TOUCHED BY LYME: A “Manhattan project” for Lyme disease?
23rd August 2012
Click above to share articles
A prominent Lyme-treating physician from New York calls for an all-out effort to combat the Lyme epidemic.
The
“Manhattan project” was the code name for the all-out effort by the US
government and its allies to develop an atom bomb during World War 2.
Now, an important Lyme doctor in New York is calling for government
officials and others to put forth a similar all-out effort to combat
Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.Writing in the Poughkeepsie Journal, Dr. Kenneth Leigner says this should be of particular concern to New Yorkers:
By total numbers of cases, New Yorkers have been more heavily impacted by this tick-borne scourge than citizens of any other state in the nation. All strata of society are being seriously affected, including children. Many ill with Lyme disease have had their lives derailed. With the passage of time and without proper treatment, the condition worsens and can result in progressive debilitation and disability. Unable to work or pay taxes, such individuals may end up drawing disability benefits. Their illnesses are a financial burden to themselves, their families, private health insurers and, through Medicare SSI and Medicaid, to state and federal governments.
Leigner cites the need for better tick control, better testing, more effective treatments, and better physician training. He continues:
Most problems have solutions, but in order to address them, they must be acknowledged. If we could put a man on the moon, we can solve the problems posed by Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections. We just need the will to do so.
It took medical science some 500 years to gain a good understanding of syphilis.
We are but 40 years into Lyme disease, a complex infection by another spirochetal organism, B. burgdorferi, more genetically complex than even the wily Treponema pallidum.
Recently in the scientific journal “PLoS ONE,” Monica Embers and her group reported isolation of viable Lyme spirochetes in Rhesus monkeys which had been infected with Borrelia burgdorferi organisms and treated with oral and intravenous antibiotics used to treat Lyme disease in humans. Antibody responses, which were strong initially, waned and became negative in some animals despite ongoing active infection. Clinicians caring for patients with Lyme disease have observed similar phenomena. Lyme spirochetes were grown from the cerebrospinal fluid of my patient Vicki Logan at the Centers for Disease Control in Fort Collins, Colo., in 1991 despite prior treatment thought more than adequate to cure the infection.
Lyme disease, a true, not false, epidemic, continues to spread throughout the populace. By total numbers of cases, New Yorkers have been more heavily impacted by this tick-borne scourge than citizens of any other state in the nation. All strata of society are being seriously affected, including children. Many ill with Lyme disease have had their lives derailed. With the passage of time and without proper treatment, the condition worsens and can result in progressive debilitation and disability. Unable to work or pay taxes, such individuals may end up drawing disability benefits. Their illnesses are a financial burden to themselves, their families, private health insurers and, through Medicare SSI and Medicaid, to state and federal governments.
It is in the interests of all for a major initiative to be undertaken within the State of New York concerning Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. Ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis, babesiosis (and, arguably, tick-transmissible bartonellosis) pose grave threats to our citizenry.
It took medical science some 500 years to gain a good understanding of syphilis.
We are but 40 years into Lyme disease, a complex infection by another spirochetal organism, B. burgdorferi, more genetically complex than even the wily Treponema pallidum.
Recently in the scientific journal “PLoS ONE,” Monica Embers and her group reported isolation of viable Lyme spirochetes in Rhesus monkeys which had been infected with Borrelia burgdorferi organisms and treated with oral and intravenous antibiotics used to treat Lyme disease in humans. Antibody responses, which were strong initially, waned and became negative in some animals despite ongoing active infection. Clinicians caring for patients with Lyme disease have observed similar phenomena. Lyme spirochetes were grown from the cerebrospinal fluid of my patient Vicki Logan at the Centers for Disease Control in Fort Collins, Colo., in 1991 despite prior treatment thought more than adequate to cure the infection.
Lyme disease, a true, not false, epidemic, continues to spread throughout the populace. By total numbers of cases, New Yorkers have been more heavily impacted by this tick-borne scourge than citizens of any other state in the nation. All strata of society are being seriously affected, including children. Many ill with Lyme disease have had their lives derailed. With the passage of time and without proper treatment, the condition worsens and can result in progressive debilitation and disability. Unable to work or pay taxes, such individuals may end up drawing disability benefits. Their illnesses are a financial burden to themselves, their families, private health insurers and, through Medicare SSI and Medicaid, to state and federal governments.
It is in the interests of all for a major initiative to be undertaken within the State of New York concerning Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. Ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis, babesiosis (and, arguably, tick-transmissible bartonellosis) pose grave threats to our citizenry.
http://lymedisease.org/news/touchedbylyme/leigner-manhattan-project.html
