LymeSpot - Lyme Disease News & Information

LymeSpot Moving Forward

2006-02-12T12:53:00.000-06:00

LymeSpot has moved to LymeDiseaseNews.com. Thank you all for your support over the last year. I have transferred all the old articles from LymeSpot to the new site. LymeDiseaseNews.com will continue to bring you the most relevant and informative news from the battle against Lyme Disease.

Letter to Eurolyme

2006-02-11T15:03:00.000-06:00

EuroLyme is an Internet patient support group, for sufferers of Lyme Disease and associated diseases. It was founded in 2001 and now has over 1000 members.

Dear Lyme activist,

Lately I have seen some patients who appear to have had the diagnosis of Lyme disease given serious consideration by doctors who perhaps would not previously have given Lyme much attention. If so this is good news.

It seems that in the UK in the NHS some consultants are starting to appreciate Lyme disease for what it is: A poly-symptomatic, relapsing, insidiously progressive and highly unpleasant illness which may be quite common and may be present with otherwise normal blood tests and absent physical abnormalities.

In America last year I had the feeling that many Lyme literate doctors felt that we had turned the corner and at last progress was being made. I hope the same is true here. I think it will only be a matter of time before a doctor is found to be negligent for failing to diagnose Lyme and this will really focus doctors' attention on the condition.

There are many potential obstacles: Even if Lyme is diagnosed there is the problem of appropriate treatment and we do not know what constitutes adequate or appropriate treatment but I believe in the future doctors will have to be more prepared to listen to patients who have relapsed.

On this drab February Monday I hope this message gives some comfort to those who are battling to have this condition recognised and taken seriously.

Doctor David Owen

BSc MB BCh LLM

February 6th, 2006

Dr. David Owen has trained at Ilads (International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society). His private practice is based in Cardiff.

The Trouble With Ticks: A Common Source of Illness

2006-02-10T22:34:00.000-06:00

Medscape
Laurie E Scudder, MS, PNP

Tick-Borne Illness

The continued emphasis on infectious disease at the ACNP meeting continued with a presentation on management of tick-borne illnesses by Melissa Roberts JD, MSN, FNP, a clinical instructor in the Graduate School of Nursing at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

Tick-borne diseases are the most common vector-borne illnesses in the United States. The mechanism of transmission of disease through tick bites is not well understood, though it is speculated that pathogens harbored in the gut of ticks may migrate to their salivary glands during a blood meal and are then transmitted to the host via the bite.

Ticks are ubiquitous in the United States, with multiple tick types, all members of the class Arachnida, responsible for 7 distinct clinical diseases. In the northeastern and middle Atlantic states, the deer tick carries the spirochete that causes Lyme disease. The Rocky Mountain wood tick and the American dog tick, found in both the eastern and western United States, spread Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Ticks are also responsible for 5 other less common, though quite distinct, diseases, including ehrlichiosis, tularemia, Colorado tick fever, tick paralysis, and relapsing fever.

As is the case with mosquito-borne illnesses, the mainstay of therapy for tick-borne illnesses is not treatment, but prevention, with a focus on reducing exposure to ticks through avoidance of tick habitats, use of tick repellents and protective clothing, and frequent tick checks, especially following a period of time outdoors in a wooded area.

Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is the most common of the tick-borne diseases in the United States, with almost 24,000 cases reported in 47 states in 2002, an increase of 40% over the incidence in 2001. Twelve states, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin, accounted for 95% of cases reported nationally.

Lyme disease, caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, is usually diagnosed and treated according to clinical manifestations, most notably a classic erythema migrans rash that occurs in up to 50% of infected patients. Laboratory testing is useful for patients with confusing presentations, although no single serologic test is definitive.

Lyme disease is stratified into 3 stages: early localized, early disseminated, and late disease. Treatment with doxycycline in patients older than 8 years or amoxicillin in those younger than 8 at the early localized stage is universally effective. Generally, the longer the patient has been ill prior to therapy, the longer the duration of treatment must be, and the need for more aggressive treatment increases. The duration of therapy should be guided by clinical response, rather than by an arbitrary (eg, 30-day) treatment course.

Manitoba sees record number of lyme disease cases

2006-02-10T15:46:00.000-06:00

StarPhoenix - Saskatoon,Saskatchewan,Canada
Manitoba health officials are reporting a record five cases of lyme disease in 2005.

Until last year, there had only been two cases on record in the province's history.

Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria that can be carried by a deer tick the size of a sesame seed.

The disease can cause flu-like symptoms and a bulls eye-like rash, and left untreated it can lead to complications of the heart, nervous system or joints.

Experts have suspected there aren't enough deer ticks in Manitoba to breed here.

They think the ticks are coming into the province as hitchhikers on back of American birds from Minnesota and Wisconsin, where the ticks breed.

How could this happen to my family?

2006-02-10T08:35:00.000-06:00

Jane Morris tells of her husband’s illness
The Narrowsburg River Reporter
Jane and William “Chris” Morris moved to Narrowsburg several years ago from Titusville, NJ. In what now seems like another life, Chris worked as an executive vice president of a banking investment firm. Six years ago, he was diagnosed with Lyme disease.

“It was central nervous system Lyme disease,” said Jane, and it affected both his brain and his immune system. “He became so sick, he could not put a sentence together. He could not walk down the road.”

Chris began an aggressive treatment of antibiotics, but as a result of the disease, “he lost his job and he lost his health.” The couple began to go through their savings as well. “At that time,” said Jane, “we wondered creatively what we could do together, to rebuild our lives.”

The couple sold their home in New Jersey and purchased what became the Riverlights Bed and Breakfast and Yoga Studio on Route 97.

They spent two years refurbishing the house and creating a yoga studio for Jane, who has over 30 years of training in Kripalu yoga and was a staff yoga therapist at Princeton Medical Center.

Chris began exhibiting erratic behavior two years ago, said Jane.

“Over that time, I noticed a shift in his personality,” she said. “I began to notice a pattern.” Chris would go from being “depressed, losing weight, having very high fevers and staying in bed” to entering a manic phase “when he wouldn’t eat, he wouldn’t sleep, he spent money. And he’d have more energy than I do. One day he can’t rise from bed, and the next, he’s full of energy; all the fevers and illnesses are gone.”

Jane began to seek help for her husband. She received differing opinions as to whether his symptoms could be the lingering effects of Lyme disease. Some doctors said he was exhibiting late-stage Lyme disease syndrome. Others disagreed, saying anyone who had been taking the rigorous antibiotics used to treat Lyme could not possibly still have the bacteria in his body. Chris had taken the antibiotics for five years, said Jane.

The first police encounter

In May of last year, Jane called 911 because Chris had climbed into bed with a loaded shotgun. As a result, he was charged with a misdemeanor and jailed for 10 days. His guns (a pistol and two shotguns) were confiscated. Some time after that incident, he spent 20 days in Bon Secours Hospital in Port Jervis, where he was diagnosed as bi-polar and given medication.

“At that time,” said Jane, “he was also withdrawing from a valium addiction” that was a result of another diagnosis Chris received from a psychiatrist with whom he had been treated for a long time.

“He was diagnosed as having post-traumatic stress disorder,” said Jane. “That doctor prescribed valium for him,” and Chris developed an addiction to prescription drugs.

During this period, Jane continued to seek medical care for her husband. They began seeing doctors in Westchester Medical Center, and went for marital counseling. Concerned with his violent behavior and subsequent incarceration, Jane told the authorities, “My husband is sick. He needs medical care.” She wrote a letter to Family Court stating the same.

But the situation did not improve. “Chris was in denial” about his condition, said Jane. Eventually she took out a restraining order and Chris moved out the house.

In July, he moved back in. Things seemed to be settling down. “Why did I take him back?” said Jane. “He’s my husband. He had been very loving and loyal to me before he got sick. In those days, he was my rock.”

Jane began a new job two weeks ago as a physical education teacher at the Family Foundation School in Hancock. On the home front, she began noticing the signs. “He was late picking me up for work,” said Jane. “He was having seizures, and he would just zone out. He wouldn’t move. He wouldn’t answer me.”

The misdemeanor charges against Chris had been dropped and several days before the stand-off, said Jane, “the township returned his guns.”

Late on Thursday night, she said, “We were having an argument. Looking back, I can see I should not have argued. He was becoming very agitated.” Jane went to bed but later got up and fled the house, and called 911. She spent the night in the police barracks in Narrowsburg while her husband engaged in a 12-hour standoff with police.

Is it possible that Chris has bi-polar disorder or is having a negative reaction to medication?

His diagnosis is uncertain, but “the stress of losing everything, of all we have gone through, has certainly led up to this,” she said.

“We are trying to find out what’s wrong. It has not been an easy journey. We’ve just been plodding along, trying to cope.

“We have been married for 21 years. Most of it has been great. He is my husband, but I can’t go on living like this.

“He’s sick. He needs help. He needs hospital care,” she said.

Timeline to a standoff

2000: William “Chris” Morris was diagnosed with Lyme disease. The family says it has affected his central nervous system, immune system and brain.

2000-2004: Morris is treated with antibiotics, loses his position as an executive vice president of a banking investment firm.

May 2004: Morris and his wife of then 15 years, Jane, move from Titusville, NJ. They renovate and open Riverlights Bed and Breakfast and Yoga Studio on Route 97 in Narrowsburg.

May 5, 2005: Morris surrenders his pistol permit and guns to the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department, after law enforcement officers were called to the residence for a domestic dispute.

May 11, 2005: Jane finds Morris in bed with a rifle pointing toward him. Jane calls 911 and 911 dispatches a call for an armed, suicidal subject. Sheriff’s Corporal Paul Slavik and Deputy Keith Stephenson talk Morris into surrendering peacefully. Deputies find an antique rifle and a shotgun, both empty, and a loaded 7 mm Savage rifle.

Morris spends 20 days in Bon Secours Hospital in Port Jervis where he is diagnosed as bi-polar and given medication. He struggles with an addiction to Valium and is diagnosed by a psychiatrist with post-traumatic stress disorder.

May 22, 2005: Morris is involved in a single car crash on Route 97, from which he sustained injuries. There is speculation that it may have been a suicide attempt.

July 11, 2005: Sheriff’s department deputies are called to the residence for a domestic dispute, which is resolved, Detective Starner says.

February 2, 2006: According to Jane, the sheriff’s department returns Morris’ permit and firearms.

February 2, 2006: According to Dave Barnes, a Narrowsburg resident and friend of Morris, the couple get into a dispute about the return of Morris’ guns and permit.

February 3, 2006: Jane flees the home around 12:30 a.m. and calls 911. At 1:09 a.m. sheriff deputies respond. The standoff is resolved at 1:45 p.m.

Musician Daryl Hall talks about battle with lyme disease

2006-02-08T07:13:00.000-06:00

The Star Online

Musician Daryl Hall, who was diagnosed with lyme disease last year, says he felt his body "shut down'' during a concert last summer when the symptoms first hit him.

The 56-year-old Hall, half of pop duo Hall and Oates, said he was in Phoenix at the time.

"I was in the middle of a song and it just felt like a complete core body shutdown,'' Hall said in an interview with "Inside Edition'' that was scheduled to air Wednesday. "It's like somebody just turned the switch. I felt like I was going to faint, throw up, fall down, everything all at once.''

Hall said he had mixed emotions after being diagnosed.

"At first, I had relief because I said, 'OK, now I know that I have something,''' he said. "But then the fear came. The more I read about this, the more I heard about it, the more it scared me.''

Lyme disease, caused by the bite of infected deer ticks, can cause arthritis, neurological problems and encephalitis, a potentially deadly brain inflammation. Early signs include a red rash resembling a dartboard bullseye that slowly spreads and flu-like symptoms.

Hall and Oates are best known for a stream of 1980s hits, including "Kiss on My List,'' "Maneater'' and "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do).''-AP

Reported Morgellons cases increase

2006-02-07T07:57:00.000-06:00

By ERIN OCHOA / KVUE News

Some call it a mysterious skin disease, others a psychological disorder.

Morgellans is described as a parasite-like disease, that makes patients feel like they have bugs crawling under their skin.

KVUE News first told you about it a year ago. Since then, the number of reported cases has increased dramatically.

Lesions virtually cover Stephanie Bailey's arms and legs, and now, even her chest. She says they produce black -- and colored fibers, and itch uncontrollably.

"It feels like something's crawling on you, but then you look and there's nothing there," she said.

Nurse practitioner, Ginger Savely, studies the skin disease, called Morgellons.

The number of cases she's seen has jumped from just more than a dozen to about a hundred in the past year.

"When you start to hear dozens and dozens of people telling the exact same story and then you start to look and you really pay close attention and start to look at all the things they're talking about and you realize this is very real," Savely said.

Due to a lack of research, government health agencies don't recognize Morgellons as an actual disease. Patients are, instead, diagnosed with psychological disorders.

But over the past year, Savely has made some very unofficial observations which she hopes may help to explain and eventually treat the disease.

"A vast majority of them had some exposure to soil immediately before coming down with the symptoms, so they were either exposed to dirty water, they were gardening, they got a splinter stuck in them," she said.

She says she's noticed - patients with chronic illnesses that suppresses their immune systems, such as Lyme Disease, are more prone to Morgellons.

"It's causing tremendous suffering and something needs to be done about it," Savely said.

That's why the Morgellons Research Foundation was formed about five years ago. Savely says, since then, about 10,000 people have come forward with similar symptoms, but she fears there are still many more cases not yet reported.

"I think the more people that come forward, the more the public health departments are going to realize - hey, this really is a problem," she said.

Fore more information on Morgellons and how you can help research efforts, go to www.morgellons.org .

Gregory Lanzaro named head of vector-borne diseases

2006-01-25T23:09:00.000-06:00

Central Valley Business Times - Stockton,CA,USA
Medical entomologist Gregory Lanzaro, director of the University of California Mosquito Research Program, has been named the new director of the UC Davis Center for Vector-borne Diseases.

Mr. Lanzaro has been the point person for both the Mosquito Research Program (UCMRP), a systemwide program of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Center for Vector-borne Diseases, a unit of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and managed in collaboration with the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the School of Medicine.

"Pathogens transmitted by insects and their relatives rank among the most important infectious diseases globally," says Mr. Lanzaro, in a written comment. "Diseases such as malaria, dengue and leishmaniasis take millions of lives annually and wreak havoc on the economies, and therefore quality of life, for many millions more throughout the world."

The United States, he says, is not immune to the threat of arthropod-borne disease. "Lyme disease, plague and a host of mosquito-transmitted encephalitic viruses are long-standing public health concerns in this country," Mr. Lanzaro says. "The recent introduction of West Nile virus serves to illustrate the capacity of insect-transmitted disease agents to move into parts of the world in which they were never previously present and spread rapidly once introduced”

Coming Soon: Confronting Lyme Disease

2006-01-23T15:16:00.000-06:00

The book, Confronting Lyme Disease: What Patient Stories Teach Us, will be available for sale in Spring 2006. A formal press release will be issued when it is available for sale to the public.

Please visit the book's website at http://www.confrontinglyme.com/ to view a sampling of the book's contents and information about the authors. The book will be available for purchase from this site in the future. Payment will be through PayPal, and we can be contacted about bulk order discounts.

Two styles of books will be sold:
1. Full color interior photo pages (14 photos)
2. Black/white interior photo pages(14 photos)

Black and white photo books will be available from the website and through several internet sites including http://www.amazon.com/ and Booksurge Bookstore http://www.booksurge.com/bookstore.php3 where you can purchase the book with a credit card. Booksurge will also offer a downloadable e-book version.

Color photo books will be sold exclusively through the book's official website http://www.confrontinglyme.com/ .

You may contact the authors from the website if you have any questions using the "Contact us" link at the bottom of the website.

Please look for the formal press release in approximately 4 - 8 weeks!

Worn down by Lyme

2006-01-21T14:45:00.000-06:00

Columbia Daily Tribune
Family says disease caused death at 37.

Although Kym Cooper’s autopsy says she died of natural causes, her family believes her death Monday while she was sleeping was a product of Lyme disease, an illness she struggled with for eight years.

"Anybody is going to wear down," said Adam Boster, Cooper’s brother-in-law. "I don’t think we’re meant to go forever in that stage."

Cooper lived with the severe pain and fatigue that accompanied the disease she contracted in 1998. She detailed her physical torment and battle with doctors who didn’t understand her sickness in a 2001 letter her mother found three days after her death at age 37.

"This came from Kym," Susan Cooper said yesterday, showing the letter to a reporter. "There were just so many people who couldn’t understand how a tick made her this sick."

In the United States, ticks are responsible for more human disease than any other insect, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services says. Lyme disease is just one of several illnesses that can result from a tick’s bite.

The disease is caused by a bacterial agent, Borrelia burgdorferi. Symptoms include fever, severe headache, muscle or joint aches and a red rash around the site of the initial bite.

Kym Cooper had worked as an activities director for a Fayette nursing home. After she was bitten by a tick in 1998, she just picked it off and kept walking, sister Steffany Boster said. It’s unclear whether the bite occurred on a trail in Boonville or in Columbia.

"I don’t think she ever gave it any thought," Boster said.

A few days later, a red rash developed around the bite.

A Boonville doctor advised Cooper to apply an ointment and forget about it. But she then began to experience extreme fatigue and had trouble walking and speaking.

"I knew something was really wrong," Cooper wrote in the 2001 letter.

Cooper’s Boonville doctor then diagnosed the problem as a stress disorder.

But as Cooper’s health declined, another doctor referred her to Gordon Christensen, a physician and professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Nearly a year after the bite occurred, Christensen diagnosed Cooper with Lyme disease - something he’s only diagnosed three times in his career.

"It’s a real challenge," Christensen said. "We don’t know a lot about this."

In Missouri, there were 15 cases of Lyme disease reported in 2004, said Karen Yates, the vector-borne diseases program coordinator at the Department of Health and Senior Services.

"We really have a hard time tracking that," Yates said yesterday. "We suspect that there are other people who do become ill and are not being counted."

Some cases of Lyme disease are incurable, but there is no diagnostic test to determine the presence of the disease.

For Christensen to make a strict diagnosis, he had to follow a strict set of questions and symptoms laid out by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Making matters even more complicated, Borrelia burgdorferi has never been isolated in a patient from Missouri.

"By that definition, there’s never been a case of Lyme disease in Missouri," Christensen said.

To test for Borrelia burgdorferi, a blood sample must be taken to see whether blood reacts to the illness’s genetic material, but other things can cause a reaction.

"It’s a big mess," Christensen said of efforts to make such a diagnosis.

Christensen said these unknowns have divided most physicians into one group that doesn’t believe Lyme disease has occurred and treats the symptoms and another group that aggressively treats the disease with antibiotics.

"I’m kind of right in the middle," Christensen said. "I don’t think either group has got it right."

Confusion like this drove Cooper to type a one-page letter.

"If you run into a doctor that says Lyme disease doesn’t exist, it’s time to find another doctor," said Adam Boster, Cooper’s brother-in-law.

Yates said that of Missouri’s 15 cases of Lyme disease in 2004, three affected residents of Boone County. The state department of health says the incidence of the disease was 2.21 per 100,000 in Boone County, compared with the state average of 0.46 per 100,000.

No confirmed Lyme disease case has been fatal.

"It’s a chronic illness, but it’s not considered to be lethal," Christensen said. "It’s the complications."

The CDC lists several tips to protect against ticks: Avoid tick-infested areas, wear light-colored clothing, use tick repellent and perform daily tick checks.

If someone finds a tick embedded in his or her skin, the CDC Web site recommends using fine-tipped tweezers to grab the tick close to the skin and gently pull it straight up to keep its head intact with its body. After handling the tick, wash hands, clean the bite and watch for signs of illness.

As Cooper’s family members mourn, they are preparing for a service at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Memorial Funeral Home. They have asked for donations to the National Lyme Disease Association because they know - through Cooper’s letter - how important Lyme disease education can be.

"I hope that whoever reads this letter will have better understanding of what it is like to live like this," Cooper wrote. "Please, I need all the support I can get because I am not getting better only worse."

Crippling disease sweeps Indian Ocean island

2006-01-20T17:41:00.000-06:00

PARIS (AFP) - Doctors on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion are battling an epidemic of a crippling mosquito-borne disease that has no known cure, French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said.

About 7,200 cases of "chikungunya" had been recorded, including 1,600 cases last week alone, the minister told the French upper house.

"It is a major public-health issue," he told senators.

Chikungunya is Swahili for "that which bends up" and refers to the stooped posture of those afflicted by the non-fatal disease for which there is no known vaccine or cure.

Authorities on the volcanic island east of Madagascar, a French overseas department with a population of 760,000, have earmarked 600,000 euros (720,000 dollars) to fight the outbreak, including special mosquito-eradication brigades.

Kym Cooper, 1968-2006

2006-01-19T07:40:00.000-06:00

Columbia Daily Tribune, Columbia, MO
Kimberly Ann "Kym" Nagle Cooper, 37, of Columbia passed away Monday, Jan. 16, 2006, at her home after a long battle with Lyme disease.

Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21, at Memorial Funeral Home with Adam Boster officiating.

Kym was born Aug. 2, 1968, to Steve and Susan Telin Nagle at Fort Leonard Wood.

Survivors include her mother, Susan Cooper, and stepfather, Gary, of Columbia; her father, Steve Nagle, and stepmother, Robyn, of St. Louis; three sisters, Steffany Boster and her husband, Adam, of Columbia, Margaret Nagle of St. Louis and Alecia Nagle of Redlands, Calif.; one brother, Robert Nagle of St. Louis; and four nieces and nephews, Jace, McKayley, Faith and Lukas Lee Boster.

Kym is remembered for her love of family, music, dancing and the great Missouri outdoors.

In her childhood she studied gymnastics, which grew into a lifelong love of modern dance. She was an accomplished swimmer and especially enjoyed her many visits to Finger Lake State Park and Rock Bridge State Park. Last summer, Kym rescued a small boy from drowning in a backyard pool. Before contracting Lyme disease, she served as a licensed practical nurse and is remembered for her kind heart and special skills as activities director working with senior citizens at Fayette Nursing Home.

Family is recommending donations be made to the National Lyme Disease Association Inc., a not-for-profit corporation, through the association’s Web site, www.lymediseaseassociation.org, or directly to the Lyme Disease Association Inc., P.O. Box 1438, Jackson, N.J., 08527.

Tributes can be left online at www.memorialfuneralhomeandcemetery.com

2006-01-16T22:43:00.000-06:00

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Study: Napoleon's Army Destroyed by Lice

2006-01-16T19:33:00.000-06:00

Discovery Channel News
Lice played a key role in Napoleon Bonaparte's disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812, according to genetic research into the skeletal remains of the ill-fated army.

Napoleon marched into Russia in the summer of 1812, leading the largest army Europe had ever seen, some half million soldiers, toward Moscow.

The invasion was the French emperor's answer to tzar Alexander I's refusal of the Continental System, a system of economic preference and protection within Europe aimed to exclude British trade and reinforce the French economy at the expense of the other states.

Six months later, the Grande Armée was reduced to 25,000 men who retreated to Vilnius, Lithuania, in the freezing cold. Only 3,000 survived the war, weather and disease to continue the retreat. The dead were buried in mass graves.

One such grave, containing between 2,000 and 3,000 corpses, was discovered in 2001 in Vilnius during some construction work.

Analysis of the remains produced hard genetic evidence that louse-borne pathogens were a major factor in the French retreat from Russia, Didier Raoult, of the Université de la Méditerranée in Marseille, and colleagues reported in the January issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

"We believe that louse-borne diseases caused much of the death of Napoleon's army," Raoult told Discovery News.

Human body lice transmit Borrelia recurrentis, Bartonella quintana and Rickettsia prowazekii, the agents of louse-borne relapsing fever, trench fever and epidemic typhus, respectively.

Raoult and colleagues analyzed two kilograms of earth from the mass grave containing bone fragments and remnants of clothing and identified body segments of five lice.

Three of them carried DNA from relapsing fever.

The scientists then analyzed dental pulp from 72 teeth, taken from the remains of 35 soldiers. The sequencing revealed DNA of Bartonella quintana in seven soldiers.

"We believe that these findings provide firm evidence that the soldiers had trench fever," wrote the researchers.

The team also detected the DNA of Rickettsia prowazekii in three other soldiers, indicating that Napoleon's army also suffered from epidemic typhus.

Overall, nearly one-third of Napoleon's soldiers buried in Vilnius were affected by louse-borne infectious diseases, the researchers concluded.

"This is very important and exciting research because it provides compelling physical evidence for the impact of louse-borne diseases on Grand Army troops during Napoleon's invasion of, and retreat from, Russia," Robert Peterson, an expert of insect ecology and agricultural and biological risk assessment at Montana State University, told Discovery News.

Neuropathy Mystery Solved. New Study proves electronic ReBuilder System Effective for Neuropathy.

2006-01-12T14:58:00.000-06:00

PR Web via Yahoo! News
ReBuilder Medical, Inc. today released an independant study of 480 patients over a 3 year period. Results showed that compared to a placebo, the Anodyne and ReVitamed Infrared systems, and Pfizer's and Eli Lilly's drug therapies, the double blind study demonstrated a 95% response rate to the ReBuilder home therapy. (The competitive Anodyne and Revitamed quipment fared no better than the placebo, while the prescription drugs offered only a 45% improvement and serious side effects.)

Neuropathy is a major complication of diabetes and 60% of those with diabetes will develop the tingling, numbness, and pain of neuropathy in thier feet and hands. Currently the most common treatment is drug related, but the side effects of drugs are many times worse than the disease. Pfizer was recently fined by the US government for the use of Neuronton for neuropathy. Other electronic devices (infrared) that merely heat the feet have been tried unseccessfully. The ReBuilderuses a tiny electrical signal that mimmics the normal nerve signal to wake up dormant nerves that were temporarily restricted due to temporary bouts of oxigen deprivation. The patient uses the system in the privacy of his own home.

David B. Phillips, Ph.D. the inventor of the ReBuilder System for Neuropathy says "We studied all the common denominators that triggered neuropathy and found that each one related to oxygen deprevation. We designed our system to treat that and the results have been amazing." Dr. Phillips won the prestigious Inventor of the Year Award in 1987 for inventing the infrared ear thermometer that is used all over the world today. He develooped the ReBuilder System for his father who developed nbeuropathy.

Patients have reported success in reducing the pain and numbness of peripheral neuropathy, restless leg syndrome, MS, Post
Polio Syndrome, lower back and sciatic nerve pain. Many cases of neuropathy are caused by chemotherapy, lyme's disease, prescription medicianes like Statins and high blood pressure medicines, and environmental toxins. The ReBuilder System has no side effects and is simple to use.

The ReBuilder is FDA approved, Medicare approved, and is certified by the American Association of Emerging Technologies to comply with the guidelines proffered by the American Medical Association for clinically reliable medical equipment.

At a retail cost of $399, the ReBuilder is the preferred treatment of choice. Painless and comfortable, the majority of patients studied reported that over 90% of their symptoms Were cured in less than three comfortable 30 minute treatments.

33% of the patients studied were treated with the Anodyne system and 33% with the ReVitadyne therapies that use infrared lights to merely heat the feet. In a recent edition of Diabetes Care the official journal for the American Diabetes Association, it was reporeted that these infrared light systems were ineffective in increasing sensitivity in the feet of people with diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Rebuilder proved vastly superior to both modalites and compared to their cost of $2,900, the ReBuilder is an effective treatment system.

ReBuilder Medical Inc. is looking for venture capital to fund the development of an electronic system to detect allergies electronically. the company claims it has the technology to send the patient home with a small battery operated device that will record the patient's response when he merely touches a suspected allergen. In this way a patient can touch things like pets, mates perfunes and medicines etc that t=a physician would not normally have samples of in his office. The test is non invasive and perfect for children.

The company is negotiating for the inclusion of the ReBuilder System for Neuropathy into 750 neurologist's private practices in 2006. Currently Nova Care, Cleaveland Clinic, and the VA offer the ReBuilder.

The company sells the ReBuilder System directly to the patient via the internet. More information is available at http://www.rebuildermedical.com or Toll Free 1-866-725-2202.

Her agony had a name: Lyme disease

2006-01-08T15:02:00.000-06:00

The Free Lance-Star - Fredericksburg,VA,USA
By BETSY CRUMB

In the early fall of 1999, a small deer tick feasted on Frances Bishopp's upper thigh. Writing it off as nothing more than a spider bite, Bishopp didn't get alarmed by the red bull's-eye rash that developed.

But over the next two years, the 62-year-old Fredericksburg resident experienced much more than just a rash.

"I began to develop Lyme [disease] symptoms, though at the time I didn't know that's what they were," Bishopp said. "First, my eyes were glued shut with conjunctivitis; I thought it was allergies. Then I became very, very tired, to the point of fatigue; I thought it was my job."

Next came chronic lower back pain. And when Bishopp started putting in 17-hour days commuting to Washington by train, she began to experience dizziness.

She said she felt like she was "bouncing off the walls when I walked; it was terrible vertigo."

Her weekends meant time in bed, and eventually she had to leave her job.

No one seemed to understand.

"She's such a high energy person," said one of her two daughters, Cameron Bishopp. "To see her feeling so sick that she couldn't get out of bed was such an amazing thing for her to go through."

Two years, six diagnoses, and an array of doctors later, Bishopp was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease.

"I went to every doctor in this town, I swear," Bishopp said. "I went to a [general practitioner], a neurologist, allergists, orthopods. I had a [CT] scan. I was diagnosed with epilepsy, fibromyalgia, generalized anxiety disorder, extreme fatigue. I was crazy because I couldn't get well. I thought I had lost my mind."

After six weeks of visiting a holistic doctor, the results of her Lyme disease test came back positive.

In September of 2002, Bishopp began antibiotics treatment. But the treatment didn't cure her. Her weekends in bed turned into weeks. And for two years after the diagnosis, Bishopp said she left her bed only to go to the emergency room or for her treatment.

Her search for a cure sent her to specialists in North Carolina, where she was treated with different antibiotics for five months.

Now, more than five years after her encounter with the tick, Bishopp is much better, but still recovering.

Her trip to the North Carolina specialist, she said, "was the beginning of my education of my horrible disease."

"The frightening thing about it is so many people don't know they have it," Bishopp said.
'A hideous disease'

Lyme disease was first discovered in Lyme, Conn., in 1981 after a group of children were all diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Thinking this was an odd diagnosis for children, Dr. Willy Burgdorfer began to investigate.

He discovered the children were actually suffering from a spirochete bacteria, infested in them by black-legged ticks. The disease became known as Lyme.

Lyme disease is usually characterized by a bull's-eye rash, such as the one Bishopp had. It's known as the erythema migrans, and along with it, sufferers also often experience flulike symptoms at first.

The rash appears as the body's way of attacking the foreign bacteria. But when the rash disappears, it may not mean the disease is gone.

"Lyme disease is a hideous disease that can affect any organ in your body," said Lucy Barnes, an employee of Lyme Disease Education and Support Diseases of Maryland.

The reason Lyme can go undetected and undiagnosed for so long is because the bacteria, undeterred by the rash, can hide inside cells. This can keep the immune system from detecting and attacking the disease.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 19,804 cases of Lyme disease were reported in 2004. However, for every one case of Lyme disease reported, 10 go missed, the CDC estimates.

The disease can impair the brain, the nervous system and the heart, as well as cause chronic arthritis, hepatitis, and extreme fatigue, according to the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases.

The Lyme Disease Association notes that if caught early enough, before the bacteria spreads inside the cells, Lyme disease can be treated and people can recover quickly. But if undiagnosed, such as in the case with Bishopp, it can cause lifelong health problems.

Both Bishopp and Barnes recommend that patients who suspect they have been infected by a tick insist on being tested and treated immediately.

"Back in the '80s, before people really knew about it much, doctors said it was a virus and no treatment was necessary or available," Barnes said. "They found out later that they were completely wrong."

Unfortunately for Barnes, they found this out too late. She said she was finally diagnosed when she staged a sit-in at her doctor's office, refusing to leave until she was tested for Lyme disease.

Barnes, who is known as Tin Cup in her "After the Bite" chat rooms and other intimate Lyme disease circles, was bitten by a tick when she worked as a park ranger in Virginia state parks. Her bout with the disease has left her legally blind and permanently disabled, she said. Since being treated, she said she has learned to walk again, talk again and get out of bed for the first time in years.

And now Barnes is taking an advocacy role, working to educate doctors and victims of the disease. She met Bishopp a few years ago, when Bishopp went online looking for answers.

"She was pretty much a basketcase when she got online. Most people are because they are so desperate for answers," Barnes said in a phone interview.

Barnes said for people in Bishopp's position, it's important to go back out into the world, but it's very difficult.

"She's got a long road to go still," Barnes said of Bishopp, "but she's starting to function again and she's able to enjoy some life for a change. She has come a long way from where she was. I can hear laughter in her voice, a smile that was never there."
Debate over treatment

Barnes' organization is just one of a number attempting to better unravel the mysteries of Lyme disease.

Because symptoms of Lyme disease are similar to many other diseases, doctors have a hard time diagnosing it. The only identifying characteristic of Lyme disease, the bull's-eye rash, is absent in one-fourth of all patients, making it even more difficult to find.

Lyme disease is also hard to detect because symptoms come and go, and oftentimes doctors and patients do not connect them with one another.

This similarity to other diseases and lack of consistent symptoms has led to much dissension in the medical world.

Dr. Geoffrey Gubb, a physician from Parksley, Va., who has done significant research in the area of Lyme disease, said both patients and doctors are missing diagnoses.

"There is this huge difference of opinion between the people who are treating a lot of Lyme and those who are in the infectious disease societies," Gubb said.

Doctors disagree over how to properly test for the disease, as well as diagnose it.

According to the Serodiagnosis of Lyme Disease, a paper written for the CDC, "The diagnosis of Lyme disease is based principally on clinical manifestations and history of exposure to vector ticks in an area where Lyme disease is endemic."

However, Gubb and some other Lyme doctors disagree with this. He said "clinical manifestation" implies physical symptoms, and those are hard to pinpoint, and often inconsistent from one patient to the next.

Aside from the medical quarreling, Gubb said he thinks the biggest problem connected to Lyme disease is the growing population of deer.

"We have to get serious about killing ticks, eradicating them," he said.

While the peak time to contract Lyme disease is in the spring and summer, Barnes noted that it is important to remember that ticks can live in winter weather conditions as well.

"With 80 percent snow cover, ticks can be active," Barnes said. "So hunters especially, and park rangers, are at high risk."
'I couldn't really understand'

Bishopp still has a long way to go on her road to recovery. But her future looks hopeful.

"I was just home for Thanksgiving," said Cameron Bishopp, her daughter. "She was up, and she was a different woman. To be able to see her up and moving around for the first time in years, I can't even tell you how thankful we are."

Bishopp said she is very grateful for her strong support system of family and friends.

She's become determined to help others with Lyme disease avoid the kind of suffering she's experienced. And she's grown more confident in herself.

"I intend to beat it, because I'm a fighter," she said.

To overcome Lyme disease, patients must be very proactive about their health care and aggressively seek the proper diagnosis, Bishopp's daughter Cameron said.

"My mother did so much research and became so educated on it, and that was so important," Cameron Bishopp said. "I always felt bad because I couldn't really understand. I never could fathom how this feels."

Diseases of the Mind

2006-01-02T21:18:00.000-06:00

Newsweek
Olga Skipko has had the good fortune to live most of her adult life in the Polish village of Gruszki, in the heart of the Puszcza Bialowieska, one of Europe’s most beautiful forests and home to wolves, lynxes and the endangered European bison. Unfortunately, the forest is also a breeding ground for disease-carrying ticks. Skipko, 49, thinks she was bitten about 10 years ago, when she began having the classic symptoms of Lyme borreliosis, a tickborne nervous-system disease: headaches and aching joints. She didn’t get treatment until 1998. “I was treated with antibiotics and felt a bit better,” she says.

That was only the beginning of her troubles. A few years later, she began to forget things and her speaking grew labored. It got so bad that she had to quit her job in a nursery forest and check herself in to a psychiatric clinic. “I hope they will help me,” she says. “I promised my children that when I come back home, I will be able to do my favorite crosswords again.” Doctors ran a battery of tests and concluded that her mental problems were the advanced stage of the Lyme disease she had contracted years ago.

Scientists have long known that some diseases can cause behavioral problems. When penicillin was first used to treat syphilis, thousands of cured schizophrenics were released from mental asylums. Now, however, scientists have evidence that infections may play a far bigger role in mental illness than previously thought. They’ve linked cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia to a variety of infectious agents, and they’re investigating autism, Tourette’s and anorexia as well. They’re beginning to suspect that bad bugs may cause a great many other mental disorders, too. “The irony is that people talked about syphilis as the ‘great imitator’,” says University of Louisville biologist Paul Ewald, “but it may be the ‘great illustrator’—a model for understanding the causes of chronic diseases.”

Mental illnesses constitute a large and growing portion of the world’s health problems. According to the World Health Organization, depression is one of the most debilitating of diseases, on a par with paraplegia. Psychiatric illnesses make up more than 10 percent of the world’s “disease burden” (a measure of how debilitating a disease is), and are expected to increase to 15 percent by 2020. Much of this may be the work of viruses, bacteria and parasites. Psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey, of the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Maryland, has found from studying historical asylum records that hot spots—higher-than-normal incidences—of mental illness can shift, much like infectious-disease outbreaks, which lends credence to the notion that infectious agents play a big role. “Mental disorders are the major chronic recurrent disorders of youth in all developed countries,” says Harvard policy expert Ronald Kessler, who directs the WHO’s mental-health surveys.

Perhaps the most well known disease that’s been linked to mental disorders is Lyme disease, which is caused by the Borrelia burgdorferi germ. First identified in the mid-1970s among children near Lyme, Connecticut, the disease has long been known to cause nervous-system problems and achy joints if left untreated. Now scientists are finding that Lyme disease can also trigger a whole smorgasbord of psychiatric symptoms, including depression. One New York man (we’ll call him Joe) found out firsthand how debilitating the disease can be. When he began having bouts of major depression back in 1992, he had forgotten all about the tick bite he had gotten four years earlier. He spent two years in a blur of antipsychotic drugs, mental institutions, jails and suicide attempts. On a hunch, a doctor at a psychiatric hospital in New Jersey had Joe tested for Lyme disease. After an intensive course of antibiotics, Joe’s improvement was dramatic and immediate. “I started to have this fog lift,” he recalls. Still, he will probably have to be on psychotropic drugs for the rest of his life.

Some psychiatrists fret that there may be thousands of people suffering from Lyme-induced depression without knowing why. Not only is Lyme disease tricky to diagnose—not everybody gets the circular rash, and lab tests still aren’t wholly reliable—it can take a decade or more for mental disorders to set in. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says that nine out of 10 cases of Lyme diseases remain unreported. There are 15 species of borellias—making them the most common tickborne disease-producing bacteria in the world.

For its part, the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which can be found in undercooked meat and cat feces, can lead to full-blown psychotic episodes. Some studies suggest that the parasite stimulates the production of a chemical similar to LSD, producing hallucinations and psychosis. Even when the parasite lies dormant in muscle and brain tissue, it can affect attention span and reaction time in otherwise healthy people. Researchers at Charles University in Prague have discovered that people who test positive have slightly slower-than-average reaction times and—possibly as a result—are almost three times as likely to have car accidents. That’s a disturbing prospect, considering that the disease is so widespread: billions of people are thought to be infected.

Even a simple sore throat can lead to psychiatric problems. Few children avoid coming down with a streptococcus infection, also known as strep. Scientists now think that one in 1,000 strep sufferers also develops abrupt-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in a matter of weeks. Strep bacteria trigger OCD by igniting an overzealous response from the immune system, which attacks certain types of brain cells, causing inflammation. Symptoms generally die down after a few months but can flare up again, especially if there’s another bout of strep, says Susan Swedo, a childhood-disease expert at the National Institutes of Health. The most effective treatment, still experimental, is to filter out the misbehaving antibodies from the blood. Best is to treat strep early on.

The specter of a depression germ or contagious obsessive-compulsive disorder is unnerving, but it also opens up many more treatment options—antibiotics, vaccines, checking for ticks. Geneticists believe that diseases may trigger the onset of inherited mental illnesses by activating key genes. Avoiding and treating infection may be just as important as the genes you inherit, and a whole lot easier to do something about.

'I wanted to talk about dying'

2005-12-30T12:00:00.000-06:00

Osseo-Maple Grove Press
Last February, Maple Grove resident Sue Nelson felt she had hit rock bottom.

She was in constant pain that worsened daily and had been to every doctor and specialist she thought was possible, incurring above $300,000 in medical expenses.

"I laid in bed thinking 'this is it'. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't walk, sleep or function in daily life. There were no more doctors. No more tests. I wanted to talk about dying. I thought that is where the pain would lead me," Nelson said.

After all the doctors and multitude of tests, Nelson was left with no diagnosis and a life of consent pain.

"I wanted to talk about dying. I wanted to make peace with myself and make preparations. My mom was the first one willing to talk about my wishes and it was like admitting I was going to die," said Nelson. "I prayed I would die quickly or receive an answer as to why I was so sick. During our conversation, out of the blue, my mom mentioned Lyme disease."

Little would Nelson realize, the conversation about the possible end of her life would lead her to the discovery that would allow her to live her life again.

Nelson was diagnosed with Lyme and Bartonella disease in March 2005. The diagnosis and treatment, she explained with a smile, is letting her live her life again.

Although Nelson cannot determine the date she contracted the diseases, she started developing symptoms in August 2004. She did not experience the classic "bulls eye rash" associated with Lyme disease, which may have led to an earlier diagnosis. Symptoms began in the form of the feeling of pins and needles in her feet. "It was unusual, but nothing other than a minor annoyance," said Nelson. "I knew something was wrong, but it wasn't anything I felt I should see a doctor about."

In November 2004, existing symptoms had worsened, spreading through her body and additional symptoms appeared. Nelson decided it was time to visit a doctor when she could no longer sleep at night due to a resting heartbeat of 90-120 beats per minute. According to the American Heart Association, the average individual has a resting heart rate of 60 to 80 beats per minute. She was placed on high blood pressure medication, but symptoms continued to worsen and new symptoms continued to appear.

"I started having a consent buzzing feeling in my body," explained Nelson. "Eventually, I had fainting episodes, mini seizures and convulsions."

In addition to a general practitioner, Nelson visited a stream of specialists ranging from cardiologists to infectious disease specialists and had a multitude of tests performed. Nelson indicated that a test was completed for Lyme disease, but it had provided a false negative.

During one of her many clinic visits, Nelson was advised her problems stemmed from depression due to her age and circumstances.

"I was insulted, but I went along with the antidepressants with the hopes it would cure me. Everything continued to get worse," said Nelson. "I was so scared. By the time I had scheduled the multiple appointments and tests, I was numb up my left foot to my ankle. My right foot and right hand were numb along with the right side of my face. The usual sensations I had felt with my hand were gone. If I tried to pet the dog, I couldn't feel anything."

According to the Lyme Disease Foundation, Lyme disease symptoms can often imitate other diseases and can be misdiagnosed. Some individuals do not notice the early indicators of the disease, such as flu-like feelings of headache, stiff neck, fever, muscle aches, fatigue and a possible rash from the bite. Once early indicators of the infection disappear, the disease can disseminate to other organs. The LDF indicates Lyme disease can adversely affect many portions of the body, such as the brain, eyes, skin, heart, joints, liver, lungs, muscles, digestive system and spleen and can affect pregnancy.

As time progressed, Nelson made repeated visits to the emergency room. Her ability to walk was gone. She no longer could complete simple, daily functions such as changing her clothes, bathing or brushing her teeth. Husband, Mike, and daughter, Madelyn, assumed the role as her caregiver. Since she is self-employed, she was did not receive disability benefits and was unable to continue working.

Then Nelson found her answer.

As she discussed her illness and what appeared to be a fatal outcome with her mother on the cold winter day, her mother mentioned Lyme disease and its symptoms. The discussion lead to research on the Internet and the shocking discovery that a majority of the symptoms Nelson was experiencing were also found in Lyme disease patients.

"I couldn't find any Lyme disease doctors in Minnesota or Wisconsin to confirm what I felt was wrong with me," explained Nelson. A specialist was located in Missouri and Nelson, accompanied by her husband, set an appointment.

"At that point, I had to ride in a wheelchair and be carried by Mike. I could barely handle the plane ride due to the pain," said Nelson.

Once at the Missouri clinic, a Western Blot test was done and sent to the Center for Disease Control lab and a Lyme lab, IgeneX Inc., in Texas. Nelson had been advised that it was the most clinically accepted test available. The test came back positive and Nelson began antibiotic treatment immediately. Her doctor also diagnosed her with Bartonella based on clinical observation, which involved a review of pictures and Nelson's recounting of an episode of being bit by sand flies in March 2004 while vacationing in the Caribbean.

Nine months after the diagnosis of Lyme and Bartonella, Nelson continues to improve. She has resumed her business and continues to strive toward a complete recovery while dealing with lingering systems such as cold hands and feet, ringing in the ears and tiring more easily.

Although she is significantly improved, Nelson still requires ongoing medical treatment.

"I need to take several types of antibiotics to ensure that I totally wipe out all forms of the Lyme bacteria in my system. I also take a lot of supplements aimed at fighting Lyme disease," said Nelson.

According to Nelson, she also took an antibiotic called Rifampin that was used specifically to treat Bartonella. "How one responds to an antibiotic is also an excellent indicator of which type of diseases one has," said Nelson.

Along with the ongoing antibiotic treatment, she continues to have a phone consultation with her Lyme doctor every four to six months and yearly visits. She also continues to have regular lab work done at a local clinic, which is faxed to the Missouri physician, to ensure there are no negative side effects from the long-term antibiotic usage.

Upon looking back, Nelson feels that the diseases have changed her life.

"Mike, Madelyn and my mom came through for me and they proved to be my saviors. I was also very surprised at other family members and friends who were there for me and so wonderful. I now personally have much more awareness of others around me who have special needs," said Nelson. "I feel less concerned about the day-to-day stuff and know that it will all work out. I try to remember on a daily basis how far I have come and how lucky I am to be walking around and just doing the small stuff."

A Winning Hand

2005-12-27T21:45:00.000-06:00

Medical College of Georgia
A decade and a half-ago, Tim Simpson was on top of the professional golf world. The Atlanta-based Simpson was a champion golfer with four PGA Tour victories who had twice finished in the top 10 on the money list and who had led the PGA tour in top 10 finishes in 1983 and 1990.

But in 1991, that life ended...

While on a hunting trip, Mr. Simpson contracted Lyme disease, but that was only the beginning. The previously strong and healthy Simpson found himself at the mercy of lingering illness, muscle joint stiffness and, worst of all, a tremor that developed in his left hand. To some, it would be considered just a flutter, but for a man who made his living from precise putts and perfect drives, a man who was considered one of the greatest ball strikers in PGA Tour history, the flutter effectively derailed his career.

“I struggled, trying to continue and fight back, taking medications that helped the tremor but left me groggy. The fact that I had no control over my essential tremor and its negative effect on my game nearly drove me crazy. But when I couldn’t hit a routine chip shot, at that point, I decided to retire from competition,” says Mr. Simpson. Ironically, the tremor usually occurred only while he was playing golf or was stressed or tired.

Still, Mr. Simpson never lost faith that someday, someone would be able to help him return to the game he loved. “A day didn’t go by that I didn’t miss it,” says Mr. Simpson. “My goal has always been to try to come back when I was 50 to play in the Champions Tour. One day, somehow, that was my goal.”

That day came when he met Dr. Kapil Sethi, a neurologist who was recommended to him by a friend. A golfer himself, Dr. Sethi understood Mr. Simpson’s urgent need to return to the game. And as director of the MCG Movement Disorders Program, Dr. Sethi understood the tremor that was preventing Mr. Simpson from playing golf.

“When we examined Mr. Simpson, we thought we could help him through a relatively new procedure called deep brain stimulation,” said Dr. Sethi.

DBS is a surgical treatment used to help control tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement and equilibrium problems associated with movement disorders. During surgery, electrodes are implanted into hyperactive areas of the brain that cause tremor. Wires from the electrodes are then tunneled under the skin of the neck down into a surgically fashioned pocket directly under the collarbone. The wiring is attached to a pulse generator, which is programmed to send targeted stimulation to the brain to help control symptoms.

Dr. Sethi referred Mr. Simpson to Dr. Joseph Smith, a neurosurgeon with the MCG Neuroscience Center, who examined Mr. Simpson and discussed the risks, goals and limitations of surgery. But not before the patient did his own homework on Dr. Smith. “I was told repeatedly by other neurosurgeons that he was the best of the best at DBS surgery,” Mr. Simpson says.

Ultimately, he decided to undergo the procedure. “It was a dream come true,” he says. “They gave me back the greatest gift of all, the gift of hope. Hope that I could be normal again and let my talent shine.”

Tim Simpson holds golf club during deep brain stimulation.With his wife, Leigh Anne, by his side, Mr. Simpson arrived at MCG Health System for his surgery last March. He was met by physician assistant Patrick Jenkins and Dr. Smith. After Dr. Smith reviewed Simpson’s MRI on the computer planning work station to determine exactly where the electrode should be placed, Mr. Simpson was wheeled to the operating room.

Inside the OR, a hush fell as the team began to place a 14-millimeter bur hole in the patient’s skull. Upstairs in the day surgery waiting area, Mr. Simpson’s wife and parents waited, tense but optimistic the surgery would go well.

About an hour into the procedure, Dr. Smith began the careful work of placing recording-stimulating microelectrodes into Mr. Simpson’s brain to verify the proper location of the target area as seen on the MRI scan. To ensure correct placement of these electrodes and the final DBS electrode, patients remain semi-conscious during surgery. This allows the neurosurgeon to bring out the tremor on command, and then check how the tremor is controlled when the stimulation is turned on. Mr. Simpson groggily said hello to Dr. Smith and Mr. Jenkins and asked how things were going.

“Tim, let’s see if we can get that tremor going,” said Dr. Smith. Mr. Simpson had brought one of his own golf clubs, which was now placed in his hand. He held it up. Nothing. The team waited. “During surgery, we try to use triggers selected by the patient to help bring out the tremor,” explains Dr. Smith. “That could include a coffee cup or pen. In Tim’s case, his tremor was mostly caused when holding a golf club, so that’s what we tried first.”

Next they tried a Styrofoam coffee cup. Still nothing. Next, Dr. Smith placed a cane in Mr. Simpson’s hand. Almost immediately, his hand and arm visibly shivered, then vibrated back and forth in a steady tremor. “There it is,” said Dr. Smith. “Let’s turn the stimulator on.”

Stimulation was applied in varying degrees of intensity until, all at once, the tremor stopped. Mr. Simpson recalls feeling electricity transiently go down his arm and his hand suddenly go still.

“Dr. Smith, as well as Patrick, had told me that during DBS surgery, the moment when the stimulator is turned on tends to be emotional for many patients when they realize that they aren’t shaking anymore,” says Mr. Simpson. “What I remember was the tremendous excitement in the operating room when the stimulator was turned on and my tremor stopped dead. My hand was solid as a rock. This was something I hadn’t experienced in years, and it was amazing.”

“Every time we are able to use this treatment to change someone’s quality of life for the better, it is an exciting moment,” says Dr. Smith. “In this case, seeing Tim’s tremor suddenly stop was even more satisfying, knowing that we were providing a chance for him to return to the life and career he loved.”

Tim SimpsonMr. Simpson remained in the 3 West Neuroscience Unit at MCG Medical Center for several days, then went home to Lake Oconee. Unable to resist the draw of the greens, he was back out working on his short game at his home course, the Harbor Club, in just three days.

“It was unbelievable to be able to go back out there, and not experience any tremor at all,” says Mr. Simpson. “I saw it in the hospital and at home, but I had to see it out on the course. When I was practicing out there is when it hit me. The second ball that I pitched from 15 yards went right in the hole, and that is when I started crying. I knew that my prayers had been finally answered.

“Dr. Smith, Dr. Sethi and Patrick have my sincere thanks for their amazing work as well as for their friendships.”

While Mr. Simpson continues to return to the MCG Movement Disorders Clinic for regular checkups and further programming on his device to enhance tremor control, he is 100 percent back to his golf career, busy traveling and competing in tournaments, his eye still on his goal of playing on the Champion’s Tour in 2006.

“Everywhere I go, there are articles written about my surgery and how I am coming back strong. I told Dr. Smith and Dr. Sethi before my surgery that if they could stop me from shaking, I would make them more famous than they already are,” jokes Mr. Simpson. “I plan on fulfilling my end of the bargain. It has been a while since I have won on the PGA Tour, but I assure you, I still know how to win.”

Be on the lookout for Lyme disease

2005-12-24T12:05:00.000-06:00

Maryland Community Newspapers Online
On a November day last year, Patty Belke’s 6-year-old son Jared came back from playing in the autumn leaves.

The family, who lives in Good Hope Estates, often made trips to the nearby Maydale Nature Center in Cloverly, but for Jared, this trip ended differently.

Patty Belke found a tick embedded on Jared’s back. The tiny bloodsucking insect had not yet swollen from feeding, and was roughly the size of a poppy seed. After its removal, the family thought no more of it.

Within two weeks, however, Jared had strange symptoms. His hands and feet felt tingly and painful, and other troubles soon followed.

‘‘[Normally,] we knew our child was very coordinated and highly intelligent,” Patty Belke said. ‘‘Within a couple of months, he had involuntary body movements, he was clearing his throat a lot ... he became oversensitive to light.”

The Belke family didn’t know it, but Jared had Lyme disease. The illness is prevalent in suburban and rural areas, where the deer that carry the diseased ticks can be found. A rash shaped like a bull’s-eye often results from the tick bite, but the rash does not occur in all cases.

The bacteria are sophisticated enough to bypass the immune system, and varied enough to manifest more than 100 symptoms. The disease’s variable nature makes it difficult for doctors to diagnose because it can mimic other illnesses.

‘‘Part of the misconception is if you have it, you’ll definitely get the bull’s-eye rash,” Patty Belke said, adding that her son did not develop the rash. ‘‘My son was tested twice by local doctors — both blood tests came back negative.”

Finally, the family contacted a California-based clinic that specialized in tick-borne diseases, and this led to a successful diagnosis.

Such problems are common for Lyme, according to Dr. Leila Zackrison, a Fairfax, Va., rheumatologist who specializes in identifying Lyme.

‘‘It is a bacterium, but it prefers living inside the cell” of infected tissues, she said. ‘‘It is genetically very sophisticated ... it can change the genes and the proteins at will, so it’s very hard for the immune system to detect it.”

Most people who suffer may not recall being bitten by a tick. Winter infections can be harder to diagnose because the symptoms match many cold-weather illnesses.

‘‘The usual season is June through the fall ... but there are late ones, especially if it’s been not so cold,” she said.

Lyme disease manifests itself by attacking three areas. If it affects the muscular-skeletal system, patients feel joint pains and muscle aches. If it attacks the nervous system, patients can suffer from tics and twitches, as well as paralysis in some cases. This variant also can lead to behavioral symptoms, such as depression, said Dr. Raphael Stricker, president of the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society.

Stricker said a strain of the bacteria has arisen along the East Coast that can target the cardiac system, leading to heart arrhythmia. Other symptoms include joint pains that can disappear and reappear, and also hallucinatory experiences such as hearing music.

The earlier Lyme is diagnosed, the easier the treatment, which consists mostly of antibiotics. More serious or chronic infections can lead to hospital stays and intravenous treatment, but Stricker said even a non-hospitalizing infection can be debilitating.

‘‘You still get chronic symptoms, like inflammation, which can be disabling — people have lost their jobs and livelihoods because of this,” he said.

The best approach is prevention, according to Zackrison. Homeowners should try to limit the number of deer that come into their yard, by putting up fences, for example. Parents should spray themselves and children with repellent, and should check for ticks after going out. Children are more likely to get ticks in their hair, ears, neck and armpits, while taller adults are more likely to get bites on their legs or groin. ‘‘If you’re on a property, make sure you clear the hedges, and don’t let underbrush or leaves accumulate,” she said.

If you do get a tick on you, it does not mean you automatically have Lyme disease, according to Marilyn Piety, manager of special projects of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services. In her work with the communicable diseases program, Piety has learned that tick bites often take days to transfer the bacteria to victims.

‘‘The tick has to be on for a while — at least 48 hours — to give you Lyme disease,” she said. Further complicating the matter, adult ticks are not the only type that can transmit the disease. Younger ticks, known as nymphs, are equally to blame and much harder to see — sometimes as small as 2 mm across, Piety said.

For Montgomery County, which is less rural, the number of Lyme disease cases is relatively low compared to other Maryland counties, and Lyme cases have decreased each year since 2000.

In 2004, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Epidemiology and Disease Control Program reported 38 cases for the county, compared to 117 in Frederick County and 63 in Prince George’s. In 2003, Montgomery County reported 49 cases.

Jared Belke’s parents are thankful that his school notified them about his behavior changes. They found a specialist in Connecticut to treat him.

A year later, Jared’s symptoms are much milder, and he is taking antibiotics. Patty Belke said the medical costs have ranged from $10 to $100 per month, but that she had heard of acute cases costing up to $1,000 monthly.

The Belkes now use bug repellent and check themselves for ticks after each excursion. Jared still loves to play in the leaves, but he’s more careful, going in only up to his knees.

‘‘Every once in a while, he’d say, ‘I don’t like ticks — why do there have to be ticks?’ ” Patty Belke said. ‘‘But he takes the medicine and does what he has to do and he’s pretty positive through the whole thing.”

Indirect evidence of Lyme disease found in Okanagan

2005-12-20T22:45:00.000-06:00

The Vancouver Sun
The Interior Health Authority says it has found the first indirect evidence of Lyme disease in the Okanagan.

"We have been concerned it might be present in the Okanagan at very low levels and this recent information confirms the low risk," Dr. Rob Parker, medical health officer with the authority, said in a news release.

A man on Kelowna's Westside tested positive for Lyme disease in August but doctors don't know if he was infected locally or outside the region.

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control carried out tick and deer mouse collection in several areas in the Okanagan but only a few actually had Lyme disease.

"The findings are in some ways reassuring,"' said Parker. "Most of the ticks in the Interior are of a type not known to transmit Lyme disease."

Lyme disease can be a serious illness. Routine precautions while hiking are advisable, and early diagnosis is important as effective antibiotic treatment is available.

"This new finding doesn't change the advice we have routinely been giving the general public," said Parker. "People should take measures to prevent tick bites wherever in B.C. they are hiking out of doors during the spring, summer and fall."

The research project by the centre for disease control is one of several in an ongoing effort to determine the areas of the province most at risk for Lyme disease. The results confirm earlier studies, which show that Lyme is present in several areas of the province but that the ticks carrying the disease are still rare.

Each year in B.C., three to five cases of Lyme disease in humans are reported to public health authorities.

To help prevent tick bites, people are advised to wear appropriate clothing when walking or working in areas where ticks may be present, particularly from May to November.

People are also advised to walk on cleared trails; wear a hat, long sleeves and pants and light coloured clothing; tuck pant legs into socks or boots; and use an insect repellent containing DEET on clothing and exposed skin.

Teacher faces health problems with courage

2005-12-11T16:47:00.000-06:00

Portsmouth Herald News - Portsmouth,NH,USA

There are, Stephen Bracciotti says, many people in the world are far worse off than he is. Still, when life socks you between the eyes, as it has him, you are forced to take stock and count blessings when you least expect them.

The well-known York, Maine, musician and guitar teacher has been dealing since early summer with a thus-far undiagnosed ailment that has left him legally blind in one eye and with declining vision in the other. Bracciotti, 54, has had spinal taps, CAT scans, intravenous antibiotics, an eye biopsy. He sees neuro-opthamologists, infectious disease specialists, neuro-oncologists.

Self-employed, as is his jeweler wife, Lauren Pollaro, he is facing upward of $100,000 in medical bills not covered by his high-deductible, catastrophic insurance policy that is proving woefully inadequate. He has to increasingly rely on others for simple daily activities.

And yet, he says, this has been one of the most enriching times in his life, and has changed forever how he will view himself in the future.

Bracciotti said his health problems probably began in June with a deer tick bite. Certainly, that’s when he began to track his problems. He had already had Lyme disease in 1997, and was familiar with its symptoms. Within days, he was running a fever and was put on antibiotics. Not long after, he felt intense pain in the back of his eyes. The diagnosis: Lyme meningitis, or swelling of the brain. More intense and intravenous antibiotics followed, and the pain subsided.

In early August, however, he noticed something wrong with his vision - a shimmering obstruction, like an amoeba, he said, on his left eye. A neuro-opthomologist from Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary said his optic nerves were swollen. By the end of the month, his eyesight was rapidly diminishing. And his right eye was beginning to be affected. He was seeing a Lyme specialist in Boston by then, who - after a spinal tap and more intravenous IV - told him he did not think the loss of vision was caused by Lyme.

That’s when, in September, doctors began to suspect optic lymphoma - cancer. In early October, a biopsy was conducted and vitreous fluid from the eye extracted. It was tested - and no cancer was indicated. However, Bracciotti said, the test is right only 30 percent of the time. That’s where matters stand now, as he wonders whether he should have a more invasive operation where a slice of optic nerve is taken.

"My gut tells me it isn’t cancer - because I don’t want it to be," Bracciotti said.

Bracciotti, who has been on the music faculty at Berwick Academy and the Rivertree Center for the Arts in Kennebunk, and has a private studio in York , had to stop working in September, when he could no longer see well enough to teach.

"The hard part is that I pride myself on looking at my students’ technique. I want to be attentive and I can’t," he said.

The most difficult and the most rewarding aspect of his situation, he said, is how vulnerable he now feels. Difficult, because he can’t take care of his wife and child, 6-year-old Adrian, as he once did, working around the house, paying the bills. Difficult because "it’s hard for me to be beholden to others."

"I’m struggling with being overwhelmed. I’m struggling with getting my house in order - literally and figuratively - in case I lose more of my sight."

But it is rewarding, too, to realize how much people care about him.

In late October, local musician Joyce Andersen dedicated her last Sunday night show of the season at Inn on the Blues in York Beach to Bracciotti. She became involved after receiving a call from South Berwick musician and Berwick Academy teacher Chip Harding, who has known Bracciotti for years.

Among those performing that night in addition to Andersen and Harding, were Kevin Farley, Mike Rogers, Joe Rogers, Kent Allyn, Tom Richter and Andersen’s husband, Harvey Reid.

"We know how hard it is to be a musician with expensive and inadequate health insurance," Andersen said. "But we can’t know what it’s like to be going through what Stephen and his family are going through. It makes you want to do something."

The concert raised $2,800, which was funneled into a nonprofit organization started by Harding called Healing Vision. Healing Vision was formed specifically to receive donations from those who want to help out Bracciotti and Pollaro.

"That a couple who is doing everything right, who is working hard to be productive in their fields, to be good parents, to be good citizens can be hanging by a thread like they are, in the wealthiest nation in the world, is pretty pathetic," Harding said.

Bracciotti is overwhelmed by the outpouring of help he has received, from musicians, friends, family, even total strangers.

"I’ve shed more tears in the past three months than I have in my entire life," he said. "I keep thinking how can I possibly deserve this?

"My hope is that when I am whole again, I know I will be helping people in some way," he said. "I’ve always been a compassionate person, but I didn’t take the time. If I can retain enough vision so I am not completely blind, I want to work with people in a similar situation."

In the meantime, he is taking things one day at a time. He practices Chi Kung, a form of Tai Chi, every morning, and meditates every night to relieve the stress.

And he waits.

Lyme disease: The great masquerader

2005-12-11T16:04:00.000-06:00

The Harvard Post
This year, my Labor Day weekend was dedicated to replacing a retaining wall. The original 90-foot structure, built with railroad ties, had eroded over the years, forming a massive jungle of rotting ties, thorny vines, and long grass. Several family members came to help, and I rented a Bobcat. We hauled old ties out of the tangled weeds on Saturday, and were covered with welts, dirt, and bug bites by the end of the day.

Starting the new wall on Sunday, I felt dizzy and weak. My helpers graciously offered to do the manual lifting, while I drove the Bobcat, but I barely had enough energy for that. I finally climbed out of the cab, and collapsed on my front yard. Thus began my descent into the puzzling and painful world of Lyme disease, where I learned firsthand how hard it is to be diagnosed and treated for this dreadful disease.

As I lay dazed in the midday sun, my neighbor, Brad, came over. He talked to the rest of my family, and helped move some ties. Had I been more coherent, I might have heard him say that his wife, Karen, was starting to feel numbness and tingling in her hands and feet. Feeling useless, I eventually just went to bed. It was Monday afternoon, 24 hours later, when I finally got up.

When I went to work on Tuesday, my neck was swollen and sore. I also had a large red patch across my back and chest that looked like sunburn. By Wednesday, my neck hurt so bad I couldn't move my head, and my shoulder ached. My chiropractor said that muscle strain could cause the pain, but he had no explanation for the red patch. A bull's eye rash would have been more recognizable, but Lyme disease doesn't always leave such obvious clues.

During the day, the pain was tolerable, but at night it was horrible. My various aches intensified around bedtime, and got worse when I lay down. I couldn't find a position for my arm that didn't hurt, and I rarely got more than three hours of sleep.

Then, for no apparent reason, my face started drooping on one side. For three days, I progressively lost motion in my mouth, cheek, and right eye. By Monday, two weeks after Labor Day, half my face was completely paralyzed. Talking, eating, and drinking were difficult, and I looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Two contractors were helping me finish the wall, and one said to the other, "I don't like that guy; he doesn't show any emotion." I guess he was half right.

I had Bell's palsy, a paralysis of the face. My neighbor, Karen, who developed a milder version of the same thing, suspected Lyme disease, and convinced me I had it, too. Lyme disease comes from deer ticks, and I probably encountered one in the weeds by my wall. I took a blood test, and requested antibiotics to get a head start on the
disease while waiting for the results. Since I never saw the tick that bit me, and didn't develop a bull's eye rash (known as clinical evidence), my doctor refused to prescribe anything until the tests came back.

Karen had more trouble with her doctors. On the Wednesday after Labor Day, she had heart palpitations, a migrating pain in her leg, back, and arm, and felt constant numbness and tingling throughout the left side of her body. By the end of the week, she had headaches, and her arm was weak and wobbly. Afraid she was having a heart attack or stroke, Karen saw three different doctors that week. One said it was all in her head, another prescribed a tranquilizer, and the last said she should go home and have a beer.

Karen had two Lyme tests, both with negative results, so she requested something more reliable. This time, the test results showed Lyme activity, but not enough to be above the standard guidelines. Her doctor said she didn't have the disease, so Karen found a specialist on the Internet.

This 'Lyme Literate' doctor determined that Karen had the disease based on her symptoms (a clinical diagnosis). The activity seen on her previous test confirmed the diagnosis, so he prescribed an antibiotic. She needs to take the medication until one month after her symptoms go away. No one knows how long it takes to eradicate Lyme, because the bacteria hide from antibiotics and vaccines.

My Lyme test came back positive. I was given four weeks of an antibiotic, and all my symptoms were gone by the end of it. A few days later, though, I started having heart palpitations, tingling in my fingers, and pain in my elbows. Initial Lyme symptoms can diminish, even without treatment, while bacteria penetrate deeper into your system. This is known as Chronic Lyme, which may exhibit completely different symptoms. The clever masquerader can change its disguise to avoid detection.

My doctor wouldn't refill the antibiotic without more testing, so I called Karen's Lyme Literate doctor. He no longer deals with insurance, and charges $425 for the first visit (not counting lab fees). I called three other Lyme specialists, and they don't bother with insurance either. If my problems continue, I may have to raid my kid's piggybank. Just before Thanksgiving, Karen took her fourth Lyme test, and finally tested positive. Now she knows her medication should help, and that she's been right all along.

The number of Lyme cases in this region is astounding. Debbie directs a children's choir at Karen's church, and suffers from Lyme and Bell's palsy. She says that 11 people were stricken in Harvard this year, and learned that 15 doctors at a local facility are treating 10 cases of Lyme each. I met Darcy because she was describing her Bell's palsy at a party. She knows a third grader with the disease, a man on Stow Road who had it three times, and another boy who got it when a tick bit him in the eye. Many of these people, including Debbie and Darcy, had trouble getting diagnosed and treated correctly.

Considering the number of people with Lyme, and the amount of information available, it's puzzling why the medical community seems so unprepared to handle the disease. Maybe the reason is that Lyme isn't fatal or contagious. Or, perhaps, it's because treating the disease isn't lucrative for insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Or, maybe it's the elusive nature of Lyme bacteria. One thing is clear: Until doctors sort this out, people will continue to be ignored or misdiagnosed.

Whenever symptoms don't make sense, or won't improve with treatment, it might be Lyme masquerading as something else. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to this disease, and help is available through numerous educational and support organizations on-line. As Karen says, "You need to be your own best advocate."

Educator, union leader dies

2005-12-09T11:35:00.000-06:00

THE JOURNAL NEWS - Westchester,NY,USA
Longtime educator Richard T. Mullin, who for 30 years was president of the East Ramapo Teachers Association, died yesterday morning from complications of Lyme disease. He was 80.

"He was tough," said Georgine Hyde, who was an East Ramapo Board of Education member for much of his tenure and negotiated with him over union matters. "He was a very competent guy in his field, and he was a nice guy."

Mullin was born May 18, 1925, in Michigan to Edward and Ethel Bruckel Mullin. He attended schools in New Milford, N.J. After graduating from high school, he entered the Army and was stationed in Italy, where he was a member of the Fifth Army, 88th Infantry Division, the "Blue Devils," during World War II.

As a radioman, he won a Bronze Star for bravery in action. He was also in the Army during the Korean War. He attended Seton Hall University after leaving the military, graduating with a teaching degree in 1958.

He and Audrey Hartye were married May 28, 1955, in St. Peter's Church in Clifton, N.J.

The family moved to Rockland in 1962, into a house Mullin built in Blauvelt and where he lived until his death. He was hired by East Ramapo schools in 1962 as an English teacher and was as teacher and English Department chairman at Ramapo High School until 1995, when he retired.

His daughter said one of his passions was the teachers union.

"The East Ramapo Teachers Association has suffered a great loss with the passing of our former president, Richard T. Mullin," said Irene Bielski, the current president of the East Ramapo Teachers Association. "Mr. Mullin was instrumental in establishing and shaping the teachers association. His dedication to both the teachers and students of the district, throughout his well over 30 years of service, has left a mark on East Ramapo, which cannot be surpassed. He was the ultimate professional and will be missed tremendously."

Kyle Mullin Kitchenman described her father as a man of humor and principle who loved his family and had a special bond with his grandson, Willy, now a student at SUNY Cortland.

Survivors include his wife of Blauvelt; two daughters, Kerry Mullin Beckmann of Blauvelt and Kyle Mullin Kitchenman of Warwick, N.Y.; and two grandchildren. A brother, Edward "Micky" Mullin, died earlier.

Arrangements are under the direction of Moritz Funeral Home in Tappan, where calling hours will be from 7 to 9 p.m. today and from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow. A Mass of the Christian Burial will celebrated be at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Catharine's Catholic Church in Blauvelt. A private family burial will be in Greenbush Cemetery.

Innovative Research Will Improve Understanding of Lyme and Other Tick-Borne Diseases

2005-12-07T13:53:00.000-06:00

PRNewswire
The National Research Fund for Tick-Borne Diseases, Inc. (NRFTD) announced today it will fund two innovative pilot studies designed to advance scientific understanding of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. The studies will focus on the physical structure and genetic makeup of two different tick-borne bacteria, and will yield important information concerning their ability to establish infection and cause disease in human hosts.

"These projects will utilize cutting-edge laboratory techniques to help develop our understanding of two important human pathogens," said Leo J. Shea, III, Ph.D., Chairman of the NRFTD Board of Directors. "The data yielded will be of use to scientists in multiple disciplines associated with tick-borne diseases, and will drive further important laboratory and clinical research related to these organisms."

Nikhat Parveen, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the New Jersey Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry at New Jersey) will use her award moneys to study an outer surface protein of Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. This protein, known as OspC, is thought to play a key role during early Lyme infection. However, some strains of B. burgdorferi contain a defective OspC gene and fail to cause infection in mammals. By studying the wide variation in OspC expression among different strains of the bacterium, Parveen will attempt to tease out the specific factors that promote its ability to infect and disseminate through human tissues. This work will also have implications for improved diagnostic testing and vaccine development for Lyme disease.

Timothy John Kurtti, Ph.D. (Professor of Entomology at the University of Minnesota) will investigate how the parasite Anaplasma phagocytophilum, which invades certain white blood cells when transmitted to humans, survives the drastic environmental differences between warm-blooded mammals and cold-blooded ticks. Using a new genomic technology called microarray analysis, Kurtti will determine the specific genes that become active depending on whether the bacterium is in tick or human cells. The results of this work will provide crucial supplemental information to the recently completed but unannotated Anaplasma genome, and will advance current understanding of the bacterium's ability to evade the immune response of its human host. Further, it will likely establish microarray analysis as an important new technology for studying other bacterial pathogens transmitted by ticks.

Recognizing the pressing need to understand and cure tick-borne diseases, the NRFTD and its team of scientific advisors developed an expedited funding initiative based on rigorous scientific standards designed to attract the best researchers in the world. In this initial round of funding, the organization received an impressive selection of grant applications from well-respected investigators in the United States, Europe and Australia. With as many as half of all households affected by Lyme in some endemic areas, and with Lyme case reports rising dramatically, the need to understand tick-borne disease has never been greater.

About the National Research Fund for Tick-Borne Diseases, Inc.

The NRFTD is a nonprofit organization devoted to funding scientific research in the rapidly expanding field of tick-borne diseases. It aims to advance scientific understanding of these complicated infections by sponsoring innovative research at premier institutions throughout the world.

The NRFTD was founded in 1999 to address the complex and critical research questions raised by thousands of patients afflicted with emerging tick-borne diseases, including Lyme disease, relapsing fever, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, bartonella and ehrlichiosis. The need for answers has grown markedly as Lyme disease continues to spread throughout the country and as other tick-borne infections have been recognized as public health threats.

For more information about the NRFTD, or to make a tax-deductible donation, please visit http://www.nrftd.org.