AOLyme Newsletter Part 2

[Guest guest]

Another Winner of the " Why I Hate Lyme " Contest

By LutzDM

WHY I HATE LYME DISEASE

There are so many reasons why I hate Lyme disease but I think two of the

main

reasons that I hate this disease are as follows:

This disease has robbed me of the pleasure of doing so many things with my

children especially my younger son. He never knew his mother when she was

well...and had so much energy that we could go from the pumpkin patch and

choosing our own pumpkins right to the orchard and picking apples and then

home to make apple sauce and pies. My older son remembers that and he is now

20. In a way I feel cheated by not being well enough to enjoy doing the same

things with both of my children. You see my younger son was only 2 1/2 years

old when I became ill. He knows me no other way. I missed almost all of his

T-ball games when he first began and both parents should have been there to

support him and encourage him...and to cheer him on. Even now when he gets

angry with me, I think he is angry with the disease because it is usually

brought up. My children have gone through the mill, so to speak. I can

handle

what is going on with me...I have no choice, but I hate this disease and

what

it has done to my family.

The other reason why I hate Lyme disease is purely selfish...and it's not

the

fact that I had to leave my job and lost a sense of self when I did, it's

not

the fact that I cannot do what I the things that I used to do....it is a

fact

that I lost so many of the people that I called " friends " since I contracted

this disease......where did they all go??

Donna

Improved Blood Test May Facilitate Diagnosis of Lyme Borreliosis

WESTPORT, Sep 24 (Reuters Health) - By using an IgG avidity index, a measure

of the strength of the bond between antibodies and antigen, rather than

simply testing for the presence of Lyme disease-specific IgG, physicians

might be better able to differentiate between patients with active disease

and others who have simply been exposed to the bacterial disease.

In endemic regions, antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi can be prevalent

in asymptomatic individuals, complicating the diagnosis of active Lyme

disease, Dr. Anne Lise Basse Guerineau, of Laboratoire de Microbiologie et

Service de Medecine Interne, in Paris, France, and colleagues explain in the

September 25th issue of The Lancet.

They examined whether or not measuring specific IgG avidity, a technique

that

has been used to distinguish between recent and past infection in the

diagnosis of congenital toxoplasmosis and rubella, could differentiate

between patients with active Lyme disease and those who have been exposed to

B. burgdorferi but not infected.

The Lyme borreliosis-specific IgG avidity index was significantly different

among three groups of patients who were seropositive for antibodies against

B. burgdorferi: 22 hunters who were IgM-negative and

had no clinical symptoms, 15 patients with neuroborreliosis and lymphocytic

meningitis, and 6 patients with Lyme arthritis.

Specifically, the avidity index was " very low " in patients with

neuroborreliosis, " very high " in those with Lyme arthritis and intermediate

in asymptomatic individuals.

The French team cautions that further studies are needed to standardize the

results and evaluate the test in other geographic regions.

Lancet 1999;354:1096-1097