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Misinformation sent to all Nova Scotia MLA’s and MP’s by Chief Medical Officer of Nova Scotia, Robert Strang.

Here you can read the letter from Dr. Strang at, Strang MLA’s/MP’s followed below by a copy of our reply that was also sent to all Nova Scotia politicians, federal and provincial. Dr. Strang acted in a manner that is contrary to the principles of open science in that he deliberately did not mention the…

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Evolving Perspectives on Lyme Borreliosis in Canada

Abstract: With cases now documented in every province, Lyme borreliosis (LB) is emerging as a serious public health risk in Canada. Controversy over the contribution of LB to the burden of chronic disease is maintained by difficulty in capturing accurate Canadian statistics, especially early clinical cases of LB. The use of dogs as sentinel species…

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Plaques of Alzheimer’s disease originate from cysts of Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease spirochete

Summary Here is hypothesized a truly revolutionary notion that rounded cystic forms of Borrelia burgdorferi are the root cause of the rounded structures called plaques in the Alzheimer brain. Rounded ‘‘plaques’ in high density in brain tissue are emblematic of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Plaques may be conceptualized as rounded ‘‘pock mark-like’’ areas of brain tissue…

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Prevent Lyme Disease with Showers and Fences [Yale study]

Infection can cause complications if not treat early, but research suggests you can prevent Lyme disease with some simple tactics. RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—In the Northeastern United States, the place where you’re most likely to be bitten by a tick carrying Lyme disease is not in the woods, but in your own backyard. Fortunately, research…

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Off-the-Charts Anxiety: Is a Tick Bite Making You Nuts?

Tick-borne infections aren’t just causing sore joints and swollen knees. Some cause psychiatric symptoms that often go untreated, some experts say. “…tick-borne infections could actually trigger panic attacks and other psychiatric disorders in some people. “After treating thousands of patients with tick-borne disease in the past 20 years, it appears psychiatric symptoms are more commonly…

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Biofilms: A New Hideout for Borrelia burgdorferi?

The University of New Haven established a Lyme Disease Research group six years ago. To date, over forty graduate students have received training in Lyme disease related research. One of our recent projects studies the different formations of Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease bacteria. With coauthor Dr. Alan MacDonald, we recently suggested that Borrelia burgdorferi…

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Evaluation of in-vitro antibiotic susceptibility of different morphological forms of Borrelia burgdorferi

Background: Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. Although antibiotic therapy is usually effective early in the disease, relapse may occur when administration of antibiotics is discontinued. Studies have suggested that resistance and recurrence of Lyme disease might be due to formation of different morphological forms of B. burgdorferi, namely…

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There will likely never be a Lyme vaccine says researcher Alan Barbour.

Why some strains of Lyme disease bacteria are common and others are not Findings could lead to novel strategy to control disease New clues about the bacteria that cause Lyme disease could lead to a novel strategy to reduce infections, according to a study to be published in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the…

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Updates on Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex with respect to public health

Summary Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) complex is a diverse group of worldwide distributed bacteria that includes 18 named spirochete species and a still not named group proposed as genomospecies 2 (Postic et al., 2007). Descriptions of new species and variants continue to be recognized, so the current number of described species is probably not…

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Multilocus sequence analysis of Borrelia bissettii strains from North America reveals a new Borrelia species, Borrelia kurtenbachii

Gabriele Margos,a,* Andrias Hojgaard,b Robert S. Lane,c Muriel Cornet,d Volker Fingerle,e Nataliia Rudenko,f Nicholas Ogden,g David M. Aanensen,h Durland Fish,i and Joseph Piesman,b Abstract Using multilocus sequence analyses (MLSA), we investigated the phylogenetic relationship of spirochaete strains from North America previously assigned to the genospecies Borrelia bissettii. We amplified internal fragments of 8 housekeeping genes…

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Humans Infected with Relapsing Fever Spirochete Borrelia miyamotoi, Russia

Abstract Borrelia miyamotoi is distantly related to B. burgdorferi and transmitted by the same hard-body tick species. We report 46 cases of B. miyamotoi infection in humans and compare the frequency and clinical manifestations of this infection with those caused by B. garinii and B. burgdorferi infection. All 46 patients lived in Russia and had…

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Detection of Borrelia bissettii in cardiac valve tissue of a patient with endocarditis and aortic valve stenosis in the Czech Republic.

Nataliia Rudenko Maryna Golovchenko Aleš Mokráček Natalja Piskunová Daniel Růžek Nadja Mallatová Libor Grubhoffer ABSTRACT Molecular analysis of a clinical sample confirmed the presence of Borrelia bissettii DNA in cardiac valve tissue from a patient with endocarditis and aortic valve stenosis. This evidence strongly supports the involvement of B. bissettii in Lyme disease in Europe. Read…

Nouveau-Brunswick: le risque de contracter la maladie de Lyme en hausse

La Presse Canadienne Fredericton Le risque de contracter la maladie de Lyme est en hausse au Nouveau-Brunswick, selon des chercheurs de l’Université de Mount Allison. La biologiste Vett Lloyd a indiqué que les tiques à pattes noires capturées montrent des taux d’infection étonnamment rares et élevés. Mme Lloyd soutient qu’environ 40% de ces tiques, qui…

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Reservoir Competence of Wildlife Host Species for Babesia microti.

Hersh MH, Tibbetts M, Strauss M, Ostfeld RS, Keesing F. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2012 Dec; 18(12): 1951-7. Abstract Human babesiosis is an increasing health concern in the northeastern United States, where the causal agent, Babesia microti, is spread through the bite of infected Ixodes scapularis ticks. We sampled 10 mammal and 4 bird species within…

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Bartonella henselae endocarditis of percutaneously implanted pulmonary valve.

J Heart Valve Dis. 2011 Jan;20(1):94-7. Atamanyuk I, Raja SG, Kostolny M. Source Department of Paediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, United Kingdom. Abstract Percutaneous pulmonary valve implantation (PPVI) has revolutionized the management of right ventricular outflow tract dysfunction after repaired congenital heart disease. The technology is considered to be safe, with a…