Research records of now-deceased medical entomologist Willy Burgdorfer, the discoverer of the bacterial pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi that causes Lyme disease, were recently unearthed, and they show that he also discovered another tick-borne bacterium, which he called the "Swiss Agent," which might be mistaken for Lyme or might be complicating Lyme infections.
Kris Newby, a science writer at Stanford School of Medicine and the senior producer of the award-winning documentary on Lyme disease, “Under Our Skin” writes at scopeblog.stanford.edu/… -
I was conducting a 2013 biographical interview with Willy Burgdorfer, PhD, the discoverer of the Lyme disease bacterium, he reluctantly confessed that he’d left something important out of his Lyme discovery articles. There was another bacterial perp at the scene of the mysterious outbreak of juvenile arthritis in Lyme, Connecticut, circa 1979. He nicknamed this new tick-borne organism (from the rickettsia genus) the “Swiss Agent,” after he found that many of the original Lyme patient blood samples reacted strongly to tests that identified a type of rickettsia found in Switzerland. Yet he never published these results, and he died before he could fully explain why.
The mysterious disappearance of the Swiss Agent intrigued me, and it propelled me into a three-year search for answers. I dug through 15 document archives across the country looking for evidence and began analyzing the original Lyme patient blood tests, letters between researchers, journal articles and tick-testing results from Long Island and Connecticut in the 1970s. Over the summer, I began sharing information with Charles Piller, an investigative reporter at STAT News.
Charles Piller’s findings are documented in the excellent article “The ‘Swiss Agent’: Long-forgotten research unearths new mystery about Lyme disease”, dated Oct 12, 2016, at www.statnews.com/…
Piller researched Burgdorfer’s documents, including some discovered in boxes of Burgdorfer’s personal papers found in his garage after his death in 2014.
Piller writes -
The papers suggest that he might have gone to his grave harboring regret that he didn’t follow up on the Swiss Agent findings ...
On the top of a stack of documents in his garage was a mysterious note, penned boldly in red ink in the scientist’s unmistakable handwriting. “I wondered why somebody didn’t do something,” it said. “Then I realized that I am somebody.”
Additional info from Piller’s article —
In Europe and Asia, the Swiss Agent, now called Rickettsia helvetica, has been recognized as a relatively rare but sometimes serious health threat if untreated. It’s been linked to a handful of sudden deaths from heart disease, as well as facial palsy, deafness, meningitis, chronic muscle weakness, and temporary paralysis.
Rickettsia helvetica is likely not a major health risk in the United States, in part because such bacteria typically respond to antibiotics. US laboratories don’t test for R. helvetica. Several of Burgdorfer’s former colleagues have called for infectious disease researchers to mount a search for the bacterium.
If R. helvetica is in the United States, some experts consulted by STAT said, unrecognized infections might be one of several factors contributing to the controversy over Lyme disease diagnosis, by creating confusion over the cause of some patients’ illnesses. Steere, a Massachusetts General Hospital researcher and among the world’s leading Lyme experts, said some patients who believe they have Lyme, but who test negative for the infection, might be suffering from an illness caused by one of several other microbes. R. helvetica could be among them, he said.
Investigations into the R. helvetica microbe are underway. The CDC is reportedly looking for R. helvetica in the serum of 30,000 people suspected to have contracted tick-borne illnesses. A team at Columbia University is hunting for pathogens living in ticks in the greater New York area (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...) and have identified 20 new viruses so far, which may help understand why antibiotics sometimes fail in apparent Lyme cases. (See Persistent Lyme disease symptoms aren’t helped by long-term antibiotics).
Summary (from Piller’s article)
Ticks contain multiple pathogens besides the Lyme disease bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi; a tick can simultaneously transmit several other serious disease agents such as rickettsias, viruses and babesias.
Perhaps, some of these other pathogens mimic Lyme disease but results with current test methods for Lyme disease turn out negative; perhaps, some of these pathogens survive and ravage the body long after the patient is treated with antibiotics. Urgent research is needed to investigate these issues.
Current testing methods are inadequate for detecting co-infections. Researchers need to create faster, all-in-one tick-borne disease tests, moving beyond the decades-old unreliable antibody tests that are most commonly used.
Lyme Disease References
- whatislyme.com
- www.lymedisease.org
- The Lyme and Tick-borne Diseases Research Center at columbia-lyme.org/...
- The International Lyme and Associate Diseases Society - www.ilads.org
- Best lab for testing Lyme - www.igenex.com/…
- Piller’s article - www.statnews.com/…
- Assessment of Polymicrobial Infections in Ticks in New York State — www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...
- DK group Lyme Disease Awareness
Final Note
I am hoping that kossacks who are more knowledgeable about Lyme disease, its history, current treatment and ongoing research will read Piller’s article and share their insights on this discovery and its implications for co-infections associated with tick bites. I personally have no expertise in the medical sciences field.
Let’s please avoid getting into arguments about “chronic Lyme disease” in this diary.