is Morgellons a new mutation of Lyme Disease?

I still feel there is a strong link between Lyme’s Disease and Morgellons. I have been reading stuff on Lyme’s in Australia. I have been caught up today going from site to site reading about Lyme Disease, ticks and more …

[http://medent.usyd.edu.au/fact/lyme%20disease.htm#conclu]

‘Conclusions – Australia

There are some major differences between Australia and the endemic areas of the northern hemisphere with respect to the natural history of LD:

No ticks of the I. persulcatus complex, the principal vectors to humans in the northern hemisphere, occur in Australia. In eastern Australia, the logical candidate vector would be I. holocyclus which has a wide host range and is the most common tick biting humans. It was unable to transmit a North American strain of B.burgdorferi but an association with a so far undiscovered Australian spirochaete can not be excluded.

None of the mammal species identified as reservoir hosts in the northern hemisphere are present in Australia. There are reports of spirochaetes in Australian native animals, and a local mammal could be a reservoir host for an indigenous spirochaete that occasionally infects humans through a tick vector and produces a clinical syndrome similar to LD; however, no spirochaete was detected in the 12,000 ticks or animals processed.

Summary

The diagnosis of LD outside known endemic areas cannot be based solely on serological tests especially if they fail to conform with internationally accepted criteria, because of the high incidence of false positive results.

A clinical diagnosis in a non-endemic disease area (especially of Stage II or III disease), is difficult to support without isolation of the causative agent from the patient, from other patients with similar illness or from a known vector in the region.

The existence of LD in Australia will remain controversial until an organism is isolated from a local patient and fully characterised, or until a tick-borne organism can be shown to be responsible for the human infection. If it exists it shares few of the epidemiological or clinical characteristics of US or European patterns of LD.’

Ability to transmit diseases (vector competence) [from http://www.tickalert.org.au/ixholdet.htm]

In general terms a vector may simply mechanically transport a pathogen without it replicating, or it may both transmit and replicate a pathogen. Many viruses, bacteria, rickettsia and protozoal organisms are capable of replicating within ticks. This is known as “biological” transmission and this mode of transmission is the one that applies most commonly to ticks.

For hard (Ixodid) ticks it is virtually impossible for mechanical transmission to occur on its own (i.e. without some replication), as they tend to not take multiple blood meals from different hosts in the one stage. Passing an organism between tick stages (trans-stadial transmission) seemingly requires that an organism can also replicate within the host.

In the case of Ixodes holocyclus there is much speculation about transmission of various pathogens, with the exception of the spotted fevers which are now well recognised. Saying that an arthropod is a competent vector (generally) requires several findings:

(1) frequent isolation of the suspected pathogen;

(2) showing that the distribution of the suspected vector overlaps with a diseased population (be it human or animal);

(3) showing that host-seeking and blood-feeding coincide with the disease incidence;

(4) showing that disease incidence varies with host choice; and

(5) showing the capacity for vector competence in the laboratory.

Bacterial Diseases – Rickettsiae

These days there is not much disputing that I. holocyclus is the main vector for R. australis (Rickettsial Spotted Fever). Unfortunately vector competence work is still required to confirm its status. (S. Doggett pers. com.).

Despite the lack of vector competence studies, the paralysis tick (I. holocyclus) is commonly mentioned as a potential vector of Q-fever (caused by the rickettsial organism Coxiella burnetii). The ornate kangaroo/wallaby ticks Amblyomma triguttatum s.l. have also been implicated in Q-fever (Russell and Doggett, 1995).

Spirochaetes

Some vector competence studies have been undertaken on I. holocyclus with respect to the Lyme disease pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto (with a United States strain). These suggested that the tick can not transmit this strain of spirochaete (Piesman and Stone, 1991).

Despite this, there is a strong belief that some kind of Lyme-like spirochaete causes a Lyme-like disease in Australia and that it is carried by the most common tick afflicting humans, Ixodes holocyclus. At the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney the Tick-borne Diseases Research Unit continues its study into this issue.

Cases of Lyme-like disease are being diagnosed on the basis of clinical signs (often musculoskeletal, chronic fatigue, neurological and dermatological), exclusion of other infections, serology (which is supportive but not conclusive), and response to antibiotic treatment (initially, antibiotics may cause a worsening of symptoms [the Herxheimer reaction], presumably as spirochaetes are destroyed, and this in part supports the diagnosis).

The Australian form of Lyme-like borreliosis is associated with a different clinical picture from true Lyme disease of North America. See also the Westmead Hospital Dept of Medical Entomology site for their interpretation on the status of an Australian Lyme-like Disease.

For comparison with North American Lyme borreliosis go to healthlinks.washington.edu.

Viral Diseases

So far, no viruses have been isolated from I. holocyclus (Russell and Doggett, 1995). This does not however exclude the possibility that such diseases may be found in the future.

Protozoal Diseases

So far no protozoa have been isolated from I. holocyclus. This does not however exclude the possibility that such organisms may be found in the future.