Today's letter to Paul Mead of the CDC......
---------- Original Message ----------
From: CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net>
To: pfm0@cdc.gov, tickbornedisease@hhs.gov
Cc: (98 undisclosed recipients)
Date: April 13, 2020 at 10:16 AM
Subject: Email to the attention of Dr. Paul Mead, Chief of the CDC Bacterial Diseases Branch
Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases
Identification of immunoreactive linear epitopes of Borrelia miyamotoi
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877959X1930353X
Rafal Tokarz, Teresa Tagliafierro, Adrian Caciula, Nischay Mishra,b, Riddhi Thakkar, Lokendra V. Chauhan, Stephen Sameroff, Shannon Delaney, Gary P. Wormser, Adriana Marques, W. Ian Lipkin,
Excerpt:
In this study, we employed the TBD-Serochip, a peptide array platform, to identify new linear targets for serologic detection of B. miyamotoi.
This study was funded with grants from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation (CF CU18-2692 and SACF CU15-4008). This research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health.
_______________________________________________________
Apr 13, 2020
Division of Vector-Borne Diseases
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
3156 Rampart Rd
Fort Collins, Colorado CO 80521
Attn: Paul Mead, MD, MPH Acting Branch Chief
pfm0@cdc.gov
Dear Dr. Mead,
In October of 2018 you coauthored the following paper in Clinical Infectious Diseases and made the following statement regarding serologic testing for Lyme disease:
Direct Diagnostic Tests for Lyme Disease
Clinical Infectious Diseases, ciy614, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciy614
Published: 11 October 2018
Excerpt: (Quote from Paul Mead)
“… serologic tests cannot distinguish active infection, past infection, or reinfection. Reliable direct-detection methods for active B. burgdorferi infection have been lacking in the past but are needed and appear achievable.”
Dr. Mead…. So why is the National Institutes of Health funding Dr. Gary Wormser’s study for the serologic detection of B. miyamotoi?
Obviously Dr. Wormser didn’t get your memo or you are just providing lip service to give the illusion that our public health officials have everything under control.
What is the status of Direct Diagnostic Tests for Lyme Disease Dr. Mead? Persistent infection after extensive antibiotic treatment has been identified through the use of direct detection methods in academic centers and autopsy findings [1] yet the average patient cannot obtain these tests to justify how sick they are with their chronic active infection.
Please provide a list of grants issued by the CDC or National Institutes of Health for studies actively involved in developing Direct Diagnostic Tests for Lyme Disease.
I expect a prompt reply to this inquiry.
Respectfully submitted,
Carl Tuttle
Lyme Endemic Hudson, NH
Reference:
[1] More of the same focus on Serology!