Linda’s comments: Amazing how animals get better research and treatments than humans!!??  God Bless Dr Breitschwerft for his research …… He found “first time documented evidence that the pathogen may have been passed between family members.”  What Lida Mattman said all alone.  Then they say ,”At least 26 strains of Bartonella have been named worldwide, and the list is growing.”…..  AGAIN, a VET finds out with his continued research how deadly Bartonella can be.  This statement/quote ” Dr. Michael Kosoy, who heads the Bartonella laboratory for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colo., said scientists are only beginning to build evidence that Bartonella infections may be more common than previously thought.” WHAT, NOW the CDC is admitting that Bartonella exists??  WOW….unbelievable….Perhaps all the pressure the Lymies are putting on research, IDSA and doctors is working….

BY SARAH AVERY – Staff Writer

A bacterial infection typically spread by fleas, lice and biting flies could be more prevalent than many think, and may have been transmitted from a mother to her children at birth, scientists from N.C. State University say.

Dr. Edward Breitschwerdt, an infectious disease veterinarian and one of the world’s leading researchers of bacteria called Bartonella, has for the first time documented evidence that the pathogen may have been passed between family members.

Although more studies are needed to back up his findings, Breitschwerdt and colleagues describe the case of a mother and father who began battling chronic aches, fatigues and other symptoms soon after they were married. When their twins were born in 1998, the daughter died after nine days from a heart defect, and the son developed chronic health problems.

Using tissue from the daughter’s autopsy and blood from the surviving family members, Breitschwerdt’s team discovered that the entire family was infected with the same species of Bartonella bacteria, despite having no shared exposures to flea or lice infestations. Bartonella is known to causes such illnesses as trench fever and cat scratch disease, and it is increasingly suspected of triggering a variety of aches and inflammations that doctors have been unable to diagnose.

“I think we have stumbled across something that is of monumental medical importance,” said Breitschwerdt, whose findings were published recently in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

Proving the mother-child transmission could be difficult, however. Little funding is available for such research because the bacteria are still not considered a major source of human disease.

Dr. Michael Kosoy, who heads the Bartonella laboratory for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colo., said scientists are only beginning to build evidence that Bartonella infections may be more common than previously thought.

Linda’s comments: Amazing how animals get better research and treatments than humans!!??  God Bless Dr Breitschwerft for his research …… He found “first time documented evidence that the pathogen may have been passed between family members.”  What Lida Mattman said all alone.  Then they say ,”At least 26 strains of Bartonella have been named worldwide, and the list is growing.”…..  AGAIN, a VET finds out with his continued research how deadly Bartonella can be.  This statement/quote ” Dr. Michael Kosoy, who heads the Bartonella laboratory for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colo., said scientists are only beginning to build evidence that Bartonella infections may be more common than previously thought.” WHAT, NOW the CDC is admitting that Bartonella exists??  WOW….unbelievable….Perhaps all the pressure the Lymies are putting on research, IDSA and doctors is working….

At any rate, THANK GOD this is coming to the public….there is hope folks…..we just can’t give up the FIGHT….which brings me to the Dr Garry Gordon FIGHT protocol…..I have been on it for 1 1/2 years and IT WORKS….Lyme and the co-infections do NOT have a chance if you are on the FIGHT protocol….getting control and cleaning out the total body burden of pathogens and toxins in our bodies only helps to speed along our wellness journeys….. 

BY SARAH AVERY – Staff Writer

A bacterial infection typically spread by fleas, lice and biting flies could be more prevalent than many think, and may have been transmitted from a mother to her children at birth, scientists from N.C. State University say.

Dr. Edward Breitschwerdt, an infectious disease veterinarian and one of the world’s leading researchers of bacteria called Bartonella, has for the first time documented evidence that the pathogen may have been passed between family members.

Although more studies are needed to back up his findings, Breitschwerdt and colleagues describe the case of a mother and father who began battling chronic aches, fatigues and other symptoms soon after they were married. When their twins were born in 1998, the daughter died after nine days from a heart defect, and the son developed chronic health problems.

Using tissue from the daughter’s autopsy and blood from the surviving family members, Breitschwerdt’s team discovered that the entire family was infected with the same species of Bartonella bacteria, despite having no shared exposures to flea or lice infestations. Bartonella is known to causes such illnesses as trench fever and cat scratch disease, and it is increasingly suspected of triggering a variety of aches and inflammations that doctors have been unable to diagnose.

“I think we have stumbled across something that is of monumental medical importance,” said Breitschwerdt, whose findings were published recently in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

Proving the mother-child transmission could be difficult, however. Little funding is available for such research because the bacteria are still not considered a major source of human disease.

Dr. Michael Kosoy, who heads the Bartonella laboratory for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colo., said scientists are only beginning to build evidence that Bartonella infections may be more common than previously thought.

“Bartonella are circulated around the world in many animals, but there are different Bartonella species, and the question is how can they be transmitted to humans?” Kosoy said, noting that most known cases have been transmitted from biting insects. He said the NCSU findings about the potential family transmission are compelling but inconclusive.

Dozens of strains

At least 26 strains of Bartonella have been named worldwide, and the list is growing. The most notorious Bartonella infection is cat scratch disease, a fever illness passed to humans from flea-infected cats. Fleas are the primary hosts, and they spread the bacteria in their feces.

Full article: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/03/18/394678/lyme-disease-found-in-wake.html#ixzz0iaCT9D44

Excerpt:

RALEIGH — As the weather warms and walks through tick-laden woods beckon, state officials have confirmed that Wake County is among the North Carolina counties where Lyme disease is a known threat.

The state Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday that in 2009 two cases of the tick-borne disease were found in patients who had not left the county during the 30 days before they contracted the infection.

Four similar cases were confirmed in the state last year, health officials said: one each in Wilkes, Wilson, Pitt and Carteret counties.

Linda’s comment:  I suggest you copy and paste this and/or print out and take to your doctors or any healthcare practitioners and make sure they are recording things properly in your charts.  When you know your symptoms are attributed to Lyme disease, make sure this is noted.

In general, social security does not make decisions on a diagnosis, but on the restrictions and functional limitations a person has that results on their inability to work based on any training, education and experience the person had in the past.
 
Because Lyme disease is not listed in the “blue book”, it is even more important for those with Lyme disease to do the following.
Make sure all treating physicians understand the importance of documenting actual functional limitations in the actual patient notes.
 
Many physicians actually write “non-descriptive” patient notes which later are determined to be useless for SSDI purposes.
 
If a Lyme patient is suffering from neurological deficits that result in loss of balance and coordination, this should be clearly indicated in the patient record as attributable to Lyme disease.