New Lyme-related infection found

A new Lyme-related infection has been discovered by Yale University scientists who have found the disease-causing microbe in ticks on Long Island.

Yale epidemiologist Durland Fish said the corkscrew-shaped bacterium, Borrelia miyamotoi, is a distant cousin of Lyme-causing Borrelia burgdorferi.

Compared with Lyme, Borrelia miyamotoi causes higher fevers, he said, and has a tendency to cause so-called relapsing fevers. For instance, in about 10 percent of cases, Fish said, fevers disappear, but return about a week later.

"We have a lot of patients who are complaining of a lot of Lyme-like disease and post-Lyme disease," said Dr. Ben Luft, an expert in Lyme disease at Stony Brook University Medical Center. "And the question is, which of these organisms play a role in this?"

The newly identified agent may help explain the complexity of tick-borne illnesses while offering more evidence that ticks, though tiny, can carry a multitude of infectious bacteria, scientists said.

Luft said his team has also identified a Lyme-related bacterium, but he is uncertain if it differs from the one isolated by Fish. "We need testing that is specific to this organism itself so we can say how clinically important it is," Luft said.

Fish, who analyzed ticks from Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey and Connecticut, received a grant from the National Institutes of Health last week to develop a diagnostic test for the microbe.

"If you get infected with this organism, the Lyme disease [diagnostic] tests will all be negative," he said. "You won't have a diagnosis, and you can't get treated."

Dr. David Hirschwerk, an infectious disease specialist at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, said Fish's discovery requires more research. "It is interesting, but not surprising," he said.

The discovery of a new tick-borne infectious agent was announced in the current edition of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. The report was written in collaboration with a Russian team.

Fish said he actually discovered the infectious agent a decade ago, but was denied a research grant until the Russians proved it does cause human infections.

Lyme disease sufferer Eva Haughie of Manorville, who heads the Empire State Lyme Disease Association, said she would like to see all controversy surrounding Lyme and related diseases cease. "This has consumed 20 years of my life," added Haughie, who said she has been bitten by ticks on 54 different occasions. "The suffering is unbelievable."

Primer on ticks

Deer ticks, widespread on Long Island, are carriers of microbes that cause Lyme disease and several other human infections.

Ticks are small, dark-colored arachnids that can be found anywhere outdoors where deer or mice have been. As juveniles they have six legs; as adults they have eight.

Ticks are active throughout most of the year and thrive in brushy wooded areas.

They remain viable in temperatures as low as 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Deer ticks carry and transmit bacteria that cause an infection called anaplasmosis and transmit protozoa that cause a malaria-like condition called babesiosis.