Big news!

This is possibly news that will turn the "Lyme world" on it's head. It was published 2 or 3 days ago from what I can see. I can only find access to the abstract as this is possibly huge (as well as brand new) news - of course it could be a "re-direct" as well, but they aren't American researchers, so it's not as likely.

I broke up the abstract to make it easier to read, and I did the underlining and bold type for emphasis for those that can't read the whole thing.

"Lyme borreliosis is a multisystem disorder with diverse spectrum of clinical manifestations, caused by spirochetes of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex. It is an infectious disease that can be successfully cured by antibiotic therapy on early stages; however, the possibility of appearance of persistent signs and symptoms of disease following antibiotic treatment is recognized today.

It is known that Lyme borreliosis is mimicking multiple diseases that were never proven to have a spirochete etiology. Using complete modified Kelly-Pettenkofer medium we succeeded in cultivation of live B. burgdorferi sensu lato spirochetes from samples of humans who suffered from undefined disorders, had symptoms not typical for Lyme borreliosis, but undergone antibiotic treatment due to suspicion of having Lyme disease even though they were seronegative.

We report the first recovery of live Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto from residents of southeastern United States and first successful cultivation of live Borrelia bissettii-like strain from resident of North America. Our results support the fact that B. bissettii is responsible for human Lyme borreliosis worldwide along with B. burgdorferi s.s. Involvement of new spirochete species in Lyme borreliosis changes the understanding and recognition of clinical manifestations of this disease."

www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.com/article/S1198-743X%2815%2900991-X/abstract

Incredible news!!!

And, this could very well explain why Lyme testing fails so many people since the most common tests are for Borrelia Burgdorferi.

Thanks for sharing this valuable info, Trav!!!!

Thanks, Traveler - great news!

Yeah! Thanks Traveler.

Well, the Elisa doesn't even pick up the B. burdorferi (that it was designed to detect)up to 70% of the time, so I doubt it will be useful for anything else. Even the Western Blot only picks up about 50% of those that actually have these infections. It's more likely - I would think - that those that are infected with negative tests will find that they have one of these other strains, like the B. bessettii and others.

Also Traveler - Do you feel that possibly identifying which strain of Borrelia we carry may explain why some people have more neuro and others more joint type symptoms, etc.? Also, would drugs work differently on the various types? I feel like we may be on the verge of something big here. I just hope researchers don't stop with Borrelia because the coinfections are just as bad.