Today’s letter to the Tick-Borne disease Working Group……
---------- Original Message ----------
From: CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net>
To: tickbornedisease@hhs.gov, chris.smith@mail.house.gov
Cc: (98 Undisclosed recipients)
Date: July 2, 2019 at 8:16 AM
Subject: IDSA to award $500K in search for infectious cause of Alzheimer’s disease
To the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group,
Please see the letter below regarding IDSA research grants for infectious cause of Alzheimer’s disease.
---------- Original Message ----------
From: CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net>
To:pauwaert@jhmi.edu
Cc: jmstiglich@healio.com, infectiousdisease@healio.com,geriatricmedicine@healio.com,tanzi@helix.mgh.harvard.edu, Steven.Dekosky@neurology.ufl.edu,wpowderl@wustl.edu
Date: July 2, 2019 at 7:54 AM
Subject: Q&A: IDSA to award $500K in search for infectious cause of Alzheimer’s disease
Healio Infectious Disease News
Q&A: IDSA to award $500K in search for infectious cause of Alzheimer’s disease
June 30, 2019
July 2, 2019
The IDSA Foundation
1300 Wilson Boulevard Suite 300
Arlington, VA 22209
Attn: Paul Auwaerter, vice chair of the IDSA Foundation
Dear Dr. Auwaerter,
The editorial department of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) believed that I had a rather important infectious disease question and published my letter to the editor on December 18, 2018.
Controversies About Lyme Disease
JAMA. 2018;320(23):2481. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.17195
Published question:
"It is well known that untreated streptococcal pharyngitis can progress to rheumatic fever, causing irreversible heart damage. Untreated syphilis leads to progressive disability and dementia, and untreated human immunodeficiency virus infection progresses to AIDS with significant disability and death. What happens to a patient with Lyme disease who goes months, years, or decades before diagnosis because of a false-negative serological test result? Shapiro and Wormser do not discuss the consequences of untreated Lyme disease in their Viewpoint."
So what happens to the Lyme patient who is left untreated? I believe singer/songwriter Kris Kristofferson can answer this question as he was diagnosed and being treated for Alzheimer’s disease after a mental decline of twelve years.
“A Slow Slipping Away”— Kris Kristofferson’s Long-Undiagnosed Battle with Lyme Disease
From the Healio article:
Questions for Paul Auwaerter, MD, MBA, vice chair of the IDSA Foundation:
Question: What is known already about the possible link between infectious pathogens and Alzheimer’s disease?
Answer: Some studies have suggested that herpes viruses, namely HHV-6 and HHV-7, may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. Other investigators have described significant gum disease due to the bacteria Porphyromonas gingivalis.
______________________________
Dr. Auwaerter….. Why would you not consider Lyme disease as a possible link between infectious pathogens and Alzheimer’s disease?
I understand that pathologist Alan MacDonald, M.D. has found evidence of Borrelia burgdorferi infection in brain tissue of Alzheimer’s patients:
Alzheimer Borreliosis
https://www.alzforum.org/member-directory/alan-macdonald
Would Dr. MacDonald’s work (Or someone continuing his work) qualify for one of your five $100,000 grants? If not, why not?
This is a serious inquiry and I expect an answer from you as vice chair of the IDSA Foundation.
Incidentally: Wormser and Shapiro refused to answer the question, “What happens to a patient with Lyme disease who goes months, years, or decades before diagnosis because of a false-negative serological test result?”
Respectfully submitted,
Carl Tuttle
Lyme Endemic Hudson, NH
Cc: William G. Powderly, MD, FIDSA, Chair