Epidemic of Lyme deaths in children in New England

[kathleen]

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Subject: Epidemic of Lyme deaths in children in New England

Date: Nov 24, 2007 5:30 AM

FIRST, an accurate test for Lyme or any other borrelioses is
available. That is
why the ALDF.com disclaims "medical negligence." The test is US
patent
5,618,533, a patent held by Yale; a method developed in 1991, and
detects the "vast
majority" of Lyme cases: 17/18, according to the validation.

Now, anyone with a brain in their head would call the FDA Bioanalytics
Division
and ask them if I am right. Is this a "scientifically valid method?"

Or we could do this for another 40 years, where I complain to the
"government"
and the major media, and not one single arrogant selfish fool lifts a
finger...

Kathleen M. Dickson
http://www.actionlyme.org

============

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/24/heart_ailment_among_youth_stirs_concern?mode=PF

Boston.com THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
The Boston Globe
Heart ailment among youth stirs concern
Doctors baffled by rise in cases across region

By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | November 24, 2007

The doctors at Children's Hospital Boston were baffled - and worried.
In the
past, they had treated only a couple of children a year for a rare
condition that
causes the heart to stop pumping, an illness that can send a
previously healthy
child plunging toward death.

But a year ago, they began seeing children with myocarditis with
alarming frequency.
Instead of two children a year, they were sometimes treating two a
month.

Since November 2006, 10 children have been diagnosed with the ailment,
which can
be caused by infectious germs, toxic substances, or an underlying
chronic condition.
Two died. Two others required heart transplants. And now doctors and
public health
investigators are trying to crack a medical mystery that they
acknowledge they may
never solve.

Disease trackers have not been able to find anything that links the
children, who
ranged in age from 3 months to 17 years and came from Massachusetts,
New Hampshire,
and Rhode Island.

There is no evidence that any single germ is to blame - or that all
the cases were
even ignited by an infection. There is nothing to suggest that the
youngsters had
contact with each other or that they suffered from another illness
that predisposed
them to the heart irregularity. And there is no reason, disease
specialists said,
to believe that a broader public health threat exists.

"It's a mystery along several different fronts," said Dr. Anita Barry,
director of communicable disease control at the Boston Public Health
Commission.
"It must be very hard for the families of these children, not knowing
what
the cause of this severe myocarditis in their children was."

On Monday, Boston's health agency issued a written plea to hospitals
and doctors
asking them to report any additional pediatric cases they may have
seen recently.
Children's Hospital alerted city authorities in August that they were
concerned
about the disease; at least one more case has come to light since
then.

There is no state or federal law forcing physicians to report cases of
myocarditis,
the symptoms of which include fever, fatigue, and rapid heart beat.

"But the fact that we've noticed [the cases at Children's] indicates
it warrants some effort to figure out what's going on," said Dr. Bela
Matyas,
a top disease tracker with the state Department of Public Health,
"because
nothing obvious jumps out."

Myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart's muscular tissue, can be
triggered
by a variety of sources, and it is not clear why some patients -
children or adults
- develop more serious complications than others.

Sometimes, viruses, parasites, or other infectious organisms are to
blame, including
such garden-variety germs as those that cause the common cold. Other
times, myocarditis
is a complication stemming from conditions such as lupus, in which the
body's
disease-fighting system turns on itself.

In still other cases, the heart ailment is a side effect of
medications or toxins
such as lead or arsenic.

In cases of myocarditis caused by infectious agents, the immune system
may successfully
kill germs in most of the body, but not the heart, which then sends
out a potentially
lethal SOS - in effect, the heart gets too much help.

"We turn our attention on ourselves and kill our own heart cells,"
said
Dr. Gerard Boyle, chairman of pediatric cardiology at the Cleveland
Clinic.

The heart begins to swell and fluid pools. "It disrupts the mechanical
efficiency
of the heart," Boyle said, "and the heart squeezes less well." And
then, blood that needs to pass through the heart cannot get in, and
blood that needs
to leave the heart cannot get out. A cascade of complications follows,
with the
lungs, liver, and other organs sometimes becoming dangerously impaired
- in very
short order.

National studies estimate that up to 10 of every 100,000 people
develop myocarditis
annually, and the disease can be found in adults as well as children,
sometimes
persisting as a chronic condition.

As the number of cases grew at Children's over the last year, doctors
watched
with increasing curiosity - and concern, especially because the
condition struck
so forcefully in otherwise healthy children.

"We're not sure if the reason we are seeing more cases is because
more
cases are being referred to our hospital or if this is a true increase
in the incidence
of the disease in our community," said Dr. Kathy Jenkins, senior
cardiologist
and director of the program for patient safety and quality at
Children's.

The first child was diagnosed Nov. 17, 2006; the last, a month ago.
Half of the
children became so sick they were put on a machine that breathes and
pumps blood
for the patient. The children were also treated with medications that
drain excess
fluid and slow down the heart.

The two children who died were a 15-year-old girl and a 12-year-old
boy. Authorities
declined to provide detailed information about the children, citing
patient confidentiality
laws.

As the children have been treated, specialists have performed a
constellation of
tests on the children's blood and tissue. Two patients may have had
Lyme disease,
which has been identified as a cause of myocarditis, although tests
were equivocal.

Two other children tested positive for a virus called Coxsackie, but
doctors could
not tell whether it was a fresh infection or the legacy of an old
encounter with
the germ.

"What's fair to say at this point is we don't really know for most
of the cases what the cause is even though we've looked for most of
the common
things," said Dr. Thomas Sandora, hospital epidemiologist at
Children's.
"We don't even know for sure that all of these cases are related to
infection."

Investigators reviewing the cases said they feel certain about one
thing: There
is no reason to believe the region is experiencing a widespread
disease outbreak
caused by a virulent organism, in part because the cases occurred at
different times
and in different places.

In addition, the families and friends of the children showed no signs
of infectious
illnesses.

"I think the likelihood would be fairly high that we're not going to
know
a lot more than we do right now," Barry said. "I'm hopeful we will
know more, but when cases of illness are so dispersed in time and in
place and there
are so many possible causes, I think it's hard to pin something
down."
(c) Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company