contagiousness of lyme question

Now that I am dealing with this I am wanting to understand about its contagious aspects. I understand that it can be transmitted both sexually and also in utero. What about in other ways? I hear about entire families having it and wonder if it is passed on only through those two ways? As a mother of a child, since I got it after my child was already born/ past baby stage, etcetera, are there things I need to be concerned about to make sure I don't pass it to my child? Can it be passed through other ways?

Keep in mind I know for a fact I caught this through a tear which is apparently rare from what everyone tells me. But I know for sure I caught it this way so just be aware that it does happen.

Disease can be passed through body fluids. There are new studies documenting sexual transmission. I think they need to do a lot more research regarding transmission. Numbers of people infected seems to be increasing a lot. I wouldnt be surprised if it is well beyond the new 300,000 cdc numbers of annual infections.

But what about something like drinking from the same cup or using the same towel or any of those types of things?

The scientific answer you will get is no. My answer after considering it quite a bit, I don't know as far as sharing cups towels etc. I think if you live in close quarters with someone you can transmit it or catch it. (just my opinion.)

Im guessing it is not contagious if you are not having an active infection. However read Dr. Richard Horowitz's current book about how a mom did not have active infection and transmitted it via the placenta to her child. You can also never donate blood once you are infected.

Hi Katebirch. I have been treating my Lyme for close to 5 months now. Pretty much since 4 days after catching it with minocycline. I got under the guidance of 2 LLDs, 1 LLMD, 1 LLND since the beginning of February.

I am so close to being symptom free now and feel so much better. I feeling probably somewhere around 95% of my former self now, not kidding I got that much progress. This past week was huge as I was able to cut my anti-depressant and sleeping pill dosage in half, and this week I plan on cutting both anti-depressants and my sleeping pill out altogether.

I was typical Lyme sick back in December, and January. Crazy inflammation throughout my body, bad joint pains, muscle pains, flu like sick, insomnia, anxiety, burning all over, fatigued, nerve pain, tingling, and my list of symptoms goes on and on and on when it was bad. Testicular pain was bad at a point in time too.

Slowly and surely I have gotten better. The key is stick with your medication!!! Try and have plenty of ammo to hit the Lyme and have yourself and your protocol for the week ready to go on Sunday! I am changing my protocol weekly now adding and removing certain things, but I have these little vitamin containers that have my daily times to take my abx and supplements. Morning, later morning,lunch, evening, bedtime. I take pills 5 times a day and everything is spaced out accordingly. It is working! Consistency is key! Also when I have time I mix tinctures with water. I find they also help.

i know for a fact that lymes can be passed to your partner. I was infected at age 18. Went undiagnosed for 40 yrs. Now 58 and suffering greatly.
My husband of 25+ yrs. has never been bitten by a tick. He has and has never had any symptoms, but we had his blood tested anyway. He came back positive for lymes. We have the blood tests to prove it. And yes, he took elisa and western blot tests.
25 + yrs. of "doing what married couples do" and I gave him lymes. It is a fact.

Hi Theresal58,
Welcome to our community!
I'm not sure if you were responding to my post, but I was in no way indicating that Lyme disease can't be passed from from one sexual partner to another - that's been documented. Lyme disease has also been documented as being passed during pregnancy from mother to child as well as by blood transfusions, and organ transplants.

What I was saying is that Lyme disease has never been documented as being contagious like a virus - and I think we need to make that point. I can't say that it will never be documented, only that it hasn't and we should be very careful what we say on the forums if we wish to continue to be taken seriously.

The other thing that people seem to forget is that the nymph form is as small as the period at the end of this sentence - and ticks are far from the only insect that passes these infections. There are a lot of other insects that have been documented as being capable of passing these infections, not just Lyme disease - fleas, biting flies, horse flies, deer flies, bed bugs, mosquitoes, spiders, and we even have a member here that had a red (I believe) ant that she was bitten by that tested positive for Lyme disease!

And is there anyone that hasn't had a mosquito bite? Those things are actually more dangerous than ticks in my opinion!

"There is no need to provide scientific literature because it's already been proven in scientific literature that it has been passed off casually in mice"

I am NOT challenging your transmission, but do you have a link to this?

Hi SunnyBeee

I just saw your post now. Yes this person I caught it from had an active untreated infection. In addition to that she was not doing anything at all for treatment. She may have been infected for over 2 years. This is going to sound bizarre, but I had a bad habit at the time that I thought was safe. I was using e-vic vaping device which is a kind of electronic cigarette. The germs got on my phone, and then onto the mouth piece of the device, and then onto my lips. I showed my friend a picture on my phone just 5 minutes after she wiped her tear. Or it could have been on her hands is the only other possibility.

So the tear --> her finger (she wiped her tear) --> my phone (showed her a picture) --> my finger (from my phone) --> to my hand --> to this vape device (touched even the mouth peice) --> to my lips. Obviously lips and mouth are a nice moist environment. It is also possible that I breathed it in. My very first symptoms were burning in my lips, which eventually led to my entire lower face burning which I believe now was an initial bartonella infecting the nerves.

It sounds like a long shot, I'm aware of that. But it seriously happens. It is bad luck for me and I didn't even think it could have been possible at the time, I just experimented with this e-cig device like only 2 months before I met this woman and ended up getting addicted again to the nicotine. I have quit ever since this event happened though. Also, I am reading reports of lots of other electronic cigarette users who ended up catching some serious infections as well so I'm not the only one who got an infection this way. Generally yes it is safer than smoking cigarettes that is if you treat it like eating! That is before using it wash your hands, clean the mouth peice, use it only in the comfort and cleaness of your own home... etc.

So i guess you can say the germs got to a easier point of contact... My lips and mouth which is a moist area for it. Also the lips have thin skin This infected me that way. Would a tear infect someone if it got on thicker skin? Maybe not. Anyways, it could be passed on by possibly sharing something.

While there may be a chance you can get it via tears, I wouldn't think there's a high incidence of it, otherwise my other daughter would most likely have it by now. She's a college kid and under stress, so her immune system is weak. She was with us at my mom's funeral a year ago and I cried and wiped my nose many times that day and she was standing next to me during the funeral and she was crying too. A lot of people were taking me by the hand, hugging me, kissing me, etc. and nobody is ill. My hubby doesn't have symptoms either and seems to be doing well.

You may very well be one of the minority of people who got it that way. I just don't want people getting too afraid to be near anyone since it doesn't seem to be the high risk that other ways of getting it are. I'm sorry you have it. How about we end this debate and everyone accept the fact that that there's a chance it can be transmitted through tears and get back to being supportive. OK?

OKay thanks. I was not trying to alarm people into thinking this is going around like the plague, but it does happen. And it probably happens more often than we think. I realize kissing and sexual contact are probably much more likely than a tear like my situation.

I don't have the exact scientifc article. I have read so many articles about Lyme and transmission so I read it somewhere quite a few months back. It was an article that has mentioned that there were scientists in a lab that reported this happening. So I guess you can say it was a article taking reference from another source and I don't know if it was actually referenced to the right original article.

If I am able to come across it again I will make sure it comes your way.

One thing I can for sure say is that it IS in our herbalist Buhners book about Lyme being in tears. That I can say for sure.

LP,
After my experience with doctors not believing how sick I was, I would be less likely to doubt anyone's story. I know an entire street where almost everyone has or has had it. I wonder if you possibly also had lyme in a dormant state and the tear brought out the infection further. Who knows. Now that I reflect back, I think I had it for awhile even though I have been very healthy. Your post did remind me to be careful around family while crying and to wash hands as much as possible. I cry a ton!! I also have a science degree and try not to have a scope of thought that is sometimes too limited. The world is a big and strange place and unfortunately with lyme there is so many things left to be answered. I don't think people should get hysterical with your story, but use some common sense and be hygienic but not paranoid!