Lost in translation? A press release I wrote two years ago for the California Lyme Disease Association has turned up on the internet in a very bizarre form.

Lost in translation? A press release I wrote two years ago for the California Lyme Disease Association has turned up on the internet in a very bizarre form.

Two years ago, the White House revealed that then-president George W. Bush had recently been treated for Lyme disease.  I wrote a press release with the headline “Lyme Group Warns Bush May Not Be Out of Woods.”

Here are the first few paragraphs as I wrote them in August, 2007:

The California Lyme Disease Association has some advice for President George W. Bush about his recently disclosed bout of Lyme disease: Don’t be too quick to dismiss the threat it can pose.

“We hope for his sake it was caught early and treated sufficiently,” says CALDA president Phyllis Mervine. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case for many people who contract tick-borne infections.”

Even with prompt treatment, Mervine said, up to 60% of people infected with Lyme disease can relapse after a standard course of antibiotics. Additionally, Lyme disease symptoms can recur months to years after the original exposure. “Regrettably, there is no definitive lab test to prove the disease has been eradicated from the body,” she said.

Imagine my surprise when today, via Google Alert, I discovered the identical press release posted on a mysterious website called  “StepsSupplied”…or was it identical? It had the same headline, but the text sounded like it had been run through a cocktail mixer from Bizarro World. Take a look:

The California Lyme Disease Guild has some admonition for President George W. Bush everywhere his recently disclosed bout of Lyme disease: Don’t be too quick to dismiss the threat it can set up.

“We prospect for his gain it was caught early and treated sufficiently,” says CALDA president Phyllis Mervine. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case for many people who roll oneself tick-borne infections.”

Even with exhort treatment, Mervine said, up to sixty percent of people infected with Lyme disease can relapse after a standard course of antibiotics. Additionally, Lyme disease symptoms can recur months to years after the original exposure. “Regrettably, there is no definitive lab test to demonstrate the affliction has been eradicated from the majority,” she said.

Say what? “We prospect for his gain”? Well, I guess that sort of says the same thing as “We hope for his sake.”  And “the affliction has been eradicated from the majority”? Well, I almost know what that means.

It may not have been from Bizarro World, but I think we’re seeing the work of one (or more) of those computer translation programs like Babelfish. I suspect that the original press release was translated into one or more other languages, and then somewhere along the line was translated back into English—taking some intriguing linguistic turns along the way.

Here are some other colorful twists of phrase:

Lyme disease is spread by ticks that can be as small as a poppy motivating factor. (Get it? As small as a poppy seed. The seed of an idea can be a “motivating factor.” It’s almost poetic, in a bureaucractic jargon kind of way.)

“Approximately 50 percent of people with Lyme disease don’t recall a tick bite and less than 50 percent report the natural bull’s-discrimination dermatitis,” Mervine said. (That would be your “typical bull’s-eye rash.)

“There are two standards of attention for Lyme disease. We endorse the guidelines of the Cosmopolitan Lyme and Associated Diseases Association, which call for individualized treatment,” said Mervine. “There is plenty of show that more antibiotic treatment can help people with chronic Lyme. However, insurance companies don’t like to pay for it.” (Two standards of “care”, which is a kind of attention. And how about calling ILADS the “Cosmopolitan Lyme and Associated Diseases Association”? It has a certain ring to it.

But here’s the kicker. Notice how the line about insurance came through perfectly intact?

I guess “insurance companies don’t like to pay for it” is understandable in any language.

Contact this blogger at dleland@lymedisease.org.