Can Lyme disease affect pregnancy?

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please notice the DATE and the AUTHOR!!!!!!!!!

JAMA. 1986 Jun 27;255(24):3394-6.  Related Articles, Links 
Lyme disease during pregnancy.

Markowitz LE, Steere AC, Benach JL, Slade JD, Broome CV.

Lyme disease is an increasingly recognized tick-borne illness caused by a spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi. Because the etiologic agent of Lyme disease is a spirochete, there has been concern about the effect of maternal Lyme disease on pregnancy outcome. We reviewed cases of Lyme disease in pregnant women who were identified before knowledge of the pregnancy outcomes. Nineteen cases were identified with onset between 1976 and 1984. Eight of the women were affected during the first trimester, seven during the second trimester, and two during the third trimester; in two, the trimester of onset was unknown. Thirteen received appropriate antibiotic therapy for Lyme disease. Of the 19 pregnancies, five had adverse outcomes, including syndactyly, cortical blindness, intrauterine fetal death, prematurity, and rash in the newborn. Adverse outcomes occurred in cases with infection during each of the trimesters. Although B
burgdorferi could not be implicated directly in any of the adverse outcomes, the frequency of such outcomes warrants further surveillance and studies of pregnant women with Lyme disease.
PMID: 2423719 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


Lyme disease can potentially adversely affect pregnancy. In 1985,researchers published the first proof of maternal-fetal transmission of Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb): A baby died shortly after birth and Bb spirochetes were found in the infant's spleen, kidney, and bone marrow.
(Schlesinger P, Duray P, Burke B, Steere A, Stillman A. Maternal-fetal transmission of the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. Annals of
Internal Med. 1985:(Vol 103) 67-68.)

To date, miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth, neonatal deaths (rare), and congenital Lyme disease have all been described in the medical literature.

For more information:

Pregnancy and Lyme Disease
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Oasis/6455/pregnancy-links.html

reported an apparent transplacentally or perinatally transmitted case of Babesiosis 
http://www2.us.elsevierhealth.com/scripts/om.dll/serve?article=a81986

See also: Gardner, MD, Tessa. "Lyme Disease," Chapter 11, in Infectious Diseases of the Fetus and Newborn Infant. 4th edition, Jack S. Remington,
Jerome O. Klein, eds. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1995, pp. 447-528.

The efficacy and effectiveness of antibiotics (with respect to covert infections that might prompt preterm labor).
http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/pretermsum.htm

Fetal outcome in murine Lyme disease
http://iai.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/63/1/66

Gestational Lyme borreliosis. Implications for the fetus.
MacDonald AB
Rheum Dis Clin North Am 1989 Nov 15:657-77
Abstract
Great diversity of clinical expression of signs and symptoms of gestational Lyme borreliosis parallels the diversity of prenatal syphilis. It is documented that transplacental transmission of the spirochete from mother to fetus is possible. Further research is necessary to investigate possible teratogenic effects that might occur if the spirochete reaches the fetus during the period of organogenesis. Autopsy and clinical studies have associated gestational Lyme borreliosis with various medical problems including fetal death, hydrocephalus, cardiovascular anomalies, neonatal respiratory distress, hyperbilirubinemia, intrauterine growth retardation, cortical blindness, sudden infant death syndrome, and maternal toxemia of pregnancy. Whether any or all of these associations are coincidentally or causally related remains to be clarified by further investigation. It is my expectation that the spectrum of gestational Lyme borreliosis will expand into many of the clinical domains of prenatal syphilis.

Pregnancy and Lyme Disease
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Oasis/6455/pregnancy-links.html

Investigation of venereal, transplacental, and contact transmission of the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, in Syrian hamsters.
Investigation of venereal, transplacental, and contact transmission of the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, in Syrian hamsters.

J Parasitol 1999 Jun;85(3):426-30 (ISSN: 0022-3395)

Woodrum JE; Oliver JH Jr [Find other articles with these Authors]
Institute of Arthropodology and Parasitology, Department of Biology, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro 30460, USA.

A hamster was inoculated with the SI-1 strain of Borrelia burgdorferi and subsequently served as a host to larval Ixodes scapularis Say. Approximately 68% of the nymphs resulting from the fed larvae were infected. Nymphs from this group were fed on uninfected hamsters, and 3 of 4 males and 6 of 6 females became infected. The infected hamsters were allowed to mate with uninfected partners to test for venereal transmission. Six infected females were mated with 6 uninfected males, whereas 3 infected males were mated with 6 uninfected females. None of the uninfected hamsters became infected after mating. Two protocols were used to determine if transplacental transmission of B. burgdorferi occurred. One group included 6 nonpregnant infected females that were subsequently mated and became pregnant. Three of the females were allowed to carry to full term, whereas the other 3 were killed prior to parturition. All fetuses and offspring were negative for B. burgdorferi based on cultures and monoclonal antibody assays. Another group of 6 females was infected via tick bite after becoming pregnant; those females were allowed to carry fetuses to birth and all were negative.
Attempts at contact transmission of B. burgdorferi from 2 infected females to 2 uninfected male and 2 uninfected female hamsters and from 2 infected males to 2 uninfected male and uninfected female hamsters via urine or feces failed.

MEDLINE Indexing Date: 199909
Publication Type: JOURNAL ARTICLE
Grant ID: A1 24899; U50/CCU410281
Unique NLM Identifier: 99313003
Journal Code: M

 

Pasteurizing HIV-infected breast milk at 60

Perhaps this could idea could be used for Lyme patients also Solar-Powered Device Decontaminates HIV-Infected Breast Milk By Bjorn Falck Madsen FREDENSBORG, Denmark, Sep 07 (Reuters Health) - A Danish invention could mean a major breakthrough in the fight against HIV transmission in developing countries. Pasteurizing HIV-infected breast milk at 60 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes using a solar-powered device effectively inactivates HIV as well as pathogenic bacteria, researchers have found. The device is expected not only to provide health benefits but also to reduce healthcare costs substantially. The nursing mother is able to operate the breast milk pasteurizer herself, and the annual cost per child is approximately $100, Dr. Anders Fjendbo Jorgensen, of Kolding Hospital, in Denmark, told Reuters Health in an interview. Compared with the price of providing an HIV-infected nursing mother with antiretroviral medication, at a cost of $3000 to $6000 for half a year, the pasteurizing device is a considerably more manageable and cost-effective solution, he pointed out. With solar pasteurization of breast milk, antibodies in the breast milk are preserved so that the health advantages of breast-feeding are maintained, Dr. Fjendbo Jorgensen said. "We hope that the breast milk device will soon get introduced in countries where breast milk from a mother is used to feed others' children. This includes hospitals in Africa, South America and the Far East," the Danish physician said. "At the moment, about 120 women in the Muhimbili Medical Centre, in Dar es Salaam, are [expressing] breast milk and pasteurizing it for their own children or children that belong to others, mainly premature babies in incubators, children with cleft palate, or similar disadvantages. However, we still need to find out how easy it is for individuals to handle this task in their own home," he commented. Dr. Fjendbo Jorgensen, who is a specialist in tropical and infectious diseases and has been working for The National AIDS Control Programme in Tanzania for 3 years, is presently in charge of a group of researchers in Denmark and Tanzania involved in the use of solar energy for health purposes. He noted that the pharmaceutical industry has not been supportive in promoting the pasteurizing concept, a low-tech source of prevention that, on a long-term basis, would reduce the need for medical drugs to manage AIDS.

Brain on Lyme... "It's hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head." --Sally Kempton
Unfortunately people don't understand that Lyme disease, Babesiosis & Erlichiosis do kill. (and they can make you feel so bad you wish they would just do it and get it over with...)

 

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