An inconvenient truth

The CDC has replaced the term post Lyme disease with post treatment Lyme disease syndrome and admit on its website that the cause of the syndrome is not known. The CDC says the cause of the syndrome is unknown but acknowledges research shows persistence in animals. The CDC claims that studies show no benefit from prolonged antibiotic therapy and that patients with this syndrome eventually get better without further care; both of these statements are wrong. Substantial, contemporary literature disputes the first claim and nothing supports the latter claim. The piece (CDC web page) dredges up the notion that patients who do not get better with 2-4 weeks of therapy have an "autoimmune" disease comparable to three other bacteria which cause the same sort of thing. Strep throat - rheumatic fever; chlamydia - the STD variety- Reiter's syndrome; and Campylobacter, a gut bug- Guillain-Barre syndrome. None of these other germs is anything like Lyme disease: the analogies are poorly drawn. These other bacteria cause localized infection: throat, genitals, colon: Lyme is a widely disseminating multisystem bacteria. Reiter's syndrome is an obsolete term now replaced with reactive arthritis.(at least use the correct mainstream terminology). I do not dispute that a variety of microorganisms cause autoimmune disease. But the existence of an autoimmune phenomenon does not preclude the role of chronic, persisting infection. Chlamydias are small intracellular organisms which do not clear easily. Latest research, 2010:

Controversial Treatment Approach Could Lead to a Cure

Keywords for this press release: reactive arthritis, Chlamydia-induced reactive arthritis, Reiter's syndrome, chronic ReA, Chlamydia trachomatis bacterium, antibiotic treatment, chlamydial gene transcription, heat-shock proteins, chlamydial protein synthesis, antibiotic combinations, doxycycline, azithromycin, rifampin

Researchers from University of South Florida College of Medicine found a combination of antibiotics to be an effective treatment for Chlamydia-induced reactive arthritis, a major step forward in the management, and possibly cure, of this disease. Results of this study are published in the May issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology.

Strep throat. An aerobic gram positive cocci which replicates every 20 minutes and infects superficial throat structures and tonsils is very different from an anerobic, pleomorphic, blood-brain crossing spirochete. Thankfully we rarely see rheumatic fever anymore, but patients with recurring disease were frequently treated with long term penicillin therapy including Bicillin injections. A significant percent of the population is permanently colonized with strep and remain so no matter how many courses of amoxicillin they take.  PANDAS is a more contemporary issue in this same vein. 

Guillain-Barre. An awful syndrome. Can be caused by flu vaccines, Lyme disease and many other infections. This is apples and oranges.

Patients with post-treatment Lyme have a disease so complex and varied that it can make your brain stop working or cause your heart to stop.

Nothing else is like this.  Lyme spirochetes disseminate widely, easily cross into the brain and infect a host of tissues. These other syndromes are not comparable. The CDC piece is dismissive, essentially saying: autoimmune disorders occur in the aftermath of other infections so there is nothing special about this post-treatment Lyme syndrome which is relatively rare and gets better by itself anyhow.

Assertions that a few weeks of doxycycline kill all Lyme spirochetes have no basis in fact or science.

Antibiotics are not that effective. If they were we would die every time we took them. It is impossible to eradicate all the flora in our gut with any course of antibiotics, thankfully. Otherwise our immune systems would be fatally wounded.  I do not believe we ever eradicate all dental spirochetes protected by biofilms with courses of antibiotics. How then are we going to eradicate Borrelia spirochetes, demonstrating the best survival skills of any organism on the planet.  Spirochetes persist in mice, dogs, monkeys and people. It is an inconvenient truth.