HISTORY OF LYME
DISEASE / BORRELIOSIS
In 1975, two mothers living in Connecticut were concerned about the frequent occurrence of juvenile arthritis diagnosed in children living in and around Lyme, Connecticut. The mothers brought these cases to the attention of the health department. The subsequent investigation was handled through Yale University and assigned to Dr. Allen C. Steere, an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer (EISO) for the Public Health Service (PHS). The PHS EIS is a branch of the military that officially handles epidemiological studies through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Steere studied the cases of juvenile arthritis and determined that they were due to an infection acquired by tick bites.
Dr. Steere/Yale dubbed the infection “Lyme disease” (LD) because of the location of the initial outbreak. Lyme disease is also referred to as Borreliosis. For patients in search of diagnosis and treatment, the name “Lyme disease” has become a deep-cutting thorn by inferring that the infection may only be acquired in the immediate area surrounding Lyme, Connecticut. This nemesis is often used to discount a diagnosis of Lyme disease by physicians who are not aware that the Lyme infection has actually been acquired throughout the United States. Infection from other strains of the Borrelia genus, which is also responsible for Lyme disease, is now rampant in Europe and other countries worldwide.
Ticks have caused human and animal infection throughout history. Dr. Otto Obermeier, a German physician, is credited with discovering relapsing fever infection from tick bites in 1868. Ticks attach themselves to the host by boring into the skin. Infection is caused by the tick sucking the blood from the host, thus transmitting infection into the host simultaneously. In 1878, another physician named Gregor Munch theorized that other modes of transmission existed through the bites of other blood-sucking arthropods such as fleas and lice. This theory of lice as a vector of relapsing fever infection was confirmed in 1910 by French microbiologists Sergent and Foley. http//www.canlyme.com/burgdorfer.html
Lyme disease infection is caused by a corkscrew-shaped strain of the genus Borrelia of the spirochete class. The discovery of the strain of Borrelia that causes Lyme disease was made in 1982 by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) researcher named Dr. Willy Burgdorfer at NIH Rocky Mountain Laboratory (RML) in Montana, USA. The particular strain that causes Lyme disease infection is named Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) after its discoverer, Dr. Burgdorfer. Borrelia burgdorferi has subsequently been shown to be a stealth pathogen that has the metamorphic ability to change its presentation from spirochete into cyst and bleb forms. Dr. Burgdorfer and fellow researchers at RML determined through their research that Bb uses its metamorphic ability as a survival mechanism within its host. CDC research published in 2006 has demonstrated that Bb is an intracellular pathogen that sequesters itself inside nerve cells and thus evades the immune system. This may be a major reason for the common and recurrent pattern of remission and relapse that chronic Lyme disease/Borreliosis patients experience.
Most often, the disease can be readily-treated with antibiotics if diagnosed in its early stage, immediately following initial infection. However, if early diagnosis and antimicrobial treatment is not provided, a chronic, debilitating illness may develop. Thousands of people are currently suffering from chronic Lyme disease due to such delayed diagnosis and treatment. These patients have contracted the infection throughout the United States, not only in the Northeast near Lyme, Connecticut.
Most chronic Lyme disease patients will tell you that, prior to being properly diagnosed with LD, they were misdiagnosed with numerous other maladies, such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), Rheumatoid Arthritis and Parkinson’s, among others. In addition, Dr. Alan MacDonald, research pathologist, has discovered a link between Borrelia bacteria and Alzheimer’s plaques.
Infection with Borrelia burgdorferi for long periods of time allows the bacteria to replicate and wreak havoc throughout the entire body. As noted above, the bacteria hide inside nerve cells, undetected by the immune system, and destroy the nerve cells from within. The bacteria also burrow into tendons and ligaments causing inflammation in the tissues and the nearby bone. This is a very painful condition. It infects the brain causing swelling and interruption of blood flow. In some patients, the bacteria invade the heart, resulting in heart block and myocarditis, life-threatening cardiac abnormalities.
A multi-system illness, Lyme disease causes an array of symptoms that manifest themselves at the top of the head and go all the way down to the tips of the toes. Not all patients experience the exact same set of symptoms, but patients can identify with those that are most common. If the bacteria have infected the brain, patients suffer from encephalopathy, dementia, cognitive dysfunction with memory loss and dyslexia, headaches and stiff neck. Cranial nerve impairment can cause Bell’s palsy, vertigo and hearing loss. There can be pain in the spine that radiates throughout the back, excruciating rib pain due to inflammation of cartilage and excruciating joint, muscle, tendon, ligament, bone and nerve pain. There is unrelenting fatigue that is not relieved even after 12-14 hours of sleep. There are many more symptoms that a person may experience at one time or another during the illness. The joint pain is migratory--for a while it may affect the knee and then move to the shoulders, elbows, ankles and feet. Periods of remission have been noted with subsequent relapse, the pattern reoccurring over many years.
Some people infected with Lyme disease experience severe symptoms right away. Others notice vague symptoms like fatigue, numbness and tingling in extremities, headaches and minor joint pain that sneak up on them over a period of time. Many initially attribute these various problems to lack of sleep, stress or over-extending one’s self in physical activities. Then the time comes when the many varied symptoms occur much too frequently and are too many in number to attribute to everyday causes. Usually, by this time, the bacteria have significantly impaired one’s cognitive function. Loss of memory, mistakes in accounting and forgetting and losing one’s way becomes too much to bear for those who have previously lived organized, detailed, functional lives. Lyme disease patients describe this loss of thought process as Brain Fog.
Many Lyme disease patients have expressed that this loss of cognitive ability can actually override the pain and suffering of the physical aspect of the disease. The reason for this is that losing one’s ability to function in everyday life, to carry on a conversation and to carry out job duties causes a loss of self-esteem and loss of character and personality. Observation and research of spirochete infections has demonstrated that this bacterium not only causes physical damage to the body, but psychological damage as well. When the bacteria invade the brain, they cause inflammation and destruction of tissue that can result in loss of brain function, mood swings and depression.
Some patients have been catapulted between 30 doctors before finding out that they were suffering with a chronic Bb infection. Many patients suffering with debilitating symptoms have been attributed by clueless physicians as being bored with life, malingerers, hypochondriacs, in need of work or a hobby, depressed or suffering with other psychiatric conditions. This type of health abuse has resulted in perpetual illness, loss of employment, homes, marriages, families and self-esteem. Acknowledging the fact that Bb infection does indeed cause depression, it is a travesty for patients suffering to such a great degree both physically and mentally to be turned away and denied treatment.
This scenario is presently being played out worldwide in the failure of physicians to entertain the possibility of Lyme disease and other Borrelia infections, inappropriate misdiagnoses, denial of treatment by physicians and insurance companies and the dissemination of biased treatment guidelines through the CDC and Infectious Diseases Society of America. A web of political issues surround the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease and its co-infections, causing thousands of infected people to suffer needlessly and unconscionably.