Statements often heard by people with Lyme disease that are both tragically sad and totally false.

"My doctor said there is no Lyme disease in Florida."

"My doctor said my symptoms are not related to Lyme disease."

"My doctor said my test was negative so I can't have Lyme disease."

"My doctor said we don't have ticks that carry Lyme disease in Florida."

"My doctors said if I don't have a rash I can't have Lyme disease."

"The infectious disease doctor said I don't have Lyme disease even after I had a tick bite, symptoms and a positive test."

The misdiagnosis and damage it causes...

"My family member was misdiagnosed with MS. We later found out it was Lyme disease. By then it was too late to reverse the damage."

"After seeing many doctors (infectious disease, neurologists, rheumatologists) my sister was eventually diagnosed with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. She continued to get worse and a year later she was diagnosed with depression and arthritis. She actually had untreated Lyme disease and another tick borne infection. She is disabled for life as a result."

"My young cousin had multiple tick bites, Lyme symptoms and a positive Lyme test after becoming ill upon returning from a 2 week camping trip in a Florida state park with her family. Infectious disease doctors insisted there was no Lyme disease in Florida and her symptoms weren't on their "list", so they discounted the test results and said they were false-positive. Eventually they diagnosed her with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. After suffering for several years and becoming progressively worse, eventually wheelchair bound and then totally disabled she died and early death from untreated chronic Lyme disease."

"My doctor said I didn't need any treatment when he saw the bulls-eye rash around my tick bite. However, just to be doing something he gave me one dose of doxycycline and said that would cure Lyme disease if I did have it. It didn't. I lost my health, my job, my family and I am financially devastated as a result."

The Facts

Multiple Florida studies have proven many species of animals (wildlife) are infected with Lyme (Borrelia) and additional tick borne disease causing organisms. The ticks and other vectors carry these diseases. Studies have proven both humans and pets are being infected IN Florida.

A major problem in the south is that nearly all of the (300) known strains of Borrelia (Lyme disease) are not detected by the standard Lyme tests on the market. As a result, Lyme disease is being missed at an alarming rate. Even when Lyme tests do pick it up (Borrelia burgdorferi), patients are often given inaccurate information leading to a misdiagnosis and/or improper treatment.

Borrelia (Lyme) Strains Documented in Florida

Borrelia americana

Borrelia andersonii

Borrelia bissettii

Borrelia burgdorferi*

Borrelia garinii

Borrelia lonestari

Borrelia turicatae

Unnamed- (divergent strain clustered between Borrelia bissettii & Borrelia carolinensis)

*Standard lab tests are only designed to detect exposure to Borrelia burgdorferi and those tests miss up to 75% of people who have the Borrelia burgdorferi strain of Lyme disease.

Additional Tick Borne Diseases Found in Florida

HGA- human granulocytic anaplasmosis

HGE- human monocytic ehrlichiosis

Babesia microti

Brucellosis

Heartland Virus

Histoplasmosis

Rickettsia rickettsia

Rickettsia parkeri

Rickettsia amblyommii

Rickettsia bellii

Rickettsia montanensis

Rickettsia cooleyi-like sp.

Rickettsia sp. Is-1

Rickettsia TR39-like sp.

Tacaribe virus (Arenaviridae)

Toxoplasmosis

Additional Tick/Vector Borne Diseases in Florida

Avian influenza

Bovine anaplasmosis

Bovine babesiosis

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy

Benign bovine theileriosis

Cattle Fever Tick

Chikungunya Fever Virus

Chronic Wasting Disease

Classical Swine Fever

Contagious equine metritis

Dengue fever

Eastern Equine Encephalitis

EHV-1

Ehrlichia canis

Equine herpesvirus

Equine infectious anemia

Equine piroplasmosis

Equine viral arteritis

Foot and Mouth Disease

Hansen's Disease (Leprosy)

Hantavirus

Highlands J Virus

Johnes

La Crosse Encephalitis Virus (LACV)

Leprosy

Leptospirosis

Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus (LCMV)

Lymphatic filariasis (Elephantiasis)

Malaria

New World Screwworm

Piroplasmosis

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus

Pseudorabies

Rabies

Rat Bite Fever

Rift Valley Fever

Salmonellosis

Schmallenberg Virus

Scrapie

Spring viremia carp

St. Louis Encephalitis

Swine Influenza

Tuberculosis

Vesicular stomatitis

West Nile Virus

Yellow fever

Zika Virus

Called “The New Great Imitator,” Lyme disease is often mistaken for illnesses such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, lupus, multiple sclerosis, depression, anxiety, rheumatoid arthritis, CJD, Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's, ADHD, dementia and even Alzheimer's.

The information provided above highlights the need for health care providers everywhere to be properly trained to recognize the signs and symptoms of various stages of Lyme and tick borne diseases, to understand the strengths and limitations of different laboratory tests, and to include Lyme disease in the differential diagnosis in the presence of a consistent clinical history.

Doctors- Please treat your patients as you would want to be treated. Do NOT send them to an infectious disease specialist. For the past sixteen years they have followed the same unsuccessful, outdated "insurance friendly" treatment guidelines responsible for causing the chronic illness, disability and death of many patients.

Physician Training Program- Learn about the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme and tick borne diseases from trained and experienced health care professionals. Click Here

Health Care Professionals- Please attend a conference or workshop for health care professionals to learn about Lyme and tick borne diseases. Click Here

ALERT!

Deer Ticks (Black legged ticks) Have Been Found

To Harbor 91 Different Pathogens!

Another good reason to

Not wait to see if you get sick.

Immediately

"TREAT THE BITE"

www.TreatTheBite.com

Parasit Vectors. 2016 May 5;9(1):265. doi: 10.1186/s13071-016-1529-y.

Human pathogens associated with the blacklegged tick Ixodes scapularis: a systematic review.

Nelder MP1, Russell CB2, Sheehan NJ2, Sander B2,3,4, Moore S2, Li Y5, Johnson S5, Patel SN6,7, Sider D2,8.

Author information

• 1Enteric, Zoonotic and Vector-borne Diseases; Communicable Diseases, Emergency Preparedness and Response; Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. mark.nelder@oahpp.ca.
• 2Enteric, Zoonotic and Vector-borne Diseases; Communicable Diseases, Emergency Preparedness and Response; Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• 3Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
• 4Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, ON, Canada.
• 5Analytic Services, Knowledge Services, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada.
• 6Public Health Ontario Laboratories, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada.
• 7Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
• 8Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

The blacklegged tick Ixodes scapularis transmits Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu stricto) in eastern North America; however, the agent of Lyme disease is not the sole pathogen harbored by the blacklegged tick.

The blacklegged tick is expanding its range into areas of southern Canada such as Ontario, an area where exposure to blacklegged tick bites and tick-borne pathogens is increasing. We performed a systematic review to evaluate the public health risks posed by expanding blacklegged tick populations and their associated pathogens.

METHODS:

We followed PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines for conducting our systematic review.

We searched Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, BIOSIS, Scopus and Environment Complete databases for studies published from 2000 through 2015, using subject headings and keywords that included "Ixodes scapularis", "Rickettsia", "Borrelia", "Anaplasma", "Babesia" and "pathogen."

Two reviewers screened titles and abstracts against eligibility criteria (i.e. studies that included field-collected blacklegged ticks and studies that did not focus solely on B. burgdorferi) and performed quality assessments on eligible studies.

RESULTS:

Seventy-eight studies were included in the final review, 72 were from the US and eight were from Canada (two studies included blacklegged ticks from both countries). Sixty-four (82 %) studies met ≥ 75 % of the quality assessment criteria.

Blacklegged ticks harbored 91 distinct taxa, 16 of these are tick-transmitted human pathogens, including species of Anaplasma, Babesia, Bartonella, Borrelia, Ehrlichia, Rickettsia, Theileria and Flavivirus.

Organism richness was highest in the Northeast (Connecticut, New York) and Upper Midwest US (Wisconsin); however, organism richness was dependent on sampling effort.

The primary tick-borne pathogens of public health concern in Ontario, due to the geographic proximity or historical detection in Ontario, are Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia microti, B. burgdorferi, Borrelia miyamotoi, deer tick virus and Ehrlichia muris-like sp.

Aside from B. burgdorferi and to a much lesser concern A. phagocytophilum, these pathogens are not immediate concerns to public health in Ontario; rather they represent future threats as the distribution of vectors and pathogens continue to proliferate.

CONCLUSIONS:

Our review is the first systematic assessment of the literature on the human pathogens associated with the blacklegged tick. As Lyme disease awareness continues to increase, it is an opportune time to document the full spectrum of human pathogens transmittable by blacklegged ticks.

KEYWORDS:

Bacteria; Blacklegged ticks; Infectious disease; Ixodes; Parasites; Pathogens; Public health; Symbionts; Vector-borne; Viruses; Zoonoses

PMID:

27151067

[PubMed - in process]

Link- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27151067

PRINTABLE LIST of tick and vector borne diseases in Florida attached below. Please feel free to share one, two or all three pages. Each one reach one!