NEWS: New rapid test finds "off-season Lyme" and miyamotoi
Researchers say new DNA test will help diagnose borrelia infections quickly, leading to more timely treatment.
Press release from Milford Hospital, Connecticut:
MILFORD, Conn.–Four Milford Hospital Department of Pathology employees and two unaffiliated physicians, one in Connecticut and one in Massachusetts have, for the first time, found Lyme disease bacteria in the blood of ambulatory patients during an intensely cold winter month in New England, according to Dr. Sin Hang Lee, lead author of DNA Sequencing Diagnosis of Off-Season Spirochetemia with Low Bacterial Density in Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia miyamotoi Infections.
Winter is generally considered “off-season” for Lyme disease because tick activities are very limited in the northeastern United States. However, the authors concluded in the report to be published in the July issue ofInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences (http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/15/7/11364), that “…these patients represented undiagnosed cases of Lyme and related borreliosis or persistent infection of Lyme and related borreliosis after standard antibiotic treatments failed to eradicate the causative agents from the infected tissues.”
Dr. Thomas Moorcroft of Berlin, CT, a physician co-author of the report, said, “This DNA testing technology aids clinicians in rapidly and accurately diagnosing borrelia infections, which, in turn, can lead to more timely initiation of appropriate medical treatment and improved patient outcomes.”
Co-author and physician Dr. Katherine Lantsman of Boston, Mass., added, “This new definitive Borrelia species test has made a significant difference in diagnosis and health of many of my patients, and is a much needed breakthrough step in diagnosis of the most rapidly spreading tick born epidemic in the U.S. and the world.”
The report states that the authors “found four Borrelia miyamotoi infections among 14 patients with spirochetemia, including one patient co-infected by both Borrelia miyamotoi and Borrelia burgdorferi.” Borrelia miyamotoi is distantly related to the Lyme bacteria, and is known to cause an infection mimicking Lyme disease which cannot be diagnosed by the current two-tier serology test.
Click here to download the full text of the research article.
With all of the new and innovative tests that are in development, the Dark Ages of Lyme disease testing are rapidly coming to an end. It baffles me that the CDC has actively discouraged this much needed innovation by endorsing only the abysmal FDA-approved two-tier test kits. In this study almost 29% of the participants tested positive for B. miyamotoi, which would not be detected by any of the FDA-approved tests.
OMG, this is just awesome…I’m never speechless…..OMG, this is what I’ve been waiting to see! Not for me, I’m already a Lyme Victim and Co-infections Victim as well, and it’s a bit too late for me…but…
All those others out there…and the children…This is like the best news I’ve read in a long time…man….o….man…….Men don’t cry…..but I am…
This means donor blood…organs can be checked as well…this means early detection…right…and that Victims WILL get the required Antibotic’s needed to not suffer as I and many??? Right? I’m gonna sleep well tonight!
“…these patients represented undiagnosed cases of Lyme and related borreliosis or persistent infection of Lyme and related borreliosis after standard antibiotic treatments failed to eradicate the causative agents from the infected tissues.”
Wow! Not only a better test, but acknowledgement that “standard antbiotic treatments” can fail!!
This means very little if anything. PCR testing only lets us know that nucleic acid fragments remain from an infection that occurred sometime in the past. It does not verify viable organism exist. as stated in “Dead or Alive: Molecular Assessment of Microbial Viability” by Gerard A. Cangelosi and John S. Meschke. “Traditional PCR is notoriously poor at differentiating DNA associated with a viable bacterial cell from DNA associated with an inactivated one or from a free DNA fragment.” unless a viability PCR, molecular viability testing or culture. PCR testing has not been accepted as a reliable test for Lyme by the CDC. The authors of this paper themselves stated that their results do not prove viability of the organism detected and these patients may have been infected in the past with fragments of the past infection being detected. This does not prove that a past infection was not treated properly.