Hello!
Today the big conference in Germany
got started. Dr. Bransfield and I were to speak there, but in the end were
not able to go. Instead, we had a professional video made of our speeches
(Thanks to Pat Smith and many others) which is being presented. We then
went on individual phone links for the question and answer session. The
translator read several questions to me, then gave my reply in real time
to the audience.
Prior to the conference, I worked with
Dr. Meer, who is there in person, presenting on co-infections. I had her
begin her talk with a debunking of the Klempner article. She basically
took bullet points out of the ILADS
response to Klempner. I thought that by starting with this, she will
be on the offensive and cut short criticism of our presentations before
they had a chance to use his paper.
As it turned out, her presentation
went AFTER mine, so I was given a question about that paper, which I was
able to defer to Dr. Meer.
After the phone link, I wrote up the
questions, and my answers (tough! I had no time at all to compose my responses,
so they are off the cuff).
I typed up the Q&A and attached
it, in case any of you are interested.
This Saturday, the big England conference
will be held, and exactly the same format will be used- Our videos will
be shown, we will have a live phone link for Q&A, and dr. Meer will
be there in person.
I'll give an update on that conference
then.
Many thanks to all who have helped
us with this- from the authors of the Klempner rebuttal, to Dr. Bransfield,
Pat Smith, and all the others who are such good people. You are all great!
Joe B.....................!
Questions from the German Congress
German
experts state that not all cases of Borreliosis need to be treated, and
mild Borreliosis will go away on its own over years even if not treated
-
I disagree
-
many examples of spirochetal
infections, such as Syphilis, that can persist and recur later and make
the patient ill
-
symptoms may decrease over time
but never fully go away
-
many studies on the long term
outcome of Lyme in untreated patients have shown late illness, occurring
as long as 14 years later.
German
experts recommend a 14 day course of therapy for EM with a simple oral
antibiotic, such as doxycycline. If the illness is not clear, they will
treat with 14 days of IV therapy. If still not clear, then no further treatment.
-
Borrelia are disseminated early.
Studies have shown that Borrelia can be in the central nervous system even
before the EM appears. Therefore, one must treat all cases of Lyme, even
early ones, aggressively with regard to both dose and duration of antibiotics.
-
Lyme is a Borreliosis- in the
family of relapsing fevers. The cycle of Borrelia is four weeks. This means
that in any one month the Borrelia are susceptible to killing only once.
If treatment is not for four weeks, then some Borrelia will not be killed.
-
My study with IV therapy in
Lyme patients- compared outcome based on blood cultures of patients after
treatment, with duration of therapy. None of the patients treated for 2,
3, of four weeks were cured, and only some of those treated for 6 weeks
were.
-
Treatment duration is a statistical
issue- shorter durations increase the likelihood of persistent illness,
whereas longer treatment durations increases the chance for cure.
-
All Lyme patients are different,
and the amount of spirochetes they have is different. It is inappropriate
and illogical to treat all Lyme patients with the same regimen. I never
recommend any arbitrary endpoint of therapy. I recommend treatment be continued
until several weeks after the patients symptoms are gone.
The
Klempner article states that persistent symptoms after antibiotics are
not from persistent infection, and that long term antibiotics are not helpful
Deferred
to Dr. Meer, who will address this in her talk.
What
is my opinion on co-infections, and reactivation of other infections such
as herpes virus and Mycoplasmas?
-
Studies have shown that ticks
can contain Borrelia, Bartonella, Babesia, Rickettsia, Ehrlichia, and viruses,
as one would expect from an insect that lives for 2 years in the dirt and
drinks the blood of many wild animals.
-
When someone is co-infected,
there is immune suppression, resulting is increased severity of illness,
one that is more difficult to treat, and one that needs longer term treatment.
-
The majority of my Chronic patients
are co-infected
-
ìTreatment resistantî Lyme in
which a patient is still ill after antibiotic treatment for Lyme may represent
a co-infection, because not all treatments for Lyme will be adequate for
some of the co-infections.
-
I recommend that in all Lyme
patients who seem to be more ill, you test for all co-infections and treat
them all.
-
The patients must be followed
clinically, because there is no test for cure.
-
Because of the immune suppression,
there can be reactivation of latent infections, such as Herpes. So these
other infections need to be identified and treated if found.
Applause.
The video
tape (2 hrs) is of professional quality and will be available for general
circulation through the LDA. It contains lectures by Dr Burrascano and
myself with a brief interview of two patients. Pat Smith will be adding
a section to the tape.
version: 19.6.2003
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