwhelmed, even. Disappointed with the lack of more...

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