New Vaccine For Lyme Disease Shows Promise

[wayno]

http://gearjunkie.com/lyme-disease-vaccine

[GPSGuided]

Don't get too optimistic yet as they are barely out of animal trial and have not even entered Phase I trial yet. Before market, there'll be phases II and III to go. Anything can happen in the meantime. This publicity is for potential investors and to get on large pharmaceuticals' radar.

[Gadgetgeek]

I hope they do it right this time, Lyme is far to politically charged to mess it up.

[wayno]

normally vaccines are for Viral infections, lyme disease is a bacterial infection, you normally use antibiotics to treat bacterial infections, not sure how a vaccine would work

[GPSGuided]

There are many vaccines against bacterial diseases eg. TB, whooping cough, cholera, typhus etc via various mechanisms.

[Overlandman]

From ABC
Local ticks likely responsible for Lyme disease in Australia, breakthrough Perth research finds

A national study led by a Perth-based researcher could be one step closer to ending the Lyme disease debate in Australia for good.

Lyme disease is caused by a bacterium - borrelia burgdoferi - passed on by ticks.

Prevalent in the United States and parts of Europe, it causes symptoms such as fatigue, muscle pain and various neurological symptoms.

The Government and the Australian Medical Association (AMA) have not recognised the existence of Lyme disease in Australia.

Key points:

Lyme disease is caused by a bacterium passed on by ticks
The Government and the AMA have not recognised the existence of the disease in Australia
There are 70 species of tick in Australia
New research finds a home-grown bacterium is likely responsible for Lyme-like symptoms in Australia
But now Murdoch University Professor Peter Irwin believes a home-grown bacterium is responsible for Lyme-like symptoms in Australians.

"We have about 70 species of tick in Australia," he said

"The vast majority - well really all except three or four - have evolved here with our unique wildlife and don't occur anywhere else in the world.

"So you can't draw parallels with work that's been done overseas, because nowhere overseas has the Australian ticks."

Using breakthrough technology, the team from Murdoch is examining thousands of native Australian ticks.

"We applied new molecular techniques to these ticks called next generation sequencing," Professor Irwin said.

"This is a technique that allows us to look inside the tick and find the DNA, the genetic code, of organisms that live inside the tick."

In some cases, Lyme disease is identifiable by a rash called a bulls-eye rash for the way it appears.

Several medical practitioners across Australia claim to have diagnosed the illness in patients who have never travelled to areas where it is endemic.

But positive laboratory results have been disputed.

WA President of the AMA Michael Gannon said there had been no evidence to prove its existence here.

"The borrelium bacteria that causes Lyme disease has never been isolated from an Australian vector, like a tick," he said.

"And it's never been isolated in an Australian patient that hasn't travelled to somewhere in North America or Europe."

But for those suffering - who have had no official diagnosis for years - the controversy surrounding the issue leaves them with no answers and no treatment.

Young Perth woman sick for years

Perth woman Jessica Konecny, 20, has been sick for 13 years.

She remembers a rash coming up before she was diagnosed with a heart problem when she was seven years old

"We don't remember a tick-bite but there was a rash that I came up with," she said.

"Nobody knew what to do about it, didn't know what it was.

"Initially they thought it was ringworm and it wasn't."

Earlier this year Ms Konecny was diagnosed with a Lyme-like disease when samples sent to two separate laboratories tested positive for borrelia.

Whether it is borrelia burgdoferi - the bacterium responsible for Lyme - or something in the same family has not been clarified.

"I think maybe it isn't Lyme but it's some form of bacteria causing this disease and I don't really understand how they can deny that," she said.

Much more to be done: head researcher

Ms Konecny has started strong doses of antibiotics that are said to kill the bacteria and other co-infections known to be involved when suffering from Lyme.

Anecdotal reports show some success with this treatment, but it does not work for everyone.

Professor Irwin said his research was ongoing.

"We can find organisms in ticks, we can find DNA," he said.

"But attributing disease causation to those bacteria is really another step all together.

"Unless they're already known to cause disease how do you know they cause disease?"

He said it would require more research before any answers, or treatment, was readily available.

"It might be linking the types of bacteria you find in ticks with the types of bacteria in people," he said.

"Then you can start to close the circle."

[Overlandman]

From ABC

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-11/l ... an/7080708

Lyme disease: Australians 'being treated worse than a dog riddled with mange', Senator John Madigan says

Independent senator John Madigan has come out firing over the treatment of Australians suffering with Lyme disease.

The existence of Lyme disease or diseases caused by the borreliosis bacteria in Australia has long been debated.

As it stands, health authorities deny the existence of the tick-borne disease on Australia's shores and doctors have faced disciplinary action for treating it.

We've got doctors in this country that genuinely believe that these people are suffering from Lyme disease or Lyme-like symptoms," Senator Madigan told 7.30.

"And you can't get any help, you can't get any respite, you can't get cured with the efforts [doctors] are using.

"These are genuine Australians who are being treated worse than a dog riddled with mange."

A Senate inquiry will investigate the existence of the controversial disease as well as the treatment of patients at the hands of medical professionals.

Marie Huttley-Jackson said she was dismissed by multiple GPs before her eight-year-old daughter, Genevieve, was diagnosed with Lyme-like symptoms.

"We had 23 different doctors and 20 months of searching before we found out what was wrong," Ms Huttley-Jackson said.

"We were pretty devastated by that but we're pretty tough and we were not going to roll over and take that because we knew that wasn't right."

'Not enough evidence to conclude Lyme disease in Australia'

Genevieve's treating doctor Peter Dobie said that he now feels more confident in discussing his treatment of patients with Lyme disease since the announcement of the Senate inquiry.

"Currently I'm treating approximately 150 patients with borreliosis," he said.

"I'm certainly concerned, I think all doctors treating this illness are concerned about possible disciplinary action but I feel a moral obligation to treat these patients and I will continue to treat them to the best of my ability."

Despite growing public awareness of the debate, infectious disease expert Dr Peter Collignon said there was not enough good evidence to conclude that Lyme disease was in Australia.

"All the evidence at the moment is that, despite people looking, we don't have the classical form of Lyme disease in Australia, as is the one in Europe and the US," he said.

"People have looked for Lyme disease but have not been able to find it by any method that most people would think is acceptable."

The ABC's 7.30 understands that leading experts will prepare submissions to deny the existence of the disease for the Senate inquiry, which is due to report in June this year.

[icefest]

This Dr Peter Doble is quite far on the fringe side of several medical issues...

This is not to say he has to be wrong here, but he does propose several treatments for other conditions for which there is only minimal evidence.

From his blog: "The doctors who supported chelation therapy considered that EDTA was catching on the calcium that caused the blocked arteries by making the plaque to weaken and crack up. The lack of the plaque would allow the arteries recover and the heart problems would simply fade away. Experts who do not support chelation therapy stated that the EDTA was not removing calcium, but actually the free radicals. After the free radicals have been removed the arteries get the time to recover which ultimately reduced the heart problems. Now, scientists are aware of the fact that antioxidants remove free radicals and doses of antioxidants are given in chelation therapy. This is one of the major reasons which make this therapy so effective curing many types of heart problems.
No matter what some people say, there’s simply no doubt the chelation therapy is an excellent treatment to fight with for cardiovascular diseases. So, visit an expert chelation therapy doctor, who can provide effective treatment in Sydney."

Whereas he also cautions: "although it must be emphasised that there are no controlled clinical trials that show that chelation is of proven benefit in these conditions."

This obvious contradiction is easily found on his website.

[GPSGuided]

When medical and scientific matters are processed by the mass media, details in the science and objectivity go out the window. It's about people's mood. Once upon a time, it was the witches. These matters are best left in the hands of the experts of the field.

[GPSGuided]

Symptom is not a diagnosis. This is where people get confused as 'Lyme-like symptoms' is not confirmatory of Lyme disease.

[Gadgetgeek]

If it is a separate illness, how long will it take to isolate? Or how much of it is just in people's heads, or worse, a red herring preventing proper diagnosis? As much as it sounds cold and heartless. Anecdote is not evidence. And In my family there is an anecdote. As in, my little brother is a medical one-off for all intents and purposes, I know its not easy, but at the end of the day, you gotta run the numbers.

[GPSGuided]

Just noticed, is Aldowin a spammer? That 'gclub casino' linked to a Thai casino page. Reported.