"Lyme Disease May Be Transmitted Between Humans"

[Suzanne]

Zeljana posted this on another thread and I wanted to share it separately in case interested people missed it there.

http://drmirkin.com/morehealth/lyme-disease-may-be-transmitted-between-humans.html

“An international team of research scientists and practicing doctors from Canada, the United States and Australia report that the bacterium that causes Lyme disease is found in 100 percent of the vaginal secretions of women and half of the semen of men suffering from Lyme disease (Journal of Investigative Medicine, 2014;62:280-281). Furthermore, a heterosexual couple with Lyme disease had exactly the same strain of the Lyme spirochete in their genital secretions. The Lyme spirochete was not found in the secretions of men and women who did not have Lyme disease. This suggests that Lyme disease can be transmitted through sexual contact.”

Mom of teen daughter with Poly JIA since age 2. Current med: azithromycin 250 mg MWF.

[Calida]

@Suzanne wrote:

Zeljana posted this on another thread and I wanted to share it separately in case interested people missed it there.

http://drmirkin.com/morehealth/lyme-disease-may-be-transmitted-between-humans.html

“An international team of research scientists and practicing doctors from Canada, the United States and Australia report that the bacterium that causes Lyme disease is found in 100 percent of the vaginal secretions of women and half of the semen of men suffering from Lyme disease (Journal of Investigative Medicine, 2014;62:280-281). Furthermore, a heterosexual couple with Lyme disease had exactly the same strain of the Lyme spirochete in their genital secretions. The Lyme spirochete was not found in the secretions of men and women who did not have Lyme disease. This suggests that Lyme disease can be transmitted through sexual contact.”

Suzanne, I’m going to try to find the original paper. It seems that only one heterosexual couple was found to have the same strain of Lyme. This wouldn’t be unusual if the couple is from the same geographical area, especially if it’s Lyme endemic, and the Mirkin article doesn’t say if it was Bb, the most common. The couple most likely have common interests and activities so the exposure threat may be equal.

To add more confusion :shock:, here’s a link to a rebuttal with thought-provoking info:

http://www.survivingmold.com/community/health-hype-on-sexually-transmitted-lyme-disease

According to the above article, transmission via tick bite includes tick salivary proteins that protect spirochetes from the immune system of their new host. For The Bb species, the immune evasion advantages of tick salivary proteins are well documented.

Sexual transmission wouldn’t confer that protection upon the spirochete so the spirochete, while happily surviving in its host, may not fare well if it jumps ship and encounters the functioning immune system of the host’s partner. My LLMD is in the heart of Lyme country and said that if sexual transmission was possible, he would be treating couples and that’s not the case.

I believe the original paper simply establishes that Lyme spirochetes can be found in most body fluids but it doesn’t establish anything beyond that. Unfortunately, opinion pieces were a bit dramatic and sensationalized the sexual aspect. Eye catching headlines for sure but the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes made of tick saliva. 😛

We definitely need more research in this area. The last thing we poor Lymies need is more stress!

All the Best,
Cali

Dx: Diffuse Systemic Sclerosis/SLE overlap, Raynaud's June 2013, Lyme August 2013
AP: Azithromycin (Teva) 250mg BID, May 2014, Clindamycin 600mg every 8 hours for 2 weeks July 27, 2015 - Aug 10, 2015
Minocycline (Teva generic) 100mg BID November 20, 2014
Meds: LDN 3.5 mg, Prednisone 5 mg (discontinued), Aspirin 81mg, Liposomal Artimisinin 50mg QID x 3 weeks, 4th week off, rotating (discontinued May 2015, restarted 2016 7 days per month), Daily Nystatin, 2 tabs BID, as a preventative measure
Supplements

[Karel]

I am jumping to a conclusion that we have pretty good new tool, in particular for women, to diagnose Lyme? Can’t be that that simple…. well may be it is.

[Suzanne]

Cali, thanks for the info!

Karel, excellent point!

Mom of teen daughter with Poly JIA since age 2. Current med: azithromycin 250 mg MWF.

[Author]

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