A new %$X(! Lyme Disease coming your way

"N.J. Woman Becomes First In U.S. Diagnosed With New Deer Tick Disease
Same Species That Causes Lyme Infected 81-Year-Old With Something Else
January 25, 2013 9:44 PM

FLEMINGTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — A New Jersey woman is lucky to be alive after catching a mysterious illness from a tick bite.

Anna Felix, 81, of Kingwood Township, said she feared her lymphoma had returned or she might have dementia when she started getting weak and confused and lost 30 pounds.

“I remember I couldn’t eat too well. And I started needing help to walk,” Felix told CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez on Friday.

Initial tests were inconclusive, and although she showed symptoms of Lyme disease, Felix tested negative. Lab technicians at Hunterdon Medical Center made a breakthrough discovery when they examined her spinal fluid and found an unusual strain of bacteria they had never seen before.

“It was really spectacular. We knew we were on to something really big and that she would be treated and cured,” lab tech Amy Kurynow said.

Doctor Joseph Gugliotta confirmed it was the bacteria borrelia miyamotoi, a new disease transmitted by the same deer tick that causes Lyme disease. Felix is the first American case of this new tick-transmitted disease.

“Once I verified the organisms were there in the second spinal tap she was treated with a high dose of antibiotics and by five to seven days we were seeing improvement already,” Dr. Gugliotta said.

Felix said she likely was bitten by a tick on her farm. She’s since made a full recovery, and said she’s grateful for the lab’s life-saving discovery.

“It is amazing, and I hope that through this other people will get help, too,” Felix said.

Because of the newly discovered bacteria, Dr. Gugliotta said he is reviewing old cases and has discovered the strain in other patients who were undiagnosed."

"NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A new disease spread by deer ticks has already infected 100,000 New Yorkers since the state first started keeping track.

As CBS 2’s Dr. Max Gomez reported, the new deer tick-borne illness resembles Lyme disease, but is a different malady altogether – and it could be even worse.

The common deer tick is capable of spreading dangerous germs into the human bloodstream with its bite. However, Lyme disease is one of many diseases that ticks carry.

The latest disease is related to Lyme, and an infected person will suffer similar symptoms.

“Patients with this illness will develop, perhaps, fever, headache, flu-like symptoms, muscle pains — so they’ll have typical Lyme-like flu symptoms in the spring, summer, early fall,” said Dr. Brian Fallon of Columbia University. “But most of them will not develop the typical rash that you see with Lyme disease.”

Fallon, a renowned expert on Lyme disease at the New York Psychiatric Institute, said the importance of the new bacterium – called Borrelia miyamotoi — is that it might explain cases of what looked like chronic Lyme disease, but did not test positive for Lyme.

“The problem is that the diagnosis is going to be missed, because doctors aren’t going to think about Borrelia miyamotoi because they don’t know about it. And number two, if they test for Lyme disease, it will test negative, and the rash won’t be there,” Fallon said. “So they are not going to treat with the antibiotics, so the patient will have an infection staying in their system longer than it should.

While there is no test yet for the germ, the good news is that it appears the same antibiotic that kills Lyme disease also works – if it is given in the right doses and started early in the infection.

Remember, it takes a tick bite to get Lyme disease or the new bug, and the tick usually has to feed on your blood for at least 24 hours.

If you have been outdoors, have someone else do a full body check, Gomez advised. Ticks are small – only about the size of a sesame seed."