[HN Gopher] New studies offer insight into Lyme disease's treatm...
___________________________________________________________________
New studies offer insight into Lyme disease's treatment, lingering
symptoms
Author : gmays
Score : 148 points
Date : 2025-05-06 11:38 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (news.northwestern.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (news.northwestern.edu)
| AnthonBerg wrote:
| The studies mentioned (but not linked?):
| https://scholar.google.com/scholar?oi=bibs&hl=en&cluster=179...
|
| https://scholar.google.com/scholar?oi=bibs&hl=en&cluster=384...
| jadbox wrote:
| This is desperately needed. I have Midwest family who have
| suffered ten years due to persistent lyme disease from having a
| single tick bite.
| registeredcorn wrote:
| Same. Family member who lived out around Utah and Colorado. She
| had been racked with pain for something like 15-20 years. She
| was going to doctors constantly, trying to figure out what was
| wrong. She was labeled as a "drug seeker" and got shoved around
| for years as a result.
|
| Later on, she came across a doctor who happened to used to live
| in the North East and recognized it as Lyme disease pretty much
| instantly. She still deals with pain on a constant on-going
| basis, but has been _slightly_ lessened with more targeted
| medications, etc. Hopefully something like this can offer her
| and others like her some sustainable, long-term relief.
| adregan wrote:
| Wasn't there a new Lyme's vaccine in the works due to come out
| soon? Anyone aware of how that's going?
| giantg2 wrote:
| The one I heard about is supposed to be an antibody injection.
| bluGill wrote:
| In clinical trials - the one I was able to find has the first
| report due end of 2026, with the final end of 2027. I assume 6
| months or a year after that to do paperwork before approval so
| I'm guessing late 2028 before we get it (assuming it passes
| trial, which isn't a given)
| colinwilyb wrote:
| Clinical trials still ongoing.
|
| https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-deta...
| giantg2 wrote:
| I thought that there are approved human vaccines, but they were
| voluntarily removed due to economic reasons and lack of adoption.
| bluGill wrote:
| There was, withdrawn in 2002. Protection wanes so even if you
| were one of the few who got it then you have no protection
| today. There are a couple new vaccines in the works, one in
| phase 3 testing so hopefully we get something in a few years.
| mplanchard wrote:
| Yeah there's what looks like a solid candidate going through
| a variety of worldwide trials right now.[0]
|
| Very hopeful for a meaningful means of prevention in the
| coming years.
|
| [0]: https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-
| deta...
| giantg2 wrote:
| How is this really different from the previous Lymerix?
| Aren't they both 3 shot series and OspA based?
| giantg2 wrote:
| It was withdrawn, but the approval was never revoked.
| bluGill wrote:
| True, and I suppose the patent is expired by now so you
| could in theory start making it. Though the FDA has rules
| about how you can produce such things. Probably better for
| a company to risk/start a new vaccine which they can patent
| and thus get some benefit that way vs one out of patent.
| Also just because you can legally make it doesn't mean it
| is practical. It may require other things that are not
| longer made, or specific equipment that would be expensive
| to recreate. Still this is an opportunity for someone in
| India (where a lot of generic drugs are made already,
| though the country doesn't matter) if they want to.
|
| I don't hike as much in areas where Lyme is common as I
| used to, but I'd still take a vaccine if I could. (I didn't
| know the vaccine existed in 2001 or I would have)
| ixtli wrote:
| iirc the vaccines stopped the tick from successfully
| transferring the bacteria. it didn't make the body able to
| better combat it. (and if you read the article linked it
| explains that its not actually the killing of the spirochete
| that is the problem its the remains of it and how the host body
| responds to those remains.)
| ghaff wrote:
| It's a complicated story. There were (almost certainly
| overstated by some) side effects and it just wasn't a super-
| effective vaccine. Still IMO shouldn't have been take off the
| market. Hopefully one of the vaccines under development pan out
| because Lyme is a real problem in some areas and increasingly
| spreading north.
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| There are multiple human vaccines in the works at the moment,
| earliest might be available towards the end of 2027 as long as
| they're not defunded by the current administration
| dev_l1x_be wrote:
| It is kinda funny that humanity can kills entire species like the
| dodo while cannot eradicate a bacterium like Borrelia.
| quesera wrote:
| Big things are easier to eradicate, especially if they are
| slow, unaccustomed to being prey, and nutritious.
|
| Eradicating a bacterium with wild animal reservoir populations
| (deer, white-footed mice, black-legged ticks, all of which are
| endemic species) is ... a _much_ harder problem.
| monster_truck wrote:
| If I could hunt Borrelia with spears it would be over
| voidmain0001 wrote:
| I would like to kill more deer which are part of the Lyme
| cycle. There are so many in the rural area I live, they
| remind of big city rats.
| rarrrrrr wrote:
| Strangely enough, there's even some likelihood that killing off
| the passenger pigeon actually promoted Borrelia burgdorferi.
| The passenger pigeon's main food source was tree mast. Large
| flocks of pigeons would descend and clear the forest floor of
| food. After it went extinct, the population of small animals
| which also eat tree mast exploded, and these are reservoir
| species for Borrelia.
| BurningFrog wrote:
| A Passenger Pigeon relaunch is planned for 2032:
|
| https://reviverestore.org/projects/about-the-passenger-
| pigeo...
| nkrisc wrote:
| There were far fewer dodos than any given bacteria. You can
| also see a dodo.
| bregma wrote:
| Borellia bergdorfii does not taste like chicken.
| CyberDildonics wrote:
| Bypassing the clickbait we have this:
|
| _In two new studies led by bacteriologist Brandon L. Jutras,
| Northwestern scientists have identified an antibiotic that cures
| Lyme disease at a fraction of the dosage of the current "gold
| standard" treatment and discovered what may cause a treated
| infection to mimic chronic illness in patients. The studies were
| published in the journal Science Translational Medicine._
| bentt wrote:
| This is amazing and really needed in the northern US and Canada.
| It is also great they speak to the chronic lyme condition because
| many people get accused of it being psychosomatic or even false
| (similar with long Covid). Their theory of it being bacterial
| remnants in the liver is validating.
| ixtli wrote:
| Its sad that we needed to have a partially avoidable mass death
| due to COVID in order for people to start considering these
| chronic conditions more broadly in society. People have been
| having these issues for generations.
| bentt wrote:
| I mean, sure.
|
| But some things are just really complex and the root causes
| are very, very difficult to pin down. There was a lot sad
| about COVID, but like 4000th on the list is how it revealed
| the human dynamics that lead to chronic diseases being
| overlooked because science has no valid explanation for
| what's happening to patients. I say this as someone who
| suffered from Lyme Disease for a number of years.
| agos wrote:
| look at it the other way: we got a couple of unexpected
| silver linings from the COVID hell. one is attention to these
| chronic conditions (finally!)
| bentt wrote:
| Yes! It's vital that we continue to look for opportunities
| in the midst of such a crisis.
| almosthere wrote:
| Now everyone agrees, experts are just normal people that have
| built a bias towards one ideological thing or another.
|
| Long COVID? (looks up "party" stance)... that doesn't exist.
| Eat Apples.
| Aurornis wrote:
| > It is also great they speak to the chronic lyme condition
| because many people get accused of it being psychosomatic or
| even false (similar with long Covid).
|
| I have a friend who worked in research for rare, chronic, and
| misunderstood diseases for a few years. Post Treatment Lyme
| Disease Syndrome (PTLDS or just PTLD) is well accept by now.
|
| The problem they encountered was that so many of the people who
| presented with "Chronic Lyme" diagnoses were either self-
| diagnosed from the internet or diagnosed by uninformed primary
| care doctors who used it as a catch-all for symptoms they
| couldn't diagnose. Many had never received positive test
| results, or they had received positive test results from cash-
| pay alternative medicine labs who used their own in-house
| alternate tests.
|
| It was really depressing to hear stories about people who had
| been misled into spending tens or hundreds of thousands of
| dollars on things like year-long courses of expensive, IV
| antibiotics for a condition they most likely did not have. Even
| the idea of a persistent infection hasn't held up to scrutiny.
| The current line of thinking is shown in this article, where
| persistent particles of past infection might cause ongoing
| immune-related symptoms. Those symptoms would not respond to
| the high-dose, long-term antibiotic therapy pushed by the
| alternative medicine Lyme treatment providers, obviously.
|
| So while it's a difficult topic, having some better mechanism
| to separate the verified Lyme cases from the self-diagnosed or
| those wrongly diagnosed is actually very important for
| improving acceptance of the condition. It's tragic that many
| with persistent symptoms of true Lyme infections have been
| dismissed, but it's also tragic that many with non-Lyme
| conditions have been misled into thinking that "Chronic Lyme"
| is the explanation for all of their problems contrary to the
| evidence. Getting the latter group out of the "Chronic Lyme"
| mindset and on to a path where their true underlying condition
| can be addressed, whatever it may be, is a win for them.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Earlier release that links the study:
| https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025/04/the-antibiotic...
| (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43863980)
| netaustin wrote:
| I contracted Lyme disease while on vacation in Cape Cod last
| year. The first symptom was left-side facial paralysis, which my
| physician diagnosed as Bell's Palsy, so I spent two weeks on
| steroids before we figured out the real issue. Three weeks of
| doxycycline cured the Lyme but left feeling pretty wrecked for
| more than a month afterwards! I seem to have avoided the chronic
| symptoms some people experience, but a low-dose antibiotic would
| have been great.
| hentrep wrote:
| Disclaimer: Not a doctor.
|
| I think you're alluding to this in your last statement, but
| standard treatment for Lyme can absolutely wreck your natural
| gut microbiome. This could explain some of the lingering
| chronic effects post-treatment. Did you try supplementing with
| fermented foods or probiotics after completing dox?
| voidmain0001 wrote:
| I'm on a second round of Doxy. The first was 21 days and now I
| have a 60 day prescription. It doesn't knock me out. I take the
| first dose early in the morning with a lot of water. I don't
| eat until noon, but not before first taking a capsule of
| probiotics to replenish gut bacteria. I take the second Doxy in
| the evening with a meal. Then 3 hours later I take another
| probiotic capsule to restore gut bacteria overnight. Maybe that
| regime is helping or maybe I'm just fortunate.
| ToDougie wrote:
| Which probiotic?
| dec0dedab0de wrote:
| Just to be pedantic, Bell's Palsy is the name of the condition
| not the cause. So it was Bell's Palsy caused by Lyme disease.
|
| I have noticed that the line between condition and cause is
| often overlooked, even by doctors. For example this leads to
| people thinking Pinkeye/conjunctivitis is highly contagious,
| when it is still conjunctivitis if it is caused by getting
| something in your eye. I think that holds for everything that
| ends in -itis too Sinusitis, Arthritis, Tendonitis, etc.
|
| I know that is a bit of a tangent, but you reminded me of
| someone who had bell's palsy telling me that it was actually
| shingles. I explained that just because it was caused by
| shingles doesn't mean it stops being Bell's Palsy, just like
| how it is still a cough if it's from the flu or from smoking.
| They ended up getting really angry at me about it, but I think
| hn might appreciate the semantics a bit more.
| engineer_22 wrote:
| Do you have trouble reading other people's emotions?
| dec0dedab0de wrote:
| No, I could clearly tell they were angry. I just never
| understood why some people get angry about minor
| corrections.
| perching_aix wrote:
| Do you?
| brady8 wrote:
| Much of being a physician is pattern recognition - the vast
| majority of Bell's Palsy is idiopathic (generally viral), and
| thus that's how we usually treat it. If we tested everybody
| for everything everytime the health system(s) would collapse.
|
| It definitely helps as a patient to advocate, and add
| anything that a physician like myself maybe wouldn't always
| ask, like if you've been a tick-infested area and/or
| discovered a tick attached to yourself recently.
| mikepurvis wrote:
| My kid contracted it from a tick bite while camping in Ontario;
| it showed as joint pain in the legs that would come and go for
| like a week at a time. Made it tough to explain to the doctors
| as by the time we'd get there, he'd be fine again.
|
| In the end it was four weeks of doxycycline-- that was several
| months ago and it doesn't seem to have recurred, thankfully.
| serial_dev wrote:
| A couple of years ago I had about 10 tick bites and one of them
| resulted in the signature bull's-eye rash. Thankfully, I was
| aware of the ticks and I was checking for the bull's-eye rash
| to appear and it got treated with doxycycline.
|
| Many people face symptoms months after the bite or they might
| not remember getting bitten by a tick so it's common that it is
| misdiagnosed and they get all kinds of ineffective and / or
| unnecessary meds, so I added it to my "list of illnesses to
| check" in case I ever get unexplainable neurological issues,
| fatigue and joint problems.
| tasuki wrote:
| > was checking for the bull's-eye rash to appear
|
| Note that the absence of that wouldn't mean you didn't get
| lyme disease.
|
| Where I live, most of the ticks carry lyme disease, yet not
| that many people get infected: if you pull it out quickly,
| you greatly reduce the chance of getting infected. Of the
| people I know, perhaps 20% had lyme disease (and knew about
| it, I must add).
| hattmall wrote:
| 1 in 5 people had Lyme disease where you live? Where is
| that??
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| Doxycycline is my favorite antibiotic and the most effective
| against chronic sinusitis and chronic prostatitis for me. I
| only take it maybe once a year, but it does wonders for a good
| long time.
|
| It also cured my nearly lifelong IBS-D about a decade ago. I
| had a small re-occurrence of IBS-D last year after so many
| years without it. I was able to convince the doc that it fixed
| it for me in the past, so he prescribed me doxycycline again.
| Boom! All fixed just like before.
|
| I have no idea why that particular antibiotic does the trick,
| but I've taken so many others from amoxicillin line, bactrim,
| even cipro, flagyl (gross) etc. and only doxy is the silver
| bullet for me it seems.
| binary132 wrote:
| And here I thought "long Lyme" had been proven fake.
| gavin-1 wrote:
| "long Lyme" isn't well defined, but you're probably thinking of
| chronic lyme [1]. This article refers to PTLD.
|
| The distinction matters. Chronic lyme is quackery that
| encourages people to pursue aggressive long-term antibiotic
| treatment for a non-existent persistent bacterial infection.
| Often these are people who have never been infected with
| Borrelia in the first place.
|
| The article directly contradicts the persistent (undetectable)
| bacterial infection "chronic lyme" theory.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_Lyme_disease
| voidmain0001 wrote:
| Agreed. Long Lyme certainly exists. I appear to have it as do
| numerous acquaintances. I wrote "appear to have it" because a
| blood test for Borrelia returns negative. However, just two
| weeks ago a doctor told me that Borrelia can evade a blood
| test by infecting the nervous system. That was news to me so
| I found this from NIH in the USA.
| https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8870494/ Borrelia
| can cross over to the CNS. Lovely.
| IncreasePosts wrote:
| What symptoms? How can you say your symptoms are from long
| Lyme, and not something else, or just getting old?
| voidmain0001 wrote:
| My symptoms are spot on with Acrodermatitis chronica
| atrophicans.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrodermatitis_chronica_atr
| oph... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK563289/
| Aurornis wrote:
| > I wrote "appear to have it" because a blood test for
| Borrelia returns negative. However, just two weeks ago a
| doctor told me that Borrelia can evade a blood test by
| infecting the nervous system.
|
| The theory of persistent infection hasn't really held up.
| There were a few researchers who claimed to have some
| evidence, but it hasn't really been replicated. It's
| largely been dismissed from mainstream research.
|
| Sadly, it's still a favored theory in many alternative
| medicine communities. It's also a really contentious topic.
| There's a long history, including Lyme researchers leaving
| the field after receiving death threats following
| publication of research that didn't agree with the
| alternative medicine theories.
|
| > That was news to me so I found this from NIH in the USA.
| https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8870494/ Borrelia
| can cross over to the CNS. Lovely.
|
| To be clear, that article is about CNS penetration of the
| infection, not _persistence_ of the infection.
| voidmain0001 wrote:
| Is there a reason you refer to alternative medical
| communities in response to my comment? Considering I made
| no reference to using alternative medicine, what does it
| have to do with my comment? Do you have an agenda? I know
| that I don't have one and neither did my comment.
| loeg wrote:
| > Northwestern scientists identified that piperacillin, an
| antibiotic in the same class as penicillin, effectively cured
| mice of Lyme disease at 100-times less than the effective dose of
| doxycycline.
|
| Would be nice if it translates to humans.
|
| > The authors argue that piperacillin, which has already been
| FDA-approved as a safe treatment for pneumonia, could also be a
| candidate for preemptive interventions for those potentially
| exposed to Lyme (with a known deer tick bite).
| dcchambers wrote:
| This is fantastic news. I live in Wisconsin - a tick and Lyme
| Disease hot spot. Ticks are one of the few bugs that really freak
| me out due to Lyme Disease, especially for my kids who spend a
| lot of time out playing in the grass.
|
| Any news on the development of the fight against Lyme Disease is
| great news.
|
| One key thing I've learned is that ticks are very unlikely to
| spread disease-causing bacteria within the first few hours of
| biting. So just do regular checks whenever you've been outside in
| tick-prone areas and get them off right away if found. If removed
| promptly the chance of infection is basically zero.
| charlangas wrote:
| Both of my sisters (currently mid-30s) have had their lives on
| pause for over 10 years due to chronic Lyme disease because
| doctors in Mexico hadn't ever even heard of it. It took 4 years
| of pain for the first of them to be diagnosed. Not sure when, if
| ever, they'll be cured because when you don't treat Lyme disease
| within a few months of infection, it digs in and is incredibly
| difficult to kill.
| Aurornis wrote:
| > Not sure when, if ever, they'll be cured because when you
| don't treat Lyme disease within a few months of infection, it
| digs in and is incredibly difficult to kill
|
| FYI, the idea that active infection continues to exist in
| hiding within the body is a fringe theory.
|
| The linked article talks about one of the current theories for
| why some patients have persistent symptoms after the infection
| is treated. The theory involves certain components of the past
| infection lodging themselves in the liver where they persist
| and can cause symptoms.
|
| This is a difficult topic because some alternative Lyme
| treatment providers will tell patients they have a persistent
| infection and then subject them to years of high-dose
| antibiotics with no scientific basis, which can create a
| separate set of problems without addressing anything.
| formerphotoj wrote:
| For more info on Lyme and related difficult to identify diseases,
| NYT columnist Ross Douhat wrote a book about his experience w/
| Lyme and his ongoing adaptations. It's called...
|
| The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery
| 3D30497420 wrote:
| On a related note, the Trump administration frozen more than $790
| million in federal funding for NU because of "ongoing federal
| antisemitism investigations":
| https://dailynorthwestern.com/2025/05/05/lateststories/by-th...
| boplicity wrote:
| This is what the "fight" with "elite" universities is _really_
| about: No longer funding research.
|
| That's the most important aspect of this thing. Every other
| aspect of this is a sideshow to the main event. And the main
| event very much is the de-funding of scientific research.
|
| No longer funding this research is a _huge_ change. And one
| that will eventually have far-reaching consequences for
| _everyone._
| 3D30497420 wrote:
| I think it is even broader than that. It is removing any
| potential opposition. That opposition is independent
| institutions, such as universities, but also the truth
| itself. If there's no one to research things, then how will
| you know if something is "true" or not? If there's no one to
| communicate those findings, how will anyone find out? Etc.
| ToDougie wrote:
| Independent institutions is an oxymoron.
| roody15 wrote:
| My mother got a tick bite and felt off and the doctor told her
| she had allergies and sinus infection due to high pollen. Luckily
| my younger brother is a physician and told her to go back and ask
| for a Lyme disease test. They said okay but said Lyme disease is
| really rare and wasn't necessary. Long story short she was
| positive but was caught early enough that 30 days Doxy was all
| she needed.
|
| That same year I was bitten and had a super itchy spot near my
| private regions. It was crazy itch and made a bullseye rash. I
| went to a clinic and they said they had never seen the bullseye
| rash and it was textbook Lyme disease (or one other common tick
| disease). Same was treated with Doxy and was fine. It's an
| strange disease because if caught early super cheap antibiotics
| work well... but if has spread through your body it can take
| years to recover and be quite serious!
| The5thElephant wrote:
| Why have I heard so many stories of doctors not wanting to
| diagnose something as Lyme disease?
| soulofmischief wrote:
| I literally used to get laughed out of the clinic, told I was
| a healthy young male and just needed to exercise more. After
| a decade of this, I was finally diagnosed with gout,
| something doctors had just been lying about testing for. No
| one could believe someone could have gout in their 20s (It's
| been developing since my late teens and I've generally had
| arthritis my entire life, since I was a child).
|
| It took a _physician 's assistant_, who happened to see me
| one day when _both_ of my doctors were on their third
| extended vacation of the quarter, to hear my plight, take my
| suggestion of gout seriously, and do the leg work, also
| revealing to me that "full test panels" don't include uric
| acid by default and that my doctors had been lying to me
| about their thoroughness.
|
| The assistant was also massively more knowledgeable about the
| disease, its history, the history of treatment, etc., and
| disease in general, than either of the two doctors running
| the clinic. Really opened my eyes.
| The5thElephant wrote:
| Funny enough I also got diagnosed with gout once in my 20s.
| I have always had somewhat bad toes/bunions (probably
| partially genetic, and partially wearing only tight soccer
| shoes as a kid) and I went to a wedding wearing some new
| leather shoes that I hadn't broken in yet. The next day I
| woke up with a fever and horrific pain in the sides of my
| toes. Went to doctor and they did some tests and were also
| seemingly surprised at the results indicating gout. They
| asked me to come back in a week to double check, and by
| then my symptoms were gone and the tests no longer
| indicated gout.
|
| Our bodies are such strange mechanisms.
| soulofmischief wrote:
| > They asked me to come back in a week to double check,
| and by then my symptoms were gone and the tests no longer
| indicated gout.
|
| Ha. Do you still have symptoms? If not, yea just a bad
| initial diagnosis. If you do still have symptoms
| sometimes though, it should be noted that gout is hard to
| test for when you're actively experiencing aggravated
| symptoms, as the uric acid crystals are lodged into your
| tissue and not freely available in the blood stream /
| urine. This exacerbated everything quite a lot, as when I
| was much younger I definitely got uric acid tests done
| when my symptoms were at their worst.
| dessimus wrote:
| Lyme Disease : PCPs :: Lupus : Dr. House?
| BiteCode_dev wrote:
| Doctors are trained to be arrogant, dismissive of unknown
| unknowns, and with a terrible understanding of statistics.
|
| Add to that: - They have a lot of patients
| and not enough sleep. - They need to pay back a huge
| student loan. - They hold terrible responsibilities
| and risk being sued. - They don't have much time for
| themselves, let alone update their knowledge. - Most
| patients are overreacting idiots, so it's a winning strategy
| to ignore what they tell you most of the time. - They
| are not trained nor selected for empathy or open-mindedness.
|
| And you get so many medical errors.
|
| Basically, you have to double-check everything they do, and
| endure their cynical rebuttal when you make suggestions, ask
| questions or try things they didn't request.
|
| I had to face many such errors myself, two almost lethal.
|
| When you can, shop for one that is both good and is open to
| discussion. But even then, there is a limit. At some point,
| your doctor WILL fail you, so you have to take
| responsibility, usually when you're weak and at a low point
| in your life.
|
| And if you are wrong, people will tell you you should have
| listened to your doctor, but if the doctor is wrong, well,
| shit happens.
|
| One of my practitioners is a friend of 15 years, I literally
| lived with him, he is considered top in his specialty. I'm
| surrounded by people working at the hospital.
|
| He saved my life once.
|
| Even that is not enough. I still have to double check stuff
| every time.
| jpadkins wrote:
| Good time to remind people that right next to the town of Lyme CT
| is Plum Island Animal Disease Center, who happened to be
| researching tick based disease transmission when Lyme disease was
| first discovered (named after the town that had the first case).
| Crazy coincidence.
|
| https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2019/07/did-us-invent-lym...
| goda90 wrote:
| Evidence of bacterium that causes Lyme disease was also found
| in the 5000+ year old "Iceman" mummy found in the alps. People
| have described the disease in the 1700s, 1800s and in the 1900s
| prior to the outbreak in Lyme. Ticks preserved alongside their
| animal hosts in 1800s biologic samples also are found to have
| it. Genetic sequencing of different bacteria samples suggests a
| much older evolutionary tree than a few decades existence.
| boplicity wrote:
| How strange that scientific research just like this has become
| extremely political.
|
| Case in point: The Trump administration has cut Northwestern off
| from over a quarter billion dollars in funding because of "anti-
| semitism." Note, that the vast majority of this money is for
| research just like the one linked in this article.
|
| Of course, people seem to be arguing about anti-semitism more
| than cutting off funding for research. But make no mistake:
| cutting off research funding is _exactly_ what is happening. And
| that has practically _nothing_ to do with antisemitism.
| whyenot wrote:
| Lyme disease does exist on the west coast, including in the Bay
| Area. A friend in Los Altos got Lyme disease from a tick in her
| yard. This is the worst time of year for ticks in the Bay Area.
| I've picked off over 100 ticks while doing field work in Henry
| Coe State Park. The one advantage we have on the west coast is
| that our ticks are larger and you usually notice when one starts
| crawling on your skin and especially when one bites you.
| ToDougie wrote:
| A friend from Sacramento visited me in SoCal and brought his
| dog along. We hung out for a few days, and eventually I found a
| bullseye rash on my leg but no tick anywhere on my body. I went
| to urgent care and they recommended I see an infectious disease
| specialist, pronto -- and to start doxy that evening. My
| bloodwork came back with too few markers for them to call it a
| case of Lyme disease, but the specialist felt strongly that we
| made the right decision to use the antibiotics.
|
| Everyone always told me there is no Lyme disease in NorCal.
| Reading your comment helped me feel vindicated.
| heelix wrote:
| Our kid got bit by a tick. Was lucky enough that it had the bulls
| eye pattern and was able to look it up. She got a crazy high
| temperature. Was crazy. A strong antibiotic cleared it up.
|
| I really wish there still was a vaccine available (for humans). I
| treat my pant legs and jacket sleeves with permethrin, which
| slowly kills the ticks - but does so usually before they would
| attempt to bite. One of the better camping tricks that I've
| applied to everyday life.
| chasil wrote:
| "...doxycycline (and other generic antibiotics) wreak havoc on
| the microbiome, killing beneficial bacteria in the gut and
| causing troubling side effects..."
|
| Doxycycline is used as prophylaxis for a wide variety of
| pathogens; either the risk is tolerable with them, or the alarm
| is needlessly elevated.
|
| https://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/advice/malaria/doxycycline
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