bartonelloses / lyme

http://rms.medhyg.ch/numero-152-page-901.htm

EVIDENCED BASED PRACTICE OF LYME DISEASE

EVENT: Dr. Cameron to address physicians in Wisconsin Oct. 6

11th September 2012

 

CME credits available to physicians for learning more about treating Lyme disease.

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EVIDENCED BASED PRACTICE OF LYME DISEASE

October 6, 2012

1:00pm – 3:00pm

Health Research Center Auditorium

The Medical College of Wisconsin

8701 Watertown Plank Road

Milwaukee, WI 53226

This activity is designed for Pediatricians, Family Medicine, General Internists, Infectious Disease and Neurologists

Learning Objectives: Upon completion of the program, participants should be able to:

• ·    Identify patients who present with typical and unusual presentations of Lyme disease and associated diseases
•      Describe the mechanisms of virulence and persistence by the Lyme spirochete
• ·    Select the best method to evaluate patients with Lyme and co-infections
• ·    Select the evidence-based treatment for various clinical scenarios for the differing clinical presentation to achieve a good outcome
• .    Identify barriers to implement divergent Lyme disease guidelines and how to translate the new guidelines into practice

Dr. Daniel Cameron graduated from the University of Minnesota followed by residencies at Beth Israel Medical Center and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York.  Dr. Cameron is widely recognized for conducting epidemiologic research while practicing medicine.  He has been viewed as a pioneer in Lyme disease as an author of practice guidelines, analytic reviews, and clinical trials.  He has published 9 peer reviewed articles based on his research in the past 5 years.

Dr. Cameron served as president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society from 2007 to 2009.  He has testified as an expert on Lyme disease for legislation in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania for physician’s rights to diagnose Lyme disease using clinical judgment without state interference.  He has been interviewed as an expert on the NBC today show, Good Morning America, Fox News, Sirius radio and in newspapers.

He currently sees patients in his private practice in Mt. Kisco, New York while continuing his research and writing.  He maintains the website www.LymeProject.com.

Accreditation Statement:
The Medical College of Wisconsin is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Designation of Credit Statement:
The Medical College of Wisconsin designates this live activity for a maximum of 2.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s) ™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

RSVP and Special Needs Contact:  Jennifer Christie (920) 246-2164 orjchristie000@ameritech.ne
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Probiotiques et prébiotiques

Probiotiques et flore intestinale

Les ferments lactiques, micro-organismes vivants ont comme point commun de produire de l’acide lactique. On les retrouve dans les laits fermentés et autres compléments nutritionnels. Ils sont capables de ré-ensemencer la flore intestinale.

1.Les bifidobactéries (B. bifidum)

Ce sont les premières bactéries qui colonisent notre cæcum et notre côlon quelques jours après la naissance. On en dénombre actuellement une trentaine d’espèces.

Le rôle préventif des bifidobactéries dans la diarrhée vient d’être à nouveau confirmé par une étude réalisée par l’INRA.

Le rôle des bifidobactéries sur l’immunité est d'augmenter l’activité phagocytaire périphérique. L’association de B. bifidum et L.acidophilus diminue la fréquence des inflammations du côlon pelvien (extrait de Recherche scientifique sur les ferments lactiques et F.O.S. Bionatec).

2.Les lactobacilles (L.acidophilus, L.bulgaricus, S.thermophilus)

Elles produisent plus d’acide lactique que les bifidobactéries et vivent dans un milieu dépourvu d’oxygène (anaérobie).

Les lactobacilles existent naturellement dans le tractus intestinal de l’homme. Ils sont capables de prévenir différents types de diarrhées et diminuent la fréquence des mycoses en favorisant le rôle de barrière protectrice de la flore intestinale.

Des recherches récentes ont montré la capacité du L. acidophilus à abaisser le taux de cholestérol en augmentant son assimilation avec la bile et en augmentant son excrétion.

Le jus de myrtille a une action connu sur la reconstitution d'une bonne flore intestinale, l'alimentation est un moyen indispensable pour la santé des bactéries intestinales.

Certains aliments favorise une bonne flore intestinale comme le kéfir, le kombucha et la levure de bière revivifiable.

L’apport simultané de bifdobactéries et de lactobacilles vivants, en quantité suffisante doit demeurer la priorité pour tout utilisateur de ferments lactiques.

A cette condition vient se rajouter l’adjonction de Prébiotiques dans la préparation.

http://aliments-sains.santeverte.org/probiotiques-bacteries.html

Prébiotiques (fos fructo-oligosaccharides)

Ce sont des composés alimentaires non-digeste dont la fermentation dans le gros intestin va favoriser la croissance des bifidobactéries. Ils servent d’aliments (substrat) à la flore intestinale (Berg 1998 ; Macfarlane et Cummings, 1999 ; Gibson et Roberfroid, 1995 Roberfroid, 2000).
Les Prébiotiques sont essentiellement des oligo-saccharides comme l’inuline ou les fructo-oligosaccharides ; on retrouve ces hydrates de carbone naturellement présents dans les artichauts, les bananes, les oignons, la chicorée, l’ail, les poireaux, etc. Sans avoir beaucoup de FOS, la myrtille a des vertus pour la reconstitution de la flore intestinale.
L’apport de FOS (fructo-oligosaccharides) procure :
Une amélioration de l’absorption de certains minéraux et des effets bénéfiques sur le métabolisme lipidique.
Des résultats préliminaires montre également que certains oligofructoses diminuent la concentration des triglycérides et du cholestérol (Fiordaliso et al. 1995 ; Takase et al.1994 ; Davidson et al.1998).
L’association Probiotiques et Prébiotiques améliore la survie des ferments lactiqueset accroît ses capacités biologiques. L’association bifidobactéries / fructo-oligosaccharides (F.O.S.) en est un bien bel exemple (Rowland et al, 1997 ;Colins et Gibson, 1999)

LYME

http://www.dopdfdownload.com/download/www__borreliose-gesellschaft__de--Texte--guidelines.pdf

la maladie de lyme

texte complet sur la maladie les soins etc....

The vitamine D controverse….should Lymies take more ?

The vitamine D controverse….should Lymies take more ? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503979/

France lyme : Déjeuner à Lyon le samedi 20 octobre 2012

http://francelyme.fr/

Déjeuner à Lyon le samedi 20 octobre 2012

Un repas amical aura lieu le samedi 20 octobre au restaurant O’Gargouil (crêperie, pizzeria) à Lyon, à 12h.
Cette rencontre est ouverte à tous (à condition d’apporter sa bonne humeur !).

Restaurant O’Gargouil
28 Boulevard Jules Favre
69006 Lyon
04 78 24 85 90
Google Maps

Accessible fauteuil roulant.

Accès :
- train : Gare Part-Dieu. A 500m de la gare (prendre la sortie de la gare « Vivier Merle »)
- TCL : métro gare Part-Dieu/Vivier Merle, ligne B (sortie « gare »)
- parkings : Parc de la gare Part-Dieu, Parking centre commercial Part-Dieu
En sortant de la gare ou du métro, tourner à droite sur le Bv Merle, il tourne légèrement sur la droite, puis prendre la rue en face (Bd Favre).

Merci de nous contacter au plus tard le 14 octobre 2012 à section.rhone@francelyme.fr pour réserver ou pour tout renseignement. (le restaurant ouvre le samedi midi spécialement pour notre groupe !)

More New Tick-Borne Diseases

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The Outdoors Hates You: More New Tick-Borne Diseases (ICAAC 1)

• By Maryn McKennaEmail Author
• September 10, 2012 | 
• 12:08 pm | 

This week I’m at ICAAC (the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy), a massive infectious-disease and drugs meeting that is sponsored every year by the American Society for Microbiology. ICAAC is an unabashed scary-disease geekgasm, the kind of meeting at which the editor of a major journal tweets from one room, “‘Modern medicine will come to a halt’ in India because of catastrophic multi-drug resistance” while a microbiologist alerts from another: “Rat lungworm traced to salads on a Caribbean cruise. Snails had apparently gotten to the greens.”

Good times.

Meanwhile, I was learning more about ticks.

The news last week was of a new tick-borne illness recently identified in Missouri, and of how it demonstrates the way that tick-borne infections are under-appreciated by medicine and public health, and even more by the general public. In addition to the new Heartland virus, I mentioned two other tick-borne diseases that had been identified in the past two years.

It turns out, though, that was an under-count. The news Sunday from ICAAC is that tick-related illnesses are even more common than they appear.

Dr. Bobbi Pritt, the laboratory director of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., unfolded a disease detective story that started in the summer of 2009 with two men who liked the outdoors, and two astute lab technicians. The men, a 54-year-old and a 23-year-old who had both been out in the woods in Wisconsin, had fevers, fatigue and headaches, and a history of tick bites; the 23-year-old, who had received a lung transplant for cystic fibrosis, was more seriously ill and had to be hospitalized. The technicians noted that the men’s disease was most like erlichiosis — but the tick that carries that tick-borne illness is not present in the upper Midwest. Months later — after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had sent a pair of investigators, after involving epidemiologists from the US military who had been studying illness in the residents of bases nationwide, after trapping mice and grinding up hundreds of ticks — the group realized they had found a new tick-borne illness. It was an Erlichia – though it is so new that it does not yet have a name — but it was carried by a tick species that had never been associated with that organism before. Forty-two people have been sickened by it so far. “This is not a benign disease,” Pritt warned.

Meanwhile, Dr. Peter Krause, a senior research scientist at the Yale schools of medicine and public health, described yet another formerly unknown tick-borne disease, one that is more like Lyme disease but is caused by a newly identified relative of the Lyme organism called Borrelia miyamotoi. The illness that results is a severe and sometimes fatal relapsing fever. But unlike other relapsing fevers already known to occur in the western United States, this one is carried by a different range of tick species: the “hard-bodied” ticks that are primarily in the eastern US and are responsible for transmitting Lyme, erlichiosis and anaplasmosis. So far, Krause said, this new disease has been most studied in humans in Russia — but ticks carrying B. miyamotoi have already been identified in the United States, in ticks and mice in the Northeast and upper Midwest.

Then, Dr. Gary Wormser of New York Medical College warned that a third tick-borne illness, deer tick virus — formerly known to affect only deer — is now emerging as a human pathogen. Two cases of encephalitis caused by it have been recorded. Wormser described a third, tragic case that he has not yet published: a 77-year-old man from upstate New York who already had several chronic illnesses was bitten by a tick in October 2010, developed a fever and lethargy a month later, slid into a coma — and died 8 months later, having never regained consciousness.

Finally, Dr. Barbara Herwaldt of the CDC reminded us that, even if these stories frighten you enough to never leave your house, you are still at risk of a tick-borne disease. To date, 159 people — “the tip of the iceberg,” she said — have been diagnosed with the tick-borne illness babesiosis after receiving a blood transfusion. Because of the lag between bite and symptoms, and because the symptoms of babesiosis — like all tick-borne diseases — could be caused by so many other things, infected donors are not successfully screened out by blood banks. And because there is no FDA-approved test for babesiosis — not just a test for blood, but not even a diagnostic test to prove infection in a patient — blood banks and even physicians are unable to say with certainly when someone is a risk and should abstain from donating.

“The bottom line is: There are too many cases; they are still occurring; this is not going away,” she said. “Infected people, and contaminated blood components, can travel much further than ticks can. Donor-screening tests are needed.”

Flickr/MattAllworth/CC

Persistence of Borrelia burgdorferi in mice after antibiotic therapy.

http://www.columbia-lyme.org/research/keyarticles.html

In this section, key articles are summarized and commentary is provided.  This section also serves as an opportunity for specific topics to be reviewed in detail. Contributions to this section by scientists, researchers, and/or physicians are welcome and will be reviewed for inclusion by members of our Center Research Staff and by members of the Center’s Scientific Advisory Board with expertise specific to the commentary or review.

Persistence of Borrelia burgdorferi in mice after antibiotic therapy.

Two studies have recently been published which reveal that Bb may persist in the mouse despite antibiotic therapy.   These studies support much earlier work by Straubinger et al in the dog model (1997) and Bockenstedt et al (2002) in the mouse model.  Bockenstedt et al (2002) showed that Bb persistence can occur after antibiotic treatment and that these spirochetes could be acquired by ticks (xenodiagnosis) but that the infected ticks could not transmit infection to naïve hosts – suggesting that the spirochetes were attenuated in that they had become non-infectious. Straubinger et al (1997) had shown that even after 30 days of antibiotic treatment, Bb spirochetes could be demonstrated in 3/12 dogs by culture, and DNA could be demonstrated by PCR in 9/12 dogs long after treatment.

More recently, Hodzic et al from UC Davis in California reported in Antimicrob Agents Chemother. (2008;52(5):1728-36) a study which examined the effectiveness of antibiotic treatment using ceftriaxone or saline for 1 month.  Mice were treated either early in the infection (3 weeks) or later (4 months).  Tissues were tested by immunohistochemistry, PCR, culture, transplantation of allografts, and xenodiagnosis at 1 and 3 months after treatment.  Tissues from the mice treated with antibiotics were culture negative, but tissues from some of the mice remained PCR positive and intact antigen-positive organisms with spirochetal morphology were visualized in collagen-rich tissues.  Xenodiagnosis demonstrated that uninfected larval ticks after feeding on the antibiotic-treated mice were able to acquire spirochetes (confirmed by PCR) and then transmit these spirochetes to naïve SCID mice which became PCR positive but culture negative.  This study therefore demonstrated that antibiotic treatment in the mouse model does not result in eradication of the Bb spirochetes and that some of these spirochetes were infectious, although attenuated in activity.

Yrjanainen et al from Univ of Turku in Finland reported in J Infectious Disease (2007; 195(10):1489-96) a study which examined whether anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha would have a beneficial effect on Bb-infected mice.  C3H/He mice were infected with B. garinii A218 or B. burgdorferi sensu stricto N40. In study 1 (with B. garinii) and in study 2 (with Bb SSN40), 2 weeks after infection, 10 mice were treated with ceftriaxone only for 5 days and 10 mice were treated with anti-TNF-alpha only. In another group of 10 mice, anti-TNF was added simultaneous to the ceftriaxone at 2 weeks after infection while in another group of 10 mice anti-TNF was added at 6 weeks after infection (ie, 4 weeks after ceftriaxone). Finally, a fifth group of mice was treated with saline as a sham treatment. For the group that received ceftriaxone only, no samples were positive by culture or by PCR at 2 weeks after infection.  However, among those mice treated with anti-TNF-alpha either at 2 weeks or 6 weeks after infection, spirochetes grew from one-third of the mice.  Contrary to earlier findings by Bockenstedt et al (2002) in which the spirochetes detected after antibiotic treatment were attenuated in activity, the recovered spirochetes in this study did not appear to be attenuated, as ceftriaxone sensitivity rates, plasmid profiles, and virulence rates were similar to those of bacteria used to infect the mice. This study demonstrated that a portion of B. burgdorferi-infected mice still have live spirochetes in their body, which are activated by anti-TNF-alpha treatment.


Commentary.  These two studies demonstrate that Bb spirochetes can persist in the mouse after ceftriaxone therapy.  The Finish study was remarkable in that culture and PCR were negative after ceftriaxone but, after additional treatment with anti-TNF-alpha, viable spirochetes were recovered.  TNF is a pro-inflammatory cytokine which, when blocked, typically results in a reduction in clinical inflammation; for this reason, such treatment is used for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.   To the surprise of the authors, viable spirochetes were recovered in these PCR- and culture-negative mice after TNF blocking treatment was given. Also interesting is that anti-TNF treatment did not result in the expected finding of a reduction of joint swelling.
The Finnish study was the first study to demonstrate that immunomodulatory treatment of animals infected with Bb could convert them from culture negative to culture positive.  The California study was remarkable in that only tick-feeding was capable of extracting infectious but non-replicating attenuated spirochetes; without having done that step of xenodiagnosis and then transferring the tick to feed on naïve SCID mice, the authors’ conclusion would have been that infectious spirochetes do not persist in the mouse model as culture was negative.   The authors further concluded that negative culture and PCR can not be relied upon as markers of treatment success.
We do not know the extent to which these findings can be translated to the human situation.  Nevertheless, the activation of infectious spirochetes after anti-TNF therapy in mice should alert clinicians to the possibility that anti-cytokine therapy may result in a similarly increased risk of activating latent infection among patients with a history of treated Lyme disease.  At this point, we do not know whether attenuated spirochetes are capable of inducing illness-symptoms in mice or humans; while it is possible that spirochetal mRNA may be producing surface lipoproteins that stimulate systemic symptoms, this hypothesis needs to be tested in the next phase of this important research.

BAFallon, MD

Romney's Plan to Win Virginia: Lyme Disease

—By Tim Murphy

| Fri Sep. 28, 2012 7:53 AM PDT

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On Thursday evening, Anahita Nemat, a conservative PR specialist living in Northern Virginia, tweeted out this photo, with the description: "Received my first mailer from @MittRomney & @PaulRyanVP today. It talks about Lyme Disease. Huh? I'm confused! Why?"

@AnahitaNemat/Twitter

We were confused too. But it turns out that Romney has, over the last few months, actually made Lyme disease—the bacterial disease transmitted to humans from deer ticks—part of his pitch to suburban Virginia voters. It started back in August, when he sent a public letter (paid for by the campaign) to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) commending him for his push to create a "Tick-Borne Diseases Advisory Committee." "More needs to be done," Romney wrote. "As president, I will work to ensure that more attention is focused on this important issue ... We need to ensure that all scientific viewpoints concerning this illness can be heard."

Untitled Note (p. 1)

Incidentally, the letter, which was sent out on August 4th, wasn't picked up by the press until this Thursday, when the Washington Examiner reported on it as part of a "bid for worried moms in the outer suburbs populated with whitetail deer and other wildlife."

As it turns out, Romney is actually injecting himself into an intense dispute within the medical community, pitting the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) against the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). IDSA believes there is "no convincing biological evidence" that Lyme is a chronic infection, while ILADS thinks there are flaws with the current testing system. Wolf and Smith have aligned themselves with ILADS, which is reflected in their bill and other public statements.

Here's the problem, though. That Lyme disease epidemic Romney is so concerned about? The spread of the disease is aided and abetted by climate change. Lyme Disease already costs the US $2.5 billion annually, is expected to double in geographic scope over the next 70 years. But Romney has said government should do nothing to stop man-made climate change—if it's even happening at all. "My view is that we don't know what's causing climate change on this planet," he said at a debate last October. "And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO₂ emissions is not the right course for us."

I won't pretend that I know exactly what the Romney campaign is doing here, except to note that it's tough to micro-target any deeper than a mailer talking about ticks. An obscure subsection of Virginia law requires that I ask University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato about all such Old Dominion issues, but in an email, the campaign guru professed ignorance: "VA is home to some Lyme disease, but I would never have guessed that it was a presidential level issue!"

Perhaps the campaign has some data that shows that this kind of targeted mailing will drive up his favorables among, say, middle class, politically moderate moms who like to hike. Or maybe they're just trying to get under Obama's skin.

Update: The Weekly Standard's John McCormack has the full mailer.

Find an unusual political pamphlet in your mailbox? Give us a shout: tmurphy [at] 

Procès de la maladie de Lyme: la justice demande un supplément d'information

http://www.romandie.com/news/n/_Proces_de_la_maladie_de_Lyme_la_justice_demande_un_supplement_d_information21280920121019.asp

Procès de la maladie de Lyme: la justice demande un supplément d'information

STRASBOURG - Le jugement attendu vendredi dans le procès de deux adeptes d'une méthode alternative pour détecter et soigner la maladie de Lyme a été repoussé au 14 mai 2013, le tribunal correctionnel de Strasbourg ayant demandé un supplément d'information.

Un an de prison avec sursis et 30.000 euros d'amende avaient été requis le 18 septembre contre Viviane Schaller, ex-directrice d'un laboratoire d'analyses médicales strasbourgeois, et Bernard Christophe, diplômé en pharmacie, soupçonnés d'escroquerie à l'assurance maladie et exercice illégal de la pharmacie.

Mme Schaller, 64 ans, est poursuivie pour avoir appliqué pendant des années, sur des milliers de patients dans toute la France, un protocole de test non homologué par les autorités sanitaires, ce qui a conduit la Sécurité sociale à plus de 192.000 euros de remboursements indus. M. Christophe, 63 ans, a fabriqué et commercialisé hors du cadre réglementaire un remède contre la maladie de Lyme baptisé Tic Tox.

Les deux prévenus ont salué la décision du tribunal. Les juges ont compris qu'il y avait un problème de fond, technique et scientifique, a déclaré à l'AFP Mme Schaller.

Ce procès a déclenché une polémique qui était indispensable pour lancer le débat, qui m'a été refusé par les experts depuis six ans, a-t-elle ajouté.

Pour M. Christophe, le tribunal a enfin compris que nous n'étions ni des charlatans, ni des escrocs, et que ce type de procès n'aurait jamais du avoir lieu en correctionnel.

Ce procès survient alors que des milliers de patients et des professionnels de santé contestent la manière dont on détecte et on soigne en France la borréliose de Lyme. Cette maladie infectieuse mais non contagieuse est due à une bactérie (borréliose) transmise par les piqûres de tiques, et peut provoquer des troubles invalidants et douloureux, notamment neurologiques, articulaires et musculaires.


(©AFP / 28 septembre 2012 10h17)

From PA: "Early next week the House will be voting on the Lyme bill HB 272!

From PA: "Early next week the House will be voting on the Lyme bill HB 272!
I stopped by my Reps office and he gave me the info that this bill was coming out of Committee so a few phone calls to your Local House members to make them AWARE that we need a yes vote on this bill HB 272 and that you are unhappy that they took the Insurance coverage out of the bill.
IT IS A STEP FORWARD EVEN THOUGH THE INSURANCE COMPANYS LIKE DRAGGING THIER FEET SO THEY DON'T HAVE TO PAY COVERAGE FOR THE PEOPLE LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE."

Voir la traduction

Pennsylvania HB 272, Lyme disease, Joy Burdge, Mandrell,

www.youtube.com

Fox News, Lyme disease, HB 272 Pennsylvania , Joy Burdge, Dick Hess,

photo of Borrelia burgdorferi

EWS: Making artistic portraits of devastating microbes

3rd September 2012

http://lymedisease.org/news/lyme_disease_views/portraits-disease.html 

Two photographers calling themselves the "Eye of Science" have created an unusual library of images which are used for research, educational material and even as works of art.

The website of the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper has published a fascinating series of pictures–deadly microbes that have been magnified tens of thousands of times with a high-powered microscope and then digitally colored.

The photo above is of Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease, magnified 3650 times

.Each image shows even the most miniscule spore in incredible detail.

These images were taken by German-based scientific photographers Eye of Science using the latest high-tech equipment.

They are part of a huge database of images, the Science Photo Library in London, which are used for research, educational material and even as works of art.

The smallpox virus, looking like an oil painting. The protein coat of each virus is coloured yellow; DNA genetic material is red. Magnification: x28,500

Looking uncannily like a collection of sushi, in fact this is a closeup of Smallpox viruses. The virus consists of genetic material (red), DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), enclosed by a protein capsid (coat, yellow)

One image shows lethal anthrax, which sparked widespread panic in America after spores were sent in the post following the attacks of September 11.

The bacteria is magnified more than 18,000 times, to reveal each individual strand with stunning clarity.

Plague bacteria, which caused the Black Death and the Great Plague of London from 1664-1665, have also been included in the collection.

The disease, which was spread to humans by fleas and can be fatal within a day, seems deceptively harmless in the extraordinary image.

Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of Neisseria meningitidis bacteria, which causes meningococcal meningitis, magnified x33000

Mark Abbott, from the Science Photo Library, said: “In the past these images would have been used solely for research.

'But it became of interest to the general public when subjects like CDs, insects and viruses were put under the microscope.

'Specimens come in from all over the world. 

'Samples, which are invisible to the naked eye, are covered in gold leaf and then placed under the microscope.

Streptococcus pneumoniae are carried by many without causing infection. However, in immune compromised individuals they can infect the upper respiratory tract, causing pneumonia

'The result is a black and white image, which is then coloured by digital artists.

'Some of the images have been compared to works of art and even reproduced in art books.

'We’ve had an amazing response to the images. It really helps to communicate science with the general public - especially children.'

Another image shows, SARS, a fatal lung disease which first appeared in China in 2002, is magnified 56,000 times with incredible results.

The Plague bacteria (Yersinia pestis) which causes bubonic plague, thought to be the Black Death of Europe in the mid-14th century, and also the Great Plague of London in 1664-1665

The 2D image is created using high-tech transmission electron microscopes, which pass electrons through the specimen to record a picture of it.

Polio, smallpox, and ebola, which has a survival rate of less than 10 per cent in Africa, are strangely fascinating after being magnified tens of thousands of times.

The viruses are given a psychedelic transformation with a variety of bright colours.

Meningitis bacteria, streptococcus, is also revealed in extraordinary detail at magnification of 11500 as well as a spikey looking Influenza virus.

E. coli bacteria, which under certain conditions can cause gastroenteritis and urinary tract infections. Some.strains also cause food poisoning. Magnification: x17,000

E.coli, which is known to cause gastroenteritis and food poisoning, appears more like two tiny alien creatures lit up in fluorescent green and yellow.

Rabies, which is transmitted from infected dog bites, looks bullet-like at a magnification of 150,000.

Even the papilloma virus, responsible for warts on the hands and feet, can be seen at a magnification of 60,000.

Tuberculosis, lyme disease and sexually transmitted infection gonorrhoea also appear in the collection as 3D images.

The affect is created using specialist scanning electron microscopes, which bounce electrons of the specimen.

The rod shaped Anthrax bacteria: Bacillus anthracis bacteria, the cause of anthrax. Magnification: x18,300

The Tuberculosis bacteria. If it reaches the lungs from a cough or sneeze it can be fatal. Magnification: x10,000

Coloured scanning electron micrograph of the spirochaete bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, the cause of lyme disease in humans. The spiral-shaped bacteria are passed on to humans via tick bites. Magnification: x3650

False-colour image of Papilloma viruses. The coat of each virus contains 72 capsomers (protein units that appear as dots). Papilloma virus (human papillomavirus or HPV) is the cause of warts: Magnification: x60,000

SARS virus particles (red) in a host cell. The coronaviruses take their name from their crown (corona) of surface proteins, which are used to attach to and penetrate their host cells. Magnification: x56,000

Influenza virus particle.The virus consists of ribonucleic acid (RNA), surrounded by a nucleocapsid (red) and a lipid envelope (green). Magnification: x230,000

Polio viruses: RNA genetic material occurs in the core of each virus, surrounded by a protein coat (blue). There are three types of polio viruses, type 1 being the cause of most polio epidemics. Magnification: x90,000

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2197533/As-pretty-picture-lot-deadly--Killer-diseases-youve-seen-before.html#ixzz27hwXuZ00
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Borrelia is a master at hiding out in the body to survive, going from adult spirochete to cell-wall deficient form to cyst and back.

Chronic Lyme Disease

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August 4, 2010

Getting Rid of Lyme

Lyme that isn’t treated long enough (or at all due to misdiagnosis) can turn chronic, often called Late Stage Lyme disease. The longer the Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) bacteria stay around and reproduce, the more serious the complications, including immune system breakdown, additional infections, hormonal imbalance, and more.

Under these circumstances, getting rid of the disease takes longer (1-4 years or more). Treatment is often more aggressive and hence more time-consuming and expensive. Quality of life decreases, making normal living difficult.

Mind you, not everyone agrees that’s there IS such a thing as chronic Lyme. Doctors following the guidelines of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) treat the illness with an antibiotic for a short period of time. if symptoms persist beyond 6 months, they say the person has Post-Lyme Syndrome, the result of an overactive immune system that hasn’t yet returned to normal after the person is considered “cured.”

Here’s exactly what the IDSA guidelines say (link below):

There is no convincing biologic evidence for the existence of symptomatic chronic B. burgdorferi infection among patients after receipt of recommended treatment regimens for Lyme disease. Antibiotic therapy has not proven to be useful and is not recommended for patients with chronic (>6 months) subjective symptoms after recommended treatment regimens for Lyme disease.

Therapeutic modalities not recommended. Because of a lack of biologic plausibility, lack of efficacy, absence of supporting data, or the potential for harm to the patient, the following are not recommended for treatment of patients with any manifestation of Lyme disease: first-generation cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, carbapenems, vancomycin, metronidazole, tinidazole, amantadine, ketolides, isoniazid, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, fluconazole, benzathine penicillin G, combinations of antimicrobials, pulsed-dosing (i.e., dosing onsome days but not others), long-term antibiotic therapy, anti-Bartonella therapies, hyperbaric oxygen, ozone, fever therapy, intravenous immunoglobulin, cholestyramine, intravenous hydrogen peroxide, specific nutritional supplements, and others.

You can download the IDSA Guidlines here.

On the other hand, so-called Lyme-literate physicians (LLMDs) agree that the disease can persist far beyond 6 months. They tend to follow the guidelines of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society. Click here for the ILADS Guidelines.

You can also download a free PDF of a research article by Daniel Cameron, MD, a respected LLMD from the Department of Medicine, Northern Westchester Hospital, Mt. Kisco, NY, titledProof That Chronic Lyme Exists.

Those of us with Late Stage Lyme, including me, will tell you that our symptoms are not psychosomatic. Borrelia is a master at hiding out in the body to survive, going from adult spirochete to cell-wall deficient form to cyst and back. For those who also have one or more of the common co-infections (Babesia, Bartonella, and Ehrlichia), treatment gets trickier. In addition, along the way Borrelia disrupts the immune system and body metabolism, allowing other normally dormant microorganisms like herpes viruses, parasites, and fungi (yeasts and molds) to activate and also cause symptoms.No two chronic Lyme patients have the same symptoms. Nor do they have the same prognosis or follow the same course of treatment. For those reasons, and the fact that I am not a medical doctor, this is not the space to discuss the specifics of treatment beyond what has already been explained in my prior post Gettng Rid of Lyme.Suffice it to say getting well from this infectious onslaught is often a roller coaster ride of improvement and relapse. Still not well understood, the complex of diseases continues to prove a challenge for both patients and doctors, showing that stages of Lyme need to be taken into consideration during diagnosis and treatment.