Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding • Hacker News Board

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#71

Post by erentz » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 9:20 PM UTC

Unfortunately there’s no way to know that one currently has Lyme disease unless the symptoms are close in time to a tick bite.

Treatment is with antibiotics, usually doctors will use a combination of two types of antibiotics (eg doxycycline and cefdinir) for which there is some research suggesting better results. In rare cases IV antibiotics may be required, especially if evidence of cardiac or neurological involvement. Duration of treatment is for 1 to 4 months. There’s next to no evidence you should go longer than that.

After treatment patients may also need immune modulation treatment due to autoimmune reaction to the infection. High dose ivig in serious cases. Some patients also find benefit using low dose naltrexone for this though it can have a very nasty side effect of causing depression so watch yourself using it.

Almost everything else is a scam. And unfortunately with Lyme, while the patients are clearly very sick, there are an aweful lot of quacks ready to part them with their cash so be weary.

It’s important to know there are other illnesses that people need to rule out too, check for dysautonomia, POTS, ME/CFS, MS, and aaSFPN for example.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#72

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 9:21 PM UTC

ColanR wrote: post #66

ceejayoz wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/books/04/02/lab.257/index.ht... > Moreover, a Department of Agriculture spokesperson, Sandy Miller-Hays, told the news service that -- counter to Carroll's claims -- Lyme disease was never studied at Plum Island. As for symptoms, it was described in the 1760s as "exquisite pain [in] the interior parts of the limbs", neurological symptoms in the 1920s, etc. That it took a while to recog…

I think that a government spokesperson should not be considered a reputable source when speaking on potential misdoings by the same government. Is there an independent source that can speak to the Plum Island claims?

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

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#73

Post by toss1 » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 9:22 PM UTC

Might be time for a CRISPR Gene Drive to eradicate ticks in some zones. Plausibly more critical than mosquitoes.

Obviously we need to be very careful about trying to rebalance what we've put out of balance, and study to be sure that we are not eliminating a critical food source for other links in the food web.

https://psmag.com/magazine/deleting-a-species-genetically-en...

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#74

Post by bduerst » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 9:23 PM UTC

morley wrote: post #28

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…

I was told that if you find a tick on you, you should keep the bug in case you need to have it tested for Lyme.

Yep. Put it between two pieces of scotch tape to prevent it from getting away.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#75

Post by stronglikedan » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 9:25 PM UTC

pmoriarty wrote: post #35

nouveaux wrote: post #4

I've recently gotten into backpacking and learned that the most effective way of dealing with mosquitoes and ticks in nature is Permetherin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin . It is intended for clothing and not the skin. The best way to apply it is to soak your clothes and let it dry. Spray on applicators are also available. Once it is dry, it is very stable and safe. It does breakdown with UV and washes, so…

Ticks can drop out of trees on your head, or attach to your hair when your head brushes past some leaves on a tree. Also, if your bare skin is not covered in insect repellent, that could also be a route that they get to the rest of your body. The most effective method of not getting bitten is not to go in to the woods at all.

The most effective method of not getting hit by a falling plane is to remain underground.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#76

Post by clairity » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 9:26 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #22

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…

I had dozens of ticks as a kid. Lyme disease hadn't spread to Canada yet, so it wasn't a big deal. I never once felt them bite; they produce an anesthetic so you don't feel it. Sometimes you could feel them crawling on you, but most of the time you didn't even feel that. And you didn't hear the jaws snap when you pulled it off, you heard the mouth parts tearing. You have to be careful pulling a tick off or the mouth…

yup, you don't feel them biting. i pulled hundreds of ticks off of me and my dogs growing up. pull slowly but firmly from the base of the head, with fingernails if tweezers aren't handy. squeeze the body between (the backs of) your fingernails until they snap to finish them off (same for fleas). i don't really remember having issues with the mouth parts staying behind and irritating the skin, even though that was warned about too back then.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#77

Post by _Microft » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 9:27 PM UTC

nate_meurer wrote: post #63

nicolaslem wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should avoid pulling, instead hold it with a tool and turn it. After about two or three turns it usually comes right off.

I've heard of such a tool, but never seen one. Otherwise, twisting a tick using tweezers or your fingers is a great way to break its head off under your skin.

There are "tick cards", sized like a credit card with narrowing cuts which you move long the tick until it comes off. Also very practical.

https://www.amazon.de/s?k=tick+card

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#78

Post by HarryHirsch » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 9:28 PM UTC

wazoox wrote: post #51

I've got ticks a few times a year just running in the woods (the last one was Saturday). During holidays in the Pyrenees with my family, we had to scan our bodies for ticks every day, and every day we found several -- up to a dozen -- on each of us. Now the article is very light on the main question: why did ticks multiply that much recently?

why did ticks multiply that much recently?

It's because of warmer winters and an exploding deer population. People need to take up hunting again to reduce the numbers of those tick motherships.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#79

Post by iamthepieman » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 9:28 PM UTC

bubblewrap wrote: post #52

wazoox wrote: post #51

I've got ticks a few times a year just running in the woods (the last one was Saturday). During holidays in the Pyrenees with my family, we had to scan our bodies for ticks every day, and every day we found several -- up to a dozen -- on each of us. Now the article is very light on the main question: why did ticks multiply that much recently?

Could be global warming, or at least warm winters (whether due to global warming or not).

it probably is global warming but of course that actually means many many interacting effects. In no particular order

1. Different weather patterns caused by El Nino(warm pacific equatorial temperatures resulting in increased precipitation) along with similar weather patterns in other areas of the world. This is especially noticeable during the winter with increased snow fall providing denser snowpack and a more protected subnivean zone for one of ticks primary hosts, white footed and field mice. Warm weather in general also helps. Ticks are not greatly affected by cold weather but their hosts are and when there are more hosts, there are more ticks.

2. Increased temperatures has a complex affect on tick habitat. While a rise in temperature can increase forest biomass and increase growth rates of transitioning forest, it decreases biomass at the forest edge which is a place where low lying scrub grows the most and provides ideal "questing"[0] habitat for ticks. So that seems like wash but it's actually more complex even that that.

3. This one is more Anthropocene than specifically climate related. Many prime tick hosts have adapted well to human crowded space including deer, mice and small mammals. Their predators such as wolves, foxes, and birds of prey have not fared as well.

4. Related to 3 above, sprawl puts people in closer proximity to habitats once favored by tick hosts so there may be a factor where ticks are not increasing so much as human/tick interaction is.

[0]https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/life_cycle_and_hosts.html search for questing

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#80

Post by ColanR » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 9:32 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #72

ColanR wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that a government spokesperson should not be considered a reputable source when speaking on potential misdoings by the same government. Is there an independent source that can speak to the Plum Island claims?

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 general subject was being researched. (a bunch of pubmed studies are listed here [1], and pubmed shows in the author information that they were from Plum Island. Ignore the site if you like, just look at the pubmed articles.)

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

I obviously can't go order and read a physical book off the cuff, but it seems like the Lab 257 book by Carroll is decently reliable, as far as can be expected when making claims counter to an official government position. From wikipedia: "The review in Army Chemical Review concluded 'Lab 257 would be cautiously valuable to someone writing a history of Plum Island'".

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.