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Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

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Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#121

Post by consp »

stupidboy wrote: post #82

Surprised to see Lyme disease on HN, since bringing affordable DNA testing for B. burgdorferi & other pathogens to the public is the startup I've been working on since 2014. Relevant Plug: https://www.tickcheck.com/ As mentioned in other comments, serological tests fall short in various ways (accuracy, time). If you keep the tick that bit you, we can test it for the presence Lyme, and several other pathogens. If nega…

What they thought me for first aid was: remove the tick with a proper tool, wrap it in some scotch tape and put it in something storable (back then a photo roll plastic thingey) and give it to the person affected and send them to a doctor or emergency service. That was over 20 years ago. Apperantly the "save the tick" advice is not as wide spread as I believed it to be as you were the first to mention it (my reading).

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#122

Post by [deleted] »

Alex3917 wrote: post #116
dheera wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I got bit by 2 blacklegged ticks in the past 3 months but I couldn't find any free tick tests, so I never had them tested. Both were within a few hours so I assumed based on CDC advice that I was still in the green zone. It sounds like one of those things that health insurance companies would be out of their minds to not cover. Separately: Bay Area hikers beware -- change your clothes immediately after g…

> Both were within a few hours so I assumed based on CDC advice that I was still in the green zone. I wouldn't trust the CDC data. Notice that there is no primary source on their webpage. Here is a paper by someone who took an independent look into it: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278789/

[deleted]

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#123

Post by sideshowb »

narag wrote: post #19
kaycebasques wrote: post #17

I remember standing in line at a coffee shop, after walking some dogs on a nature trail. I felt a sharp pain on my hip flexor and knew right away it was a tick bite, even though I had never had one before. I rushed into the bathroom and lo and behold, it was a tick. In a panic I asked all the women in the coffee shop if they had tweezers. They must have thought I had a screw loose. None of them did so I rushed home t…

Oil. Edit: I had a scary experience. After rain I was hunting in the woods with bushes a metre tall, shotgut over the head to avoid accidents. Then a snake hiss ahead, tried to turn right, another snake hiss that way, same to left and... same back. I panicked and got out of the bushes as fast as I could, I was panting. Then I noticed I was covered by hundreds of ticks. I shouted and my father came alarmed. He managed…

I believe this is not advised nowadays as oil makes the tick more likely to vomit, increasing risk of infection.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#124

Post by gerbilly »

rb808 wrote: post #96
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #48

Explosion of deer and rodent populations is definitely not helping. We were walking with our dog at a local natural area we frequent. A deer crossed the path and we all stopped to take photos, and then moved on. That day we found ticks all over our dog. The deer are literally swimming in them. Both rodents and deer are part of the lifecycle of the tick. Suppressing deer populations and encouraging red foxes and other…

Most people still see deer as cute, but its starting to change. When I see deer I just see disease carrying vermin. Deer populations have exploded. I wish they were systematically culled. Time talked about this a while back, I havent seen anything since. https://time.com/709/americas-pest-problem-its-time-to-cull-... https://vet.uga.edu/population_health_files/scwds-150wtdeer5...

I know what you mean.

However we might not be awash in deer if we hadn't first 'culled' all the predators. Wolves for example.¹

1: http://www.uky.edu/OtherOrgs/AppalFor/Readings/leopold.pdf

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#125

Post by [deleted] »

Alex3917 wrote: post #116
dheera wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I got bit by 2 blacklegged ticks in the past 3 months but I couldn't find any free tick tests, so I never had them tested. Both were within a few hours so I assumed based on CDC advice that I was still in the green zone. It sounds like one of those things that health insurance companies would be out of their minds to not cover. Separately: Bay Area hikers beware -- change your clothes immediately after g…

> Both were within a few hours so I assumed based on CDC advice that I was still in the green zone. I wouldn't trust the CDC data. Notice that there is no primary source on their webpage. Here is a paper by someone who took an independent look into it: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278789/

[deleted]

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#126

Post by ceejayoz »

ColanR wrote: post #80
ceejayoz wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that it's impossible to prove a negative, the onus is on conspiracy theorists to provide evidence that Lyme research was performed there.

15 years ago, conspiracy theorists were being asked to prove government spying. It's hard, and the coverup might leave only circumstantial evidence, but it doesn't mean its not true. Either way, if you're trying to provide a source against the point being made, it needs to be better than that one. Is there any other? Edit: I did a bit of looking into it. Tick-borne diseases were definitely studied there, which means…

> The geography of the disease also fits a spread from the Plum Island facility. See the same article for a map.

No, it doesn't, considering it was documented in Scotland in the 1700s. The Plum Island facility was started in 1954.

> From wikipedia: "The review in Army Chemical Review concluded 'Lab 257 would be cautiously valuable to someone writing a history of Plum Island'".

The actual quote is:

> The review in Army Chemical Review concluded "Lab 257 would be cautiously valuable to someone writing a history of Plum Island, but is otherwise an example of fringe literature with a portrayal of almost every form of novelist style."

In other words, "it gets the biographical stuff mostly right, before it goes nutty".

> Anyway, in summary, there is enough evidence to ask a reasonable question: which puts the onus back on the government, or you, to provide credible evidence that Lyme was not developed there.

Lyme's historical record predating the very existence of the lab is fairly conclusive proof that it wasn't developed there.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#128

Post by megous »

ajudson wrote: post #117
megous wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't read the links, but I've read a lot here https://lymescience.org/ and I also almost fell for "chronic Lyme" few years ago. There's something seriously unsettling around websites/online communities dedicated to chronic Lyme. From Lyme friendly doctors, to people doing and interpreting their own tests, to people ascribing all kind of ailments to this "condition", etc.

If you want to go down another rabbit hole, read about Morgellons

Uh. Interesting one.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#129

Post by stupidboy »

consp wrote: post #121
stupidboy wrote: post #82

Surprised to see Lyme disease on HN, since bringing affordable DNA testing for B. burgdorferi & other pathogens to the public is the startup I've been working on since 2014. Relevant Plug: https://www.tickcheck.com/ As mentioned in other comments, serological tests fall short in various ways (accuracy, time). If you keep the tick that bit you, we can test it for the presence Lyme, and several other pathogens. If nega…

What they thought me for first aid was: remove the tick with a proper tool, wrap it in some scotch tape and put it in something storable (back then a photo roll plastic thingey) and give it to the person affected and send them to a doctor or emergency service. That was over 20 years ago. Apperantly the "save the tick" advice is not as wide spread as I believed it to be as you were the first to mention it (my reading)…

Yeah, that's proper procedure--except for the scotch tape. Our lab techs need to tediously remove ticks from adhesive every day because some authority (first-aid manuals?) is telling people to do that. It ends up in pieces after extraction which hinders us from identifying the species, life stage, and duration of engorgement. Hopefully this practice phases out with time.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#130

Post by llamataboot »

stupidboy wrote: post #82

Surprised to see Lyme disease on HN, since bringing affordable DNA testing for B. burgdorferi & other pathogens to the public is the startup I've been working on since 2014. Relevant Plug: https://www.tickcheck.com/ As mentioned in other comments, serological tests fall short in various ways (accuracy, time). If you keep the tick that bit you, we can test it for the presence Lyme, and several other pathogens. If nega…

Thank you for this service! It has brought peace of mind to me after a number of tick bites (they are nearly impossible to avoid entirely if you spend a lot of time camping in the upper Midwest)
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