Excerpted from CBS  Pittsburgh : (10/03/2019) It might have gone unnoticed by the public at large, but included in the massive spending package Congress passed Thursday was a bill of great importance to advocates for Lyme disease sufferers. The Kay Hagan Tick Act, which provides a total of $150 million in funding over the next five years to combat tick- and vector-borne diseases, has roots in Monmouth County and is a potential game-changer for the Lyme community after decades of neglect by federal health authorities. “I’m happy that finally, after many years of different bills trying to get so ..read more

Excerpted from CBS  Pittsburgh : (10/03/2019) “We found about 50 percent of the adults infected and around 20 percent of the nymphs,” Simmons said. “So that would be an area that’s highly endemic of Lyme disease.” Not much is known about ticks in urban settings. “Nobody’s done work on insular parks that are surrounded by populated areas, right in the heart of cities,” said Tom Simmons, tick researcher at IUP. Every year, more than 6 million people use Pittsburgh’s parks. Researchers at IUP looked at the issue in a systematic way, dragging a 1-square-meter cloth on randomly determined 10-square ..read more

Excerpted from The Irish Times: (09/17/2019) There is no way of definitively checking you have it, no way of definitively checking if you have rid yourself of it, huge disagreement over how many people have it, and no known treatment once it gets to a certain stage. Lyme disease – the various grisly strains of the Borrelia bacterium that live in the guts of some ticks – is just the gift that keeps on giving. I picked it up in a field in July. At some point, I’m hoping to put it back down again. There were warnings in the compost toilets, to be fair. No morning’s trudge across the camp ..read more

Excerpted from The Star Tribune: (08/15/2019) MADISON, Wis. — Griffin Austin was an 11-year-old kid two years ago, spending his days outside playing second base, shooting hoops and fishing. Then he started noticing he couldn’t keep up with his friends. He kept feeling tired until one day after basketball practice he couldn’t walk. The Verona boy grew weaker and weaker, resorting to an electric scooter to get around, quitting basketball and withdrawing from school. His parents depleted their savings account as doctors tried to figure out what was wrong. Finally this past April he was diagnosed ..read more

Excerpted from The Guardian: (07/30/2019) Cases of Lyme disease in the UK may be three times higher than previous estimates, according to new research. After analysing the anonymous medical records of 8.4 million people from across the UK, scientists forecast that the total number of Lyme disease diagnoses in the UK could top 8,000 in 2019, compared with previous estimates of between 2,000 and 3,000 annual diagnoses. Lyme disease is a bacterial infection, which is passed on through being bitten by an infected tick. The small spider-like creatures feed off the blood of animals and are typically ..read more

Excerpted from ScienceNews: (0i6/23/2019) Unable to look for the bacteria directly, at least for now, diagnosis depends on deciphering clues from the body’s immune response. The standard test has two steps. The first looks for antibodies that respond to Lyme-causing bacteria. The second, called a Western blot, validates the diagnosis by confirming the presence of other antibody proteins that are more specific for Lyme. (The two steps are used together to reduce the odds of a false-positive test.) In 2005, Rachel Straub was a college student returning home from a three-week medical service miss ..read more

Excerpted from Healthline: (06/11/2019) Can you catch Lyme disease from someone else? The short answer is no. There’s no direct evidence that Lyme disease is contagious. The exception is pregnant women, who can transmit it to their fetus. Lyme disease is a systemic infection caused by spirochete bacteria transmitted by black-legged deer ticks. The corkscrew-shaped bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, are similar to the spirochete bacteria that cause syphilis. Lyme disease can become debilitating for some people and life-threatening if it isn’t treated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ..read more

Excerpted from WBUR: (05/03/2019) The state’s $1 million investment toward finding a way to prevent ticks from spreading Lyme disease is paying off, a UMass Medical School researcher said Thursday, and an additional investment could move an antibody proven in labs to protect mice against Lyme closer to a human trial. As Lyme, a tick-borne bacterial infection that can cause neurological problems if left untreated, has spread in both the number of cases and affected geography, Dr. Mark Klempner from the MassBiologics division of UMass Medical School has been leading a team to develop “a novel ap ..read more