jwissmille

FROM ANGILOGY: THE JOURNAL OF VASCULAR DISEASES...
JANUARY 1994
R GASSER, MD,PhD GRAZ, AUSTRIA AND EIGHT OTHER DOCTORS...
LETTER TO THE EDITOR

"A MOST UNUSUAL CASE OF A WHOLE FAMILY SUFFERING FROM LATE LYME BORRELIOSIS
FOR OVER 20 YEARS"
".............HUSBAND HAD NO MEMORY OF A PRIMARY INFECTION WITH CLASSICAL
STAGE ONE SYMPTOMS BUT REMEMBERS RECURRENT EPISODES OF FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS A
YEAR AFTER THE INFECTION OF HIS WIFE. THESE EPISODES WERE SOON FOLLOWED BY
STAGE TWO AND THREE SYMPTOMS. .......

A SON WAS BORN IN 1969 WITH SEVERAL MINOR ABNORMALITIES....HUGE SACRAL
HEMANGIOMA, GLUTEAL ATROPHY, AND OTHERS......GENERALLY WEAK, RECURRENT
EPISODES OF FEVER THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE....MINOR MENTAL ABNORMALITIES LIKE
IRRITABILITY AND DEPRESSION.....

DIAGNOSIS WAS CONFIRMED IN ALL THREE BY IMMUNOBLOTTING IN OUR SPECIFIC
CLINIC FOR Bb ASSOCIATED DISORDERS.......

FROM THESE CASES TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS ARISE:
1. IS THERE A SEXUAL TRANSMISSION...OR OF MERE COINCIDENCE IN AN ENDEMIC
AREA?
2. IS THERE A CONGENITAL LYME DISEASE COMPARIBLE TO CONGENITAL SYPHILIS?

..THE LATTER QUESTION CERTAINLY MERITS FURTHER INVESTIGATION...
..MUCH LARGER CONTROLLED STUDIES ARE NEEDED....

ALTERNATIVELY THERE IS GROWING EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FOR TRANSMISSION OF Bb
THROUGH INFECTED BODY FLUIDS. THUS IT HAS BEEN SHOWN THAT Bb CAN BE
TRANSMITTED BW CLOSELY HOUSED RESEARCH ANIMALS WITHOUT THE PRESENCE OF
INSECTS... (#11 BURGESS EC. EXPERIMENTAL INNOCULATION OF PEROMYSCUSS SPP.
WITH Bb . AMER JOUR TROP HYG 35; 355-359, 1986.)

THIS LAB EVIDENCE STRONGLY ARGUES IN FAVOR OF TRANSMISSION THROUGH INFECTED
BODY FLUIDS. FURTHERMORE MORE THAN 30% OF THE PATIENTS DO NOT REMEMBER A TICK
BITE STILL TICK BITES CAN OCCUR WITHOUT THE PT'S BEING AWARE OF THE TICK
BITE. A STRONG CORRELATION BETWEEN ANTITICK SALIVA ANTIBODY WAS RECENTLY
REPORTED...THUS THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT TICKS ARE THE MOST COMMON TRANSMITTERS
OF THE MICROORGANSIM......."