Psilociraptor said...
Girlie said...
Noah2112 said...
If it were that easy to find the spirochetes in the blood, we wouldn't be having trouble diagnosing people properly. You're probably mistaking them for something else, if your wife doesn't have any symptoms she's probably alright.
I wonder the same thing as you do, Noah. If it can be visualized in a blood sample under microscope - why isn't it being done to diagnose?I'm sure there's a really complicated discussion behind that which is partly embedded in the fact, as i stated before, spirochetes are serophobic for the most part... but also partly embedded in the fact that medicine is so highly commoditized nobody is getting paid to sit around and spend hours poking for a spirochete in a blood slide. Everything is about
efficiency these days. Not applying all the tools at your disposal, but producing rapid, cheap and standardized diagnostics that can push a higher volume of patients through the system at the expense of individualized care.
But yeah if it was obvious or easy to diagnose by blood slide it wouldn't go unnoticed this long. There are too many pathologists out there pushing a large volume of patient samples and spirochetes are not the kinds of things you overlook when they're in their classic spirilla morphology. They stick out like a sore thumb.
If it was this obvious, I would think that some interested LLMD's would have a microscope in their office and do a quick finger prick....and put it on the slide.
It would be a good backup to IND lab tests.