IGeneX immunoblot tests find Lyme in Australian blood samples
Lyme Disease Association of Australia
by Marie Brown
Lyme Disease Association of Australia

Examination of one hundred blood samples from Australian patients suggests that many have been exposed to Lyme disease, tick-borne relapsing fever, or both.

The results, which have not yet been published in a scientific journal, were described by IGeneX CEO and laboratory director, Dr Jyotsna Shah, in an interview with Marie Brown.

IGeneX is a US pathology laboratory specializing in tick-borne disease, located in California.

“Our study showed that 21% of these Australian patients had been exposed to Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, the causative agent of Lyme disease, 18% to the tick-borne relapsing fever Borrelia group, while a further 7% were exposed to both groups of Borrelia,” said Dr Shah.

“It’s important to remember that these were samples from sick patients, so the overall positivity rate of 46% for exposure to Borrelia was not surprising,” said Dr Shah. The high proportion of patients positive for tick-borne relapsing fever, approximately one in four, was also “not a surprise.”

IGeneX’s new immunoblot tests

All the samples were analysed using IGeneX’s recently developed immunoblot tests for Lyme and tick-borne relapsing fever. These tests use genetically engineered Borrelia proteins to look for antibodies to some 15 different species of Borrelia that may be present in patients’ blood. The wide number of species targeted in the immunoblot test contrasts with the usual one or two species detected in tests using older technology, said Dr Shah.

The study’s results are consistent with earlier findings in which a relatively high number of Australians tested positive for antibodies to these tick-borne diseases using IGenex’s western blot test, she said. But the results did not necessarily mean that the patients had been infected with tick-borne relapsing fever Borrelia in Australia, although that was quite possible, she said.

“We don’t know where the patients got infected – Australians travel a lot,” said Dr Shah.

However, Australia does have ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ ticks – the types that transmit relapsing fever borreliosis elsewhere, she said. So far, true Lyme disease has only been reported in hard ticks, she added.

In the Western USA, the bacteria responsible for tick-borne relapsing fever, particularly Borrelia hermsii, Borrelia parkerii and Borrelia turicatae, are carried by soft ticks1. Recently B. miyamotoi, another relapsing fever Borrelia, first detected in Japan and carried by hard ticks, had also been found in Lyme-endemic regions of the USA2, said Dr Shah.

More at this link: https://www.lymedisease.org/igenex-australian-blood/

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Dear RM Agents and Readers,

This is for my Morgie friends down under, hey Aussie and Sarah

Many Blessings,
CrystalRiver