It is deeply disturbing how frequently the following statement continues to appear in media reports: “(Lyme disease) fatalities are rare.” Really? First of all, Lyme-related deaths are vastly underestimated. Hospitals at large don’t even use the proper labs yet to diagnose Lyme correctly. Sadly, most people who have Lyme never get tested or get false results due to unreliable methods. So when they die they still are misdiagnosed. All hospitals need to start adopting the right lab testing for Lyme in earnest, such as Igenex or Advanced Labs, so that every patient can get diagnosed correctly!
Suicide rates are much higher with Lyme than acknowledged due to the fact that society at large does not take Lyme seriously and is thus not as aware of it (just as in the early days of AIDS). Good doctors who have the most success at helping chronic Lyme patients get into remission do not take insurance, nor does insurance cover Lyme past 30 days even if they do cover it. I have lost many Lyme friends due to suicide and it is one of the motivations for this website. There is not enough education on Lyme disease and our medical world is not adequately backing those suffering, if at all.
Since new research is proving that Lyme is present in patients with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, MS, Fibromyalgia, ALS, and other autoimmune diseases, perhaps adding up those deaths would gain a little media attention? It is sad nowadays that you must be famous to get any media coverage for dying from a disease.
Certain cases of heart failure have also been linked to Lyme. Transmission of this disease seems to be getting out of control as more and more new evidence indicates it is transferred not just from ticks as once believed, but from human to human, from mother to child, and through most biting insects. Shouldn’t this be viewed as a serious threat to the world? And let’s not forget: no one ever gets Lyme (Borrelia B) by itself anymore. It is typically transmitted along with a mix of co-infections such as Babesia, Bartonella, Mycoplasma, as well as parasites and viruses. Some of these can be just as (if not more) debilitating or dangerous in the long run to those with jeopardized immune systems.
