Monday 29 February 2016

LYME DISEASE- JEREMY HUNT SAYS "WE WILL DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS."

From Facebook page of 
John Caudwell 

.....................LymeCo..............................
My Lyme Chief Executive, Veronica Hughes and I met Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and the CEO of the NHS Simon Stevens to talk about the current problems surrounding lack of diagnosis, lack of treatment and therefore lack of care for LymeCo Disease patients in the UK.
I spoke about the poor performance of the diagnostic testing available to NHS patients, the lack of knowledge of GPs regarding both symptoms and treatment and the inadequate treatment therapies available under current NHS guidelines. I also made clear that I believe there are other transmission methods, other than ticks.
I stated unequivocally, that LymeCo Disease may be the sole cause of, a contributory cause of or in many cases associated in some way to the following diseases; ‪#‎fybomyalgia‬ ‪#‎ms‬ ‪#‎als‬ ‪#‎me‬ ‪#‎Alzheimer‬’s ‪#‎anxiety‬ ‪#‎Parkinson‬’s ‪#‎Autism‬ ‪#‎depression‬ ‪#‎heartdisease‬ ‪#‎cfs‬ ‪#‎guttrouble‬ # arthritis and many other chronic conditions.
Simon Stevens agreed to look at four key issues, namely the quality of testing for LymeCo disease in the UK, public awareness, possible overlooked transmission methods and GPs' knowledge of diagnosis and treatment of the illness.
Jeremy Hunt has promised to commission an independent research project to look at all the scientific evidence, probably to be conducted by a British University and has stated that it will probably take him a couple of months to instigate.

"We will do something about this" Jeremy Hunt promised at the end of the meeting.
I feel very positive that this is a step in the right direction for Lyme disease patients in the UK and I am very hopeful of some meaningful action as a result.
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection, known to be transmitted by tick bites, and frequently accompanied by other bacterial and viral infections, which causes flu -like symptoms initially. If not treated appropriately, LymeCo can progress to a severe systemic illness. In this later stage it becomes difficult to cure and complications typically lead to neurological symptoms such as paralysis, depression, anxiety, twitching, pain, thyroid disease, heart disease, gastro-intestinal symptoms and arthritis.
Caudwell LymeCo is a charity which I am setting up to promote awareness of LymeCo disease among the general public, to improve scientific understanding of these collection of infections among medical professionals and to further the interests of Lyme disease patients in the UK and beyond. The charity is named LymeCo in recognition of the co-infections which frequently accompany it.
WHILST I AM VERY HOPEFUL THAT TODAY’S ACTION AND ALL MY OTHER PRESS AND TV WORK WILL START TO COME TO FRUITION, IT WOULD BE GREAT IF YOU COULD ALL SHARE THIS FACEBOOK PAGE BY TWITTER, INSTAGRAM ETC WITH THE INTENTION TO GET ALL PEOPLE THAT HAVE LYMECO, SUSPECT THEY HAVE LYMECO OR ARE WORRIED ABOUT THE FUTURE FOR THEMSELVES AND THEIR CHILDREN TO FORM CONSTITUENCY BASED PETITIONS. THE LEADER OF THE GROUP COULD TAKE THE PETITION TO THEIR MP ASKING THEIR MP TO RAISE IT IN PARLIAMENT AND TO AT LEAST SEND THE PETITION TO JEREMY HUNT – THIS ADDED PRESSURE WOULD PROVE TO THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY THAT THIS IS A VOTING ISSUE, A REAL PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS THAT NEEDS ADDRESSING AS WELL AS THE REAL OBVIOUS HUMANITARIANISM OF THE SITUATION.

 

Sunday 14 February 2016

MY LYME DISEASE STORY - JOANNE DRAYSON




My Lyme Disease Story is documented in the right hand column of this blog. The above video is by means of a trial or experiment in the use of Logitech as a means to download a video to You Tube, in preparation for an interview via skype.
This is my first attempt unprepared and clearly the background visuals can be adjusted but I decided to share because it does explain my Lyme Disease Story quite well.

Friday 12 February 2016

ANTIBIOTIC PROTOCOL TO ERADICATE BIOFILM - LIKE, STRUCTURES OF LYME DISEASE

Eradication of Biofilm-Like Microcolony Structures of Borrelia burgdorferi by Daunomycin and Daptomycin but not Mitomycin C in Combination with Doxycycline and Cefuroxime

Jie Feng, Megan Weitner, Wanliang Shi, Shuo Zhang and Ying Zhang*
  • Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Lyme disease, caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States and Europe. While the majority of Lyme disease patients can resolve their symptoms if treated promptly, 10–20% of patients suffer from prolonged symptoms called post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS). Although the cause for PTLDS is unclear, one possibility is the presence of bacterial persisters not effectively cleared by the current Lyme antibiotics. Recent studies identified several drug candidates including daptomycin, daunomycin, doxorubicin, and mitomycin C that had good activity against B. burgdorferi persisters. However, their relative activities against B. burgdorferi persisters have not been evaluated under the same conditions. In this study, we tested the anti-persister activities of these drugs against both 7-day and 15-day old stationary phase cultures of B. burgdorferi individually as well as in combination with Lyme antibiotics doxycycline and cefuroxime (Ceftin). Our findings demonstrate daunomycin and daptomycin were more active than mitomycin C in single drug comparison at 10 and 20 μM, as well as in drug combinations with doxycycline and cefuroxime. In addition, daunomycin was more active than doxorubicin which correlated with their ability to stain and accumulate in B. burgdorferi. The two drug combination of doxycycline and cefuroxime was unable to eradicate biofilm-like microcolonies of B. burgdorferi persisters. However, the addition of either daunomycin or daptomycin to the doxycycline + cefuroxime combination completely eradicated the biofilm-like structures and produced no visible bacterial regrowth after 7 and 21 days, while the addition of doxorubicin was unable to prevent regrowth at either 7 or 21 day subculture. Mitomycin C in combination with doxycycline and cefuroxime caused no regrowth at 7 days but visible spirochetal regrowth occurred after 21 day subculture. Furthermore, we found that cefuroxime (Ceftin), the third commonly used and most active antibiotic to treat Lyme disease, could replace cefoperazone (a drug no longer available in the US) in the daptomycin + doxycycline combination with complete eradication of the biofilm-like structures as shown by lack of any regrowth in subcultures. Our findings may have implications for improved treatment of Lyme disease.

 http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00062/full 

The latest article from Dr Zhang and his team at Johns Hopkins for earlier studies see - http://lookingatlyme.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/lyme-disease-persister-drugs-dr-ying.html