Free Republic

Deer ticks, like the one photographed, can carry Lyme disease/ (KPixMining/Shutterstock) In a nutshell * The antibiotic piperacillin has shown remarkable effectiveness against Lyme disease-causing bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, at doses 100 times lower than doxycycline, the current standard treatment. * Unlike doxycycline, which affects beneficial gut bacteria, piperacillin targets only the Lyme bacteria without disrupting the microbiome, making it a safer option, especially for children and pregnant women. * The discovery opens the door for piperacillin to be repurposed as a highly effective treatment for Lyme disease, potentially even as a single-dose preventive therapy after a tick bite. Further research...

Researchers have identified BbLDH as a critical enzyme for B. burgdorferi survival, paving the way for targeted Lyme disease treatments. New inhibitors could halt the bacteria without affecting other organisms, making this a major step forward. =============================================================================== A team of scientists has zeroed in on an enzyme that could revolutionize Lyme disease treatment. By uncovering the crucial role of BbLDH in bacterial survival and infectivity, they’ve opened the door to highly targeted therapeutics. Their findings even hint at broader applications for fighting other tick-borne diseases. A Promising New Target for Lyme Disease Treatment Scientists have identified an enzyme that could...

The Youngbloods reached widespread recognition in 1969 with the release of "Get Together."Jesse Colin Young, the co-founder and vocalist for ‘60s folk-rockers The Youngbloods, has passed away at the age of 83. Young’s passing was announced by his wife and manager, Connie Young, who confirmed that he died at his Aiken, South Carolina home on Sunday (March 16). No cause of death was given alongside the announcement. Born Perry Miller in New York City in 1941, Young grew up in a musical household and was encouraged by his parents to learn piano from a young age. Attending Massachusetts’ Phillips...

Luigi Nicholas Mangione, the whiz kid Ivy League-educated high school valedictorian accused of the execution-style murder of the CEO of one of the nation's largest healthcare providers, may have spiraled out of control after traumatic back surgery. The procedure, which allegedly left Mangione in significant physical and emotional distress, may have contributed to his deteriorating mental state, a factor authorities are considering as part of their investigation. New York prosecutors have formally accused 26-year-old Mangione, a native of Towson, Maryland, of the fatal shooting of United Healthcare executive Brian Thompson. The incident occurred outside the New York Hilton in midtown...

A small pilot study has found evidence of human co-infections from Bartonella and Babesia odocoilei, a protozoal tick-borne infection primarily found in deer, moose and other cervids. The co-infections were detected in six of seven patients suffering from chronic, non-specific illness, who were enrolled in a Bartonella study. The work presents some of the first definitive DNA evidence of this strain of Babesia infection in humans, and could impact treatments for patients with Bartonella, Borrelia or Babesia infections. Bartonella are a group of vector-borne bacteria transmitted primarily via arthropods like fleas, lice and potentially ticks, but also by the animals...

In 2022, doctors recorded the first confirmed case of tick-borne encephalitis virus acquired in the United Kingdom. […] For the past 30 years, the U.K. has become roughly 1 degree Celsius warmer (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) on average compared to the historical norm. Studies have shown that several tick-borne illnesses are becoming more prevalent because of climate change. Public health officials are particularly concerned about TBE, which is deadlier than more well-known tick diseases such as Lyme, due to the way it has quickly jumped from country to country. Gábor Földvári, an expert at the Center for Ecological Research in Hungary,...

You may just be one tick bite away from never being able to eat a ham sandwich again. The lone star tick is making its way into Massachusetts from the southeastern part of the United States. People will find them on Nantucket and the coast. The tick's bite can cause some people to develop an unexpected food allergy. "The reason we are seeing more coastal areas is because there is a substantial difference when it comes to temperature in coastal regions than inlands," explained Dr. Goudarz Molaei, Chief Scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. "In some municipalities it has...

More than two decades after a promising vaccine for Lyme disease was pulled from the market, more tools to protect against the tick-borne illness —including a new shot — are on the horizon. Why it matters: There's worldwide concern about how climate change is helping drive the proliferation of ticks and transforming Lyme disease from a regional summertime nuisance into a year-round health threat that can damage the nervous system and require several weeks of intravenous antibiotic therapy. "Untreated, Lyme disease can be very serious," Leana Wen, an emergency physician and a professor at George Washington University, told Axios Today....

A power failure knocked out the security system at a federal germ lab in Fort Collins for 13 hours Monday and disabled freezers housing thousands of vials of plague and other potential bioweapons. A backup generator kicked on when the power failed. But an electrical short prevented the backup power from being routed through the building, said Colorado State University spokesman Brad Bohlander. As a result, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory was without power for 13 hours, beginning at 3:07 p.m. Monday, Bohlander said. CSU owns the building and leases it to the government.No germ collections were...

NANTUCKET (CBS) — MIT researchers are unveiling their plan to tackle the growing threat of Lyme disease, and it involves releasing thousands of genetically modified mice on Nantucket. The Boston Globe reports that scientists this month explained to island residents their proposal to release potentially hundreds of thousands of mice that have been engineered to be resistant to the bacteria that causes Lyme. They say that if Lyme were less prevalent among mice, then fewer ticks that bite the rodents would contract the disease. As a result, there would be fewer cases of Lyme disease in humans bitten by ticks....

Q is the result of the sacrifices and commitment of countless patriots to win back our captured country from the Deep State and achieve the transformation President Trump promised in this campaign video. President Trump has said the awakening of the public is key to this transformation.Q describes this awakening as follows: "The Great Awakening ('Freedom of Thought’), was designed and created not only as a backchannel to the public (away from the longstanding 'mind’ control of the corrupt & heavily biased media) to endure future events through transparency and regeneration of individual thought (breaking the chains of ‘group-think’), but,...

Just took a blood test for Lyme Disease. I have been having unexplained joint pain in my legs and lack of energy. Have had several tick bites in the last several months. What does anyone know about this?

Former U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan died Monday at age 66 — nearly three years after she was first hospitalized with what doctors later said was encephalitis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes Powassan virus as an illness spread by the bite of infected ticks. Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain often caused by an infection like the Powassan virus, according to the Mayo Clinic. "The recovery process for viral encephalitis varies by case with differing impacts on the brain, speech, vision, memory and muscle control.."

Head Above Water out now: https://avrillavigne.lnk.to/HeadAboveWaterIDTo find resources on Lyme Disease PREVENTION… Educate yourself on doctors and TREATMENT…. Learn more about the most current scientific RESEARCH… And JOIN OUR FIGHT AGAINST LYME, Visit www.TheAvrilLavigneFoundation.org Directed By: Elliott Lester Executive Producer: Ted Robbins Line Producer: Eric Watson Video Commissioner: Melinda Kelly Production Company: Chromista I’ve gotta keep the calm before the storm I don’t want less I don’t want more Must bar the windows and the doors To keep me safe to keep me warm Yeah my life is what I’m fighting for Can’t part the sea Can’t reach the shore...

We don’t yet know how the long-horned tick came to the United States, how it’s spreading, or what it’s capable of doing. All we know is that it’s here. There’s a new tick crawling around the Eastern half of the United States: the long-horned tick, an invasive species from Eastern Asia that’s been spotted increasingly in urban areas like Staten Island in New York, along with New Jersey, Virginia, and all the way down to Arkansas. This new tick, however, is a mystery. Its cousins, most notably the black-legged tick, currently inhabit most of the eastern half of the United...

The gifted swimmer, who was a 14-year-old national champion at the time and on the London 2012 World Class Programme, stroked the giant creature for a ‘once in a lifetime experience She said: ‘I was getting severe pains in my muscles and my joints. I kept going to the doctors but they treat all these things separately. ‘Mine was dormant for four years before I started getting poorly,’ Sophie said. Her health varies and she must now use a wheelchair for long journeys.

13-year old Olivia Goodreau has been living with Lyme disease for half her life. She joined me today to tell her story from the tick bite to a myriad of symptoms to visiting 51 doctors before being diagnosed with the tick-borne disease. Olivia also talked about her nonprofit organization, LivLyme Foundation, which supports the work of researchers and scientists who are dedicated to finding the effective treatment for Lyme disease and ultimately finding the cure. We also talk about the TickTracker app, her idea which allows you to track & report ticks in real-time with geolocation. Jeff Stauffer, Founder of...

WASHINGTON – The Centers for Disease Control is warning of the emergence of a far deadlier tick-related virus than Lyme Disease – one that kills 10 percent of those infected and permanently disables the other 50 percent. It’s called POW for short, or Powassan, and it, like Lyme, is carried by deer. Recent cases have been noted in the Northeast U.S. and the Great Lakes states. The virus can cause inflammation of the brain, leading to death in 10 percent of cases and permanent disability in 50 percent of cases. Signs and symptoms of infection can include fever, headache, vomiting,...

As if Lyme disease isn't troubling enough, a more serious tick-borne disease may be emerging, experts warn. Powassan virus, which is a far rarer and more deadly pathogen than the bacterium that produces Lyme, is also transmitted by the deer tick. The virus can cause inflammation in the brain, which leads to death or permanent disability in 60 percent of cases.

Every weekday at 6.30 a.m., Edward McSweegan climbs into his Volkswagen Passat for the hour-long commute to the National Institutes of Health. He has an office in Bethesda, a job title -- health scientist administrator -- and an annual salary of about $100,000. What McSweegan says he does not have -- and has not had for the last seven years -- is any real work. He was hired by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 1988, but says his bosses transferred the research grants he administered to other workers eight years later, leaving him with occasional tasks...