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FILARIASIS TIMELINE Nematodes in ticks?

DISCLAIMER Consult a physician for all medical advice!

Information on this site is offered to help further awareness of Lyme and associated diseases.  We hope that the information will help you to become more familiar with the subject of tick borne illnesses, but the information on this web site should not be used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.  The information on this web site does not represent endorsement or an official position of Empire State Lyme Disease Association, Inc. or any of its directors, officers, advisors or members.  Please consult a physician for all medical advice, including advice on testing, treatment and care of a patient who has or may have Lyme or any associated tick borne diseases. 

Update Sept 27, 2010

This has been revised due to the recent information about the imprisonment of a person who according to some, has been responsible for saving people with the protocol he used.   This revised information is less complete, with apologies, but it seems to be the wisest approach considering recent events.

The following is for informational purposes only and the hope is that it may offer useful information.

(Skip to Timeline)

AUGUST 14, 2010

Obviously, filariasis is not the entire answer.  However, recently we've heard from people across USA and Europe that treatments for filaria are helping some "chronic Lyme" patients recover.  Contacts that we've known for over ten years are either very interested or they have their own incredible success stories.

When Ivermectin was first mentioned, one person wrote to say that we were wrong to mention Ivermectin - perhaps because he had a bad reaction to it years ago but this was the only negative feedback.
 
Another person reported that there is a section on the filaria in a new book which will be released soon.  
 
Note that a patient whose story was told in Under Our Skin, researched all Lyme doctors for her eventual treatment - she chose a doctor who first cleanses and de-worms.  This patient was reported as recovered after two years.

Under medical supervision, some patients are doing rather unusual protocols and are presently off antibiotics and making steady small improvements.  There are cautions with every "protocol" and so, it is up to each person and his/her doctor to be very careful!


This evidence about filariasis is based the findings in this timeline are based on the work of other people who have offered their viewpoints freely. 
 
Note: Food for thought as you read through:
40% of ticks carry nematodes.  How many, or what percent of Lyme patients become chronic and of those, how many are infected with worms?
 
 
1981: Dr Willy Burgdorfer studies ticks from Shelter Island, NY and discovers the spirochete that causes Lyme disease which is then named Borrelia burgdorferi, Bb.
 
* Burgdorfer also found nematodes in the ticks at that time. Nematodes are round worms, and are classified as Filaria.  You may see the word "microfilaria," because some "worms" are microscopic.
 
Early 1990's - An expert Lyme doctor tells me that the best medicine for Lyme is Ivermectin.  Ivermectin is an antifilarial drug used for dogs to prevent heartworm.  I asked him to give it to me, but he said he couldn't, because of "Politics."  He said that the reason he used so many combinations of antibiotics was to replicate the effects of Ivermectin in our bodies.
 
2007: Interesting that a Suffolk County Legislator told me, "Lyme disease could be the biggest cover-up in history."
 
2008: On the Open Eye Pictures blog about the multi-award-winning film documentary - Andy Wilson, producer of Under Our Skin and Kris Newby, science advisor, tell of their interview of Dr Burgdorfer.  They write that Dr Burgdorfer was being watched.  In the film Dr Burgdorfer tells how disgusted he is about what how Lyme disease has become so political, but at the end of this interview, Burgdorfer tells Wilson and Newby that he still didn't tell them everything, so there is still more to the story than what we know.  Perhaps he is afraid to say because he is still being watched at age 91, but he isn't telling all.
 
2008-9: News that a lot of alternative measures are helping Lyme patients. People are still sick but many are managing Lyme and their lives on antibiotics, some with alternatives only, many using both.
 
2008-9: Pamela Weintraub, prestigious author of the award-winning book Cure Unknown, Inside The Lyme Epidemic, writes on her blog that Dr Burgdorfer wrote down the 6 organisms that he found in the Shelter Island ticks on a piece of paper and handed it to her.  She tells two of them on her blog: Borrelia and nematodes.
 
2009-2010: Dr Eva Sapi, from the University of New Haven, Connecticut is doing research on ticks.  So far, it appears that she has found worms in 40% of the ticks she has studied.
 
2010: After six months of suffering terribly, one patient finally finds out, via a stool sample, that the problem is Strongoloids, a filarial infection.  After taking Ivermectin as prescribed by the doctor, this patient is 85% recovered. 
 
2010: It was more or less confirmed by a doctor and an NP - that I may have had organic particles coming through the skin on my arms after my personal protocol.   A physicist viewed some of these particles under an electron microscope; they were identified as likely being a type of worm. Others have had similar experiences. 
 
2010: Seen on the internet: Over a billion people are at risk and over 120 million people are infected with parasites in more than 80 countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South Americas, and the Pacific Islands (World Health Organization [WHO], 2000a). (see below re: Merck)
 
2010: In the literature or from a doctor's theories, it was said the nematodes can protect the spirochetes from antibiotic attack.
 
2010: General Consensus is that more investigation regarding filaria in Lyme patients is a good idea! This was a response after there was a mass emailing asking for feedback.

This is the end of this timeline so far, but some people are emailing with more information, so there may be updates.


Please also see the information about Merck below.

But first, so as not to ignore other possibilities for "why we are still sick" here is an interesting note: Recently Lyme advocates went to see their local Town Mayor.  He had Lyme and Babesia and said he only had four weeks of a drug, but then another four weeks of the drug when his Babesia didn't clear up.  When asked what he took, he wasn't certain, but he said he thinks he was put on the same medicine they use for AIDS.  Did his doctors know about and/or find the virus - XMRV?

 
Sadly, others still seem to be battling "Lyme," and are now trying alternatives, because after months of antibiotics, they have felt that the antibiotics weren't helping any more.

Some information about Ivermectin, Merck and the world's worms:
 
Now the following is from Merck websites (Merck has a lot of influence with medical practices here in the US and in Europe):
First note that it seems that the side effects of Ivermectin are said to be rare, according to the quote below:
 
Adverse Experience Reporting
While side effects following treatment with MECTIZAN are rare, Merck has developed a rigorous program for monitoring and reporting any adverse experiences (AEs) in the field. With the help of local NGDOs, all field-based community distributors are trained in AE reporting; all AEs must be reported to Merck, which then reports them to drug safety and regulatory agencies in the United States and internationally. The MECTIZAN Expert Committee,
Ministries of  Health and the WHO also play a key role in ensuring best practices
are applied for surveillance of AEs at the community level. The AE
reporting form itself has  been revised several times during the 20-year history of
the program based on  feedback from clinicians and public health
administrators in the field.
 AND:
 ____________________________________
 
MECTIZAN® =  (ivermectin)
   
"To date, the MECTIZAN Donation Program has  approved more than 600 million treatments for onchocerciasis to 33  countries in Africa, Latin America and Yemen and donated more than 2  billion MECTIZAN tablets, at a market value of US$3 billion.  The  program currently reaches more than 80 million people each year for the  treatment of onchocerciasis; an estimated 40 million treatments of  MECTIZAN are also approved each year for lymphatic filariasis
through  Merck's work with the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis."

http://www.merck.com/newsroom/news-release-archive/corporate-responsibility/2008_1112.html

Public Health Officials Announce Progress in  Elimination of Transmission Of the Tropical Disease River  Blindness
    *   Thirty-one percent of affected population in the Americas no longer at risk of contracting disease
    *   Milestones reached in Guatemala and Mexico
    *   Pan American Health Organization passes resolution to interrupt transmission of river blindness in Latin America by 2012
 
WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J., U.S.A. and OAXACA, MEXICO,  Nov. 12, 2008 -
Public health officials gathering at the  18th Inter-American Conference on Onchocerciasis (IACO) in  Oaxaca, Mexico, announced that transmission of the tropical disease  onchocerciasis (also known as river blindness) has been halted in areas  covering 31 percent of the population in Latin America formerly at risk of  contracting the disease.
Health officials confirmed that in Oaxaca, Mexico and Huehuetenango, Guatemala, onchocerciasis transmission has been interrupted due to the effectiveness of treatment with MECTIZAN® (ivermectin).  This raises the total population no longer in  need of treatment with MECTIZAN to 157,446, or 31 percent of the 510,947 people in the Americas considered at risk for the disease.
This accomplishment follows an historic resolution passed on Oct. 7,  2008, by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) calling for the interruption of onchocerciasis transmission throughout the Americas by the  year 2012.
"The continued success towards elimination of onchocerciasis in the
Americas signals improved health for hundreds of thousands of people," said Dr. Mauricio Sauerbrey, director of the Onchocerciasis Elimination  Program of the Americas (OEPA).  "The recent commitment by PAHO to  interrupt transmission of the disease by 2012 will galvanize the resolve  of all the partners involved with this landmark initiative in public health."
According to Juan Arredondo Jimenez, head of the National Center of Disease Surveillance and Control of the Mexican Ministry of Health, "In  Mexico there were only three affected areas: one in Oaxaca and two in Chiapas.  In Oaxaca, with some 45,000 people, there are no more cases  of blindness due to this disease and transmission has been interrupted.  Therefore, OEPA recommends stopping treatment in 2009,  followed by epidemiological surveillance
through 2011.  This follows  the program's success in North Chiapas, leaving only South Chiapas for  further treatment and, hopefully, elimination of the disease very soon as well."
Onchocerciasis, a leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide, is transmitted through the bite of black flies and can cause intense itching, disfiguring dermatitis, eye lesions and over time, blindness.  It is hyper-endemic in 34 countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and  isolated areas of the Americas and Yemen.  In October 1987, Merck  announced it would donate MECTIZAN - the only well-tolerated drug known to  halt the development of onchocerciasis - to all who need it for as long as  necessary until Onchocerciasis is eliminated as a public health problem.
Announcements Give Hope to Other Countries
The  Ministries of Health of Mexico and Guatemala made today's announcement based on epidemiological studies conducted by their national onchocerciasis program and OEPA, a program of the Carter Center, which  showed that onchocerciasis infection levels had been maintained at a level  low enough to effectively break the cycle of transmission.  The  program attributed the results to the strategy of twice annual mass treatment with MECTIZAN.  Based on
these findings, experts from the  Program Coordinating Committee of OEPA recommended that treatment with  MECTIZAN should be suspended in Oaxaca, Mexico and Huehuetenango, Guatemala.
"In 2007, Colombia became the first country in the world to interrupt
Onchocerciasis transmission on a countrywide basis.  Today's  announcement continues the expectation that onchocerciasis can be  eliminated by 2012 from all affected countries in the Americas," said Dr.  Adrian Hopkins, director of the MECTIZAN Donation Program.
Since 1989, more than 8 million treatments with MECTIZAN have been approved for distribution in Latin America by community health workers and non-governmental organizations.  Treatment programs currently exist  in Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Venezuela.  Partners in the  MECTIZAN Donation Program in Latin America include Merck & Co., Inc.,  OEPA, The Carter Center,
Lions Clubs International Foundation, The Bill  & Melinda Gates Foundation, the WHO/PAHO and Ministries of Health of  the affected countries.
About the MECTIZAN Donation Program
To date, the  MECTIZAN Donation Program has approved more than 600 million treatments  for onchocerciasis to 33 countries in Africa, Latin America and Yemen and  donated more than 2 billion MECTIZAN tablets, at a market value of US$3 billion.  The program currently reaches more than 80 million people each year for the treatment of onchocerciasis; an estimated 40 million treatments of MECTIZAN are also approved each year for lymphatic  filariasis
through Merck's work with the Global Alliance to Eliminate  Lymphatic Filariasis.  To ensure the appropriate infrastructure,  distribution and support for the donation, Merck established in 1988 the  MECTIZAN Donation Program, working through a unique, multisectoral  partnership, involving the WHO, the World Bank, UNICEF, ministries of  health, non-governmental development
organizations and local communities.  The MECTIZAN Donation Program Secretariat is housed at  the Taskforce for Child Survival and Development in Atlanta, Ga.,  U.S.A.  For more information, visit_www.mectizan.org_
(http://www.mectizan.org/) .
About OEPA
The Onchocerciasis Elimination Program  of the Americas (OEPA) is the technical and coordinating body of a multinational, multi-agency coalition working to end illness and  transmission of onchocerciasis in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Venezuela.  The Carter Center is the sponsoring agency for  OEPA, whose partnership includes the ministries of health of the six  affected countries in Latin America, PAHO, the Centers for Disease
Control  and Prevention, academic institutions and independent
organizations.   For more information, visit_www.oepa.net_ (http://www.oepa.net/) .
About Merck
Merck & Co., Inc., is a global research-driven pharmaceutical company dedicated to putting patients  first. Established in 1891, Merck discovers, develops, manufactures and  markets vaccines and medicines to address unmet medical needs. The Company  devotes extensive efforts to increase access to medicines through  far-reaching programs that not only donate Merck medicines
but help  deliver them to the people who need them. Merck also publishes unbiased health information as a not-for-profit service.  For more  information,
visit_www.merck.com_ (http://www.merck.com/) .
Forward-Looking Statement
This press release  contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the  Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties, which may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. The forward-looking statements may include statements regarding product development, product potential or financial performance. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed, and actual  results may differ materially from those projected. Merck undertakes no  obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a  result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Forward-looking  statements in this press release should be evaluated together with the  many uncertainties that affect Merck's business, particularly those mentioned in the risk factors and cautionary statements in Item 1A of  Merck's Form 10-K for the year
ended Dec. 31, 2007, and in its periodic  reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K, which the Company incorporates by  reference.

Note: If 40% of ticks carry nematodes, then how many chronic Lyme patients are infected with worms?

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  Nematode Spirochete Farmers

    NEMATODE BACTERIA SYMBIOSIS

    Ten Questions For Scientists

 

Nematode Spirochete Farmers 1/3/2011 

In 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that over a billion people are at risk for parasitic worm infections (filaria).  120 million people are infected with parasites in more than 80 countries (Africa, Asia, Central and South Americas, and the Pacific Islands). Of those infected, 44 million suffer filariasis symptoms. 

Nematodes are parasitic worms which receive nourishment and/or shelter from hosts. There is a theory that nematodes ‘farm’ smaller organisms like the Lyme Borrelia spirochetes, similar to the way we humans farm cows or chickens, feeding and protecting them so we can later eat them.  Nematodes may live symbiotically with spirochetes in humans! 

Ticks and other vectors harbor numerous parasites: large ones referred to as worms (filaria) and microscopic bacteria, viruses, protozoa, fungi and microfilaria.  Ticks in Connecticut and New York do carry nematodes according to Doctors Willy Burgdorfer, Eva Sapi, and Richard Ostfeld. 

Can worms destroy American health, as in WHO’s reported 80 countries, or as in our American pets?  The answer to the question, “Can nematodes wreak havoc as human parasites?” is supposedly unknown, at least in the USA.  Well, can nematodes prevent recovery from “chronic” Lyme and tick-borne diseases?  Puppies are de-wormed soon after they are born.  Dogs typically and quickly recover from Lyme disease after antibiotics, perhaps because of their early-life and subsequent regular de-worming; there are no nematodes harvesting spirochetes in their canine bodies.

If nematodes work against antibiotics by protecting and increasing spirochete population, then antibiotic therapy may eradicate ‘loose’ spirochetes but not those under nematode farmers’ protection.  If a nematode-Borrelia symbiotic relationship exists, Borrelia can screw its way out, escape the nematode farm, free to wreak havoc on us.

If nematodes are present, then a huge amount of antibiotics over a long period of time may only suppress bacterial growth.  Symptoms will be somewhat relieved, a modicum of health will be maintained, but there is no cure while nematodes live to raise new spirochetes. 

So for the duration, surviving nematodes will keep on farming.  Can this proposed process explain the cyclical nature of Lyme in certain cases?  Antibiotics destroy spirochetes, some nematodes starve and die, but survivor nematodes still farm.  A human host might suffer a relapse or flare-up if a bountiful harvest releases excess spirochetes into the body. 

Antibiotics relieve our symptoms by killing spirochetes.   Antibiotics also decrease the nematode’s food supply resulting in nematode starvation and death.  If enough spirochetes are destroyed and enough nematodes die of starvation, eventually there might be no one left to run the farm.  A patient recovers.

However if nematode filaria causes some chronic Lyme, it might be more prudent to stop the farmer.  Ivermectin causes starvation and death of nematodes by interfering with their ability to eat/digest.  Although antibiotics have been our primary defense, a doctor once told me Ivermectin was the best medicine for Lyme disease.  Interesting to note that since 1982, filariasis victims in WHO’s reported 80 countries were given millions of free doses of Ivermectin as part of a Global Health Initiative, but in the USA and Europe, it is typically not prescribed.  A surging idea is that all we need is to live healthy and take vitamins and supplements but I suspect that what would CURE chronic Lyme would be a remedy for the cause! 

Other causes may be virulent Borrelia, Mycoplasma, Morgellons, Candida, other Fungi, Molds, XMRV, (Xenotropic Murine Retrovirus) and/or other microbes or filaria.

The average chronic Lyme patient suffers a gradual decline into poverty and a lifetime of pain and debilitation.  Find the cause, treat and have compassion. 

Eva Haughie

EMPIRE STATE LYME DISEASE ASSOCIATION, INC

http://www.empirestatelymediseaseassociation.org/filaria/filariasis.htm

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Ten Questions For Scientists 1-19-2011

1. Do nematodes have symbiotic relationships with spirochetes and/or with with other microbes, such as rickettsia, other bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa, or even microfilaria?

2. Do bacteria and other microbes live in worms?

3. Do spirochetes create biofilms or do their nematode farmers create biofilms, as a nurturing protective 'farmland' to produce an optimum harvest?

4. Do other worms have symbiotic relationships with microbes?

5.  We worry about heartworm in our pets, but does heartworm cause heart attacks in humans?

6. What are the symptoms of Filarial worms other than river blindness?

7. Do the symptoms of Filaria overlap symptoms of Lyme disease, in other words could Filaria be a Third Great Imitator?

8. Do populations in other countries suffer from the same plethora of autoimmune diseases written down in our medical books and do other places have an overwhelming number of diagnosed cases as we have in the USA?

9. If they can manipulate genetics to produce 'helpful' nematodes, can or have they manipulated genetics to produce harmful nematodes?

10. WHY  . . . . . . . ?  In a doctor's office where they treat Lyme disease, one medical professional tells a patient that Ivermectin is the best medicine for Lyme disease, but then refuses to prescribe it for a reason stated as 'I can't because of politics.'  Then almost twenty years later, a second medical professional from the very same office admits to the patient that they did prescribe Ivermectin to patients, in fact, they did use it.  Then WHY  . . . . . . . ? 

 

Some tiny parasitic nematodes have evolved a remarkable skill: they farm bacteria for food, using the body (larva) of their parasitized insect host as the “soil” in which to cultivate the bacteria. The bacteria feed on the larva, killing it, and the nematodes feed on the bacteria. The bacteria are both symbionts and food and have never been found apart from their nematode hosts.

The larval body is preserved from invasion by other bacteria by antibacterial compounds produced by the nematodes, to which its own symbiotic bacteria are resistant.

When the nematodes reproduce, thousands of juveniles leave to locate new larval hosts, carrying some of the bacteria in their own gut.

The ability of these nematodes to kill insect larvae has not been overlooked by the global agricultural community (12, 13). Species from 2 genera of insect-parasitic nematodes, Steinernema and Heterorhabditis, are sprayed on crops around the world to control the larvae of plant-eating insects and are valued as natural biological pesticides.


Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2000 July; 13(3): 217–226.  MPMID: MPMID: PMC1317043

Evolving together: the biology of symbiosis, part 1  Gregory G. Dimijian, MD1

1From the Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas.

Corresponding author: Gregory G. Dimijian, MD, 3277 Brincrest Drive, Dallas, Texas 75234 (dimijian@home.com ).

Abstract

Symbioses, prolonged associations between organisms often widely separated phylogenetically, are more common in biology than we once thought and have been neglected as a phenomenon worthy of study on its own merits. Extending along a dynamic continuum from antagonistic to cooperative and often involving elements of both antagonism and mutualism, symbioses involve pathogens, commensals, and mutualists interacting in myriad ways over the evolutionary history of the involved “partners.” In this first of 2 parts, some remarkable examples of symbiosis will be explored, from the coral-algal symbiosis and nitrogen fixation to the great diversity of dietary specializations enabled by the gastrointestinal microbiota of animals.

 Derived from the Greek word for living together, symbiosis refers to a close and prolonged association between 2 or more organisms of different species that may last for the lifetime of 1 or all “partners.” The definition of symbiosis is not universally agreed upon; in this review, it will be considered in its broadest sense, encompassing associations varying widely in intimacy and types of interaction. Symbioses can be mutualistic (all partners benefiting), commensalistic (one benefiting and the others unharmed), or parasitic, although many symbiotic associations are complex or poorly understood and do not fit neatly into 1 category (1). A continuum can be envisioned that spans a dynamic bridge from antagonism to cooperation. Relationships may shift gradually or abruptly along the continuum (Figure (Figure11).

DISCLAIMER Consult a physician for all medical advice!

Information on this site is offered to help further awareness of Lyme and associated diseases.  We hope that the information will help you to become more familiar with the subject of tick borne illnesses, but the information on this web site should not be used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.  The information on this web site does not represent endorsement or an official position of Empire State Lyme Disease Association, Inc. or any of its directors, officers, advisors or members.  Please consult a physician for all medical advice, including advice on testing, treatment and care of a patient who has or may have Lyme or any associated tick borne diseases. 

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