New Lyme strains documented in Florida & new test

[Guest guest]

Very compelling. Thanks.

 

Linda

 

-

 

bestsurprise2002

 

MCS-Canada

 

Mon, 25 May 2009 01:30:51 +0000 (UTC)

 

<< >> New Lyme strains documented in Florida

& new test

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Lyme strains documented in Florida & new test

 

 

 

 

 

UNF professor works to unlock Lyme disease's mysteries.

 

 

 

 

 

Kerry Clark thinks he's developed a better test to diagnose the illness.

 

 

By Jeremy Cox

 

 

Story updated at 4:07 PM on Monday, May. 18, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

**Tick-borne Disease Research Area - Please Do Not Enter,** the sign says

 

 

on the front door of Kerry Clark's University of North Florida office. If

 

 

that*s not enough of a deterrence, there are always the photographs of

 

 

Florida*s three most common tick species blown up to larger-than- life

 

 

proportions.

 

 

 

 

 

But it*s worth poking inside the seemingly menacing door if only to meet

 

 

Clark and listen to his story.

 

 

 

 

 

**It*s like a great mystery,** Clark said.

 

 

 

 

 

The villain of his story is Lyme disease, a poorly understood illness

 

 

that*s spread by tick bites to tens of thousands of Americans each year. After

 

 

a decade of paltry funding and suffering countless tick bites himself, the

 

 

40-year-old epidemiology professor has reached a scientific breakthrough

 

 

that stands to revolutionize the way doctors diagnose and treat Lyme.

 

 

 

 

 

In addition, his toil has revealed an unsettling message for the people of

 

 

Florida and other parts of the South: Lyme-carrying ticks are spreading

 

 

the illness here at vastly higher rates than what public health statistics

 

 

and experts have suggested.

 

 

 

 

 

Disease*s spread

 

 

 

 

 

Lyme disease follows a perplexing arc that begins with a bull*s eye-shaped

 

 

rash and vague, flu-like symptoms. Without treatment, Lyme digs in deep,

 

 

progressing to potentially disabling effects, like severe arthritis,

 

 

fatigue, numbness in the hands or feet and neurological problems.

 

 

 

 

 

The vast majority of the more than 265,000 cases of Lyme disease reported

 

 

since 1993 have come from the Northeast and upper Midwest.

 

 

 

 

 

That*s a conservative number. Scientists think there are seven to 12 cases

 

 

for each one that is reported. And even that dire-sounding estimate may be

 

 

too low. Only about 40 percent of positive cases are getting detected by

 

 

traditional diagnostic tools, which test the body*s reaction to the Lyme

 

 

bacteria, Clark said.

 

 

 

 

 

Clark thinks that his test, which involves looking for Lyme*s DNA in the

 

 

victim*s blood, is a more accurate way of detecting the disease.

 

 

 

 

 

For many, an inaccurate test is a life-changer.

 

 

 

 

 

Caught early, the Lyme bacteria usually can be wiped out with antibiotics.

 

 

But many cases go undetected for years because people, though sick, often

 

 

don*t know they*ve been bitten by a tick or don't develop the tell-tale

 

 

rash.

 

 

 

 

 

Not safe in the South

 

 

 

 

 

People like Dane Boggs. For a decade, Boggs, a home builder, felt tired

 

 

all the time and his joints hurt. But his symptoms were mild, so he figured

 

 

they were merely the side effects of getting older.

 

 

 

 

 

Things got worse, though, after he was bitten by a tick on a job site in

 

 

Atlantic Beach five years ago. He now thinks that his previous decade of

 

 

troubles were caused by a tick bite that went unnoticed.

 

 

 

 

 

The double whammy of bites nearly crippled him, he said.

 

 

 

 

 

**My immune system was kind of fighting it off for 10 years, but when I

 

 

got bit [the second time], that's when I got super-sick,** Boggs said. **I

 

 

just wanted to go to bed all the time. It was like an 18-wheeler ran over my

 

 

body.**

 

 

 

 

 

The Ponte Vedra Beach man retired early to devote all his time to fighting

 

 

the illness. He took powerful antibiotics for two years with little

 

 

improvement. So he turned to an alternative therapy that uses electrical

 

 

frequencies to zap microscopic invaders like Lyme disease.

 

 

 

 

 

Today, the 55-year-old is healthy, though he cautions his results from the

 

 

alternative treatment probably aren't the norm. After his battle, Boggs

 

 

co-founded a research and support organization called the Northeast Florida

 

 

Lyme Association.

 

 

 

 

 

**Nobody even believes Lyme disease is in Florida. But it does exist, and

 

 

a lot of people are sick,** said Boggs, who has found a sympathetic ear and

 

 

a NEFLA board member in Kerry Clark.

 

 

 

 

 

Finding new strains

 

 

 

 

 

Clark's research has revealed that Lyme disease is much more common in

 

 

Florida than previously known.

 

 

 

 

 

State disease-surveillanc e efforts confirmed 88 cases last year, 11 of

 

 

which are believed to have originated in the state. But Clark has found the

 

 

Lyme bacteria in virtually every corner of the state, including hordes on

 

 

the First Coast.

 

 

 

 

 

The perception that the South doesn't have a Lyme problem has biological

 

 

roots.

 

 

In the Northeast, mice are the primary reservoir of the Lyme bacteria,

 

 

known among scientists as Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. But in the South,

 

 

lizards are ticks' prime target. And since studies in California showed that

 

 

reptiles were poor reservoirs, many scientists concluded that the South

 

 

was relatively safe.

 

 

 

 

 

But Clark's studies of lizards in South Carolina and Florida revealed that

 

 

54 percent were positive for Lyme disease. That research petered out

 

 

because of a lack of funding - a frequent complaint of Clark's - but it led him

 

 

to perfect what he believes to be the most sensitive testing method yet for

 

 

the disease.

 

 

 

 

 

Lyme disease is hard to detect in lizards because their blood is highly

 

 

concentrated with their own DNA, overwhelming the genetic tidbits of any other

 

 

organisms that might be in their systems. By applying the same amplifying

 

 

methods he developed for lizard samples, Clark started getting positive

 

 

readings in human samples that had previously tested negative.

 

 

 

 

 

Clark put his theory to the test on 150 blood and skin samples collected

 

 

from patients suspected of having Lyme disease.

 

 

 

 

 

Forty-four percent came back positive, including 20 of the 49 samples from

 

 

Florida.

 

 

What's more, for the first time anywhere in the United States, he found

 

 

two additional strains of Lyme disease in humans: Borrelia andersonii and

 

 

another that has not yet been named.

 

 

 

 

 

At least five strains of Lyme are known to infect animals and ticks, but

 

 

researchers had never seen more than one in humans, Clark said. Most

 

 

diagnostic tests were only developed to detect one Lyme strain. So if more are

 

 

infecting humans, Clark thinks, that may explain why they have such a high

 

 

error rate.

 

 

 

 

 

A paper detailing his findings is in review with the Journal of Clinical

 

 

Microbiology.

 

 

 

 

 

Andrea Varela-Stokes, a parasitologist at Mississippi State University,

 

 

said she is intrigued by Clark's research. She called the understanding of

 

 

Lyme in the South a " tricky situation " because scientists have been unable to

 

 

grow the Lyme bacteria in laboratory cultures from sick patients.

 

 

 

 

 

Although Clark ran into the same problem, he thinks he*s had a

 

 

breakthrough.

 

 

**I think the paper is a really big deal,** he said. **One of two things

 

 

is going to happen: They*re going to say, *This is that weirdo who did all

 

 

that lizard stuff.* Or they*re going to say, *Why didn*t we do that?* **