Lyme is sexually transmitted....

What about other co infections?

In a weird way it would be comforting to believe that my dh had ONLY Lyme to deal with as a result of me😐

"The spirochetes do tend to enter the saliva of the animals they infect, so . . . it is lust vs caution on this one."
(From the link above)

Although it's found in saliva, it doesn't necessarily mean it's passed on that way...(unless of course there are bleeding sores)

It is just my opinion and that of Buhner - that the mouth is an orifice and it doesn't have to be bleeding any more than a vagina has to be bleeding in order for the transmission.

Again!! This is just my opinion. I totally believe in caution vs. lust on this one!!! I won't kiss anyone on the mouth because of the chance I could pass this on to them. My whole family knows why I won't kiss them, including all the grands. I can easily kiss the forehead or the cheek.

Again!!!!! This is me and my thoughts. Hubby and I have not kissed since my diagnosis. However, after being bit and before diagnosis we did kiss. Is that how he got it? We have no proof.

And there is no proof on the kissing either. But it is a choice everyone makes.

I probably should not speculate on "what if's." I really do not know and I don't think enough studies have been done.

Who knows they may find that spirochetes can be transmitted via sneezing next.

It really is a guessing game.

I just have my opinions on the kissing and sex.

I think everyone will make up their own mind and decide what works for them.

I love individuality.

I was thinking along the same lines as HIV- not transferred via saliva. (apparently)
So..was thinking with Lyme...it could be the same?

So, no one is going to kiss again? ever?

As we know...when in remission, it is thought we still have the bacteria in us...but just kept in check by our immune systems.

At this point it's protection only in my house....but I'm not giving up kissing...unless I see something that convinces me otherwise.

Rikky1 said...
I'm a firm believer that once you have these bugs in your body you never get rid of them. Sure you can be asymptomatic and in 'remission' but you are still a carrier your immune system keeps them at bay like it does for a gazillion other microbes floating around your body.

you don't need some big study just using simple logic its easy to deduce that lyme and other infections passed by a tick can be sexually transmitted. anyone telling you differently doesn't know biology 101.

agreed - but do we never kiss again? lol.

Then should we also be concerned about sneezing on someone.....etc?

I don't know about HIV, it's a virus. Borrelia resemble Syphilis.

I did just find this most interesting article on the behavior of Burgdorferi.

On the Curious Motions of Syphilis and Lyme Disease Bacteria ...
blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/on..

yeah i believe these claims of yes and no are very much not working with lyme disease. Traditionally any eurekas coming from this field, with simple binary answers like this , are somehow incompatible with the complexity of the pathogen. So i have seen NO yes-es and no-s with lyme, just a lot of maybes or dunnos....

We don't know if it is sexually transmitted, given it is a spirochete and a cousin of syphilis it is reasonable to assume it COULD do that, but maybe it does that only in immunocompromised individuals. Let's not forget that the tick, when biting the victim, is also rendering inert some parts of the host immune response : you do not feel the tick, you do not get a rash immediately so you don't need to scratch there and remove the tick. Its saliva has immunmodulatory properties that ARE USED by borrelia early in dissemination to avoid the local immune response and have time to replicate and spread.

Without trying to be grose, you do not get the same immunomodulatory tick saliva during sex .... So i'd say that Borrelia probably can get into you during sex but has a harder time surviving because it is used to an abberrant immune response at the site of the bite (which does not exist during sex). BUT.... if your immune system is aberrant to begin with, like u have HIV, you are under steroids or something similar... maybe it does not need the tick saliva and you still can get infected.

Bottom line... no YES and NO, just ...maybe/sometimes....

I dunno mpost. I've read a lot of scientific papers. Did you know that in research they found more active spirochetes in the vaginal fluids than in semen?

There has been so much anecdotal evidence here and outside of this forum.

Just because a person's immune system is fully functioning doesn't mean the bacteria isn't going to get into them. It just means that the person is going to be able to keep asymptomatic at that time. These spirochetes are able to get into any tissue or area that they want to within 48 hours of bite and stay dormant until favorable conditions exist.
I don't know how long it takes to mount a response to this antigen.

Borrelia behave in a strange way in that our body doesn't build up an immune response from initial introduction, but we can get infected and sick, over and over.

I know there is a scientific explanation for all of this, I'm just not very technically minded to present it.

They are using Lyme bacteria to study something of the behavior of syph in vitro because Borrelia stay vital under the scope and apparently syph spirochetes don't.

PeteZa, I'm thinking of keeping a cup of plastic spoons on the counter by the stove to use as tasting spoons. I mean, how many times will we taste something as we're cooking it? I get sloppy that way if my cup of regular teaspoons has run out and are already in the sink.

I forget, and feel so guilty! But, everyone I feed is already sick by now..my daughter got it where I did, and she gave it to her husband...and I'm the only trying to treat.

PeteZa said...
I just think lyme is a bacteria. There are billions of bacteria. Strep is a bacteria and easily transmitted via saliva.

Since any dormant viruses can be activated by lyme, it is easy to see that you can definitely get exposed to a virus also.

Under normal conditions our own saliva will ward off the bad juju from your partners saliva. But with a compromised immune system, you probably will get whatever is in the saliva of your partner.

Girlie, I'm not kissing. I don't want my elderly mother to get lyme at her age, nor one of my sweet grandchildren. Nope, no kissing for me.

I can hug the heck out of them though. Or just sit and snuggle.

Now that hubby has lyme, we aren't so careful. We obviously have already swapped body fluids and given each other everything after all these years.

I'm sure kissing on the cheek would be fine...I only kiss my husband on the lips anyway...everyone else always gets the cheek.

That's exactly what we do in our family since I have lyme. And, surprisingly a lot of my relatives don't kiss on the lips, because of this lyme and watching what I went through.

I totally cannot kiss my wee ones. We do "blow kisses" a lot. And their foreheads get kisses from me.

And my Mom always gets a kiss on the cheek.