Or...Search this site Home Symptoms Live Discussion Diagnosis Treatment Area Support Library Research Lymelinks Contact Pets & Lyme DONATIONS Drug Info Medical Dictionary Board of Directors      Click on the graphic to vote for this site as a Starting Point Hot Site. -- No Warranties or Representations The data and information presented in this web site are presented in good faith and believed to be accurate. Any and all liability for the content or any omissions including any inaccuracies, errors, or misstatements in such data or information is expressly disclaimed. The web site is compiled for the sole purpose of informing community members of resources and information pertaining to Lyme Borreliosis Disease and its coinfections. The Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, Directors and members are not liable for any direct or indirect damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of information available from this website. Consult a qualified Lyme ( Borreliosis ) Disease literate doctor for medical advice if Lyme Disease is suspect. en français For Physicians Ticks Coinfections Prevention Our Stories Click Here to order our free Lyme Disease Flyer,    Here for our free Lyme Disease Poster ..documents may be copied (to distribute) but edit only for alignment. CHRONIC BORRELIOSIS HERMSII MIMICKING CHRONIC LYME BORRESIOSIS. Paul E. Lovoie, Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center, San Francisco, Tom G. Schwan, Willy Burgdorfer, Rocky Mountain Laboratory (NIH), Hamilton, MT. The discovery of Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) has established the concept that a borrelia can be the inciting agent in a number of chronic disease presentations. The relapsing fever borreliae are numerous in specie worldwide. Previously, they were thought to cause illness that remitted spontaneously after a limited number of relapses. We describe three cases with similar multisystem chronic illness in patients with ample exposure to Ornithodorus hermsii (Oh), the vector of B. hermsii (BH), who had no known exposure to Ixodes pacificus, the western vector of Bb. Case RG is a 41 y/o male self-employed gold-miner from Fort Fraser, BC who presented c/o intense generalized polyarthralgias, previous oligoarthritis, severe headaches, prominent fatigue and malaise, variable RLQ abdominal pain, & intellectual dysfunction. The unrelenting headache appeared 9/85 soon after an unidentified arthropod bite while mining in northern BC. Chronic constitutional symptoms appeared 7/86 leading to disability. Oligoarthritis and polyarthralgias appeared 8/87 & were associated with recurrent headache, exercise intolerance, confusion and memory loss. IFA showed Bb 1:64, Bh 1:128. Case RSF is a 46 y/o Calgary, Alberta man c/o profound fatigue, ectopy, migratory oligoarthralgias, parestheslas, & lighting pains. He experienced a large expanding annule with central clearing lasting 10 days at the site of an arthropod bite which occurred while he was in his backyard 6/86. Multisystem system symptoms appeared 7/86 and remitted briefly in 10/86 when lightning pains first appeared. Migratory arthralgias appeared 6/87 with generalized stiffness following. IFA showed Bb 1:64, Bh 1:256. Case PAK is a 56 y/o physician’s wife c/o chronic left facial pain, chronic low back pain, polyarthralgias, RUE tremor, & prominent fatigue. A sudden prostrating febrile illness associated with an expanding left breast annule at the site of an arthropod bite occurred 9/81. In 10/82 she developed right cervical radiculitis with a RUE tremor. Left trigeminal neuralgia started 8/85. Polyarthralgias & myalgias commenced 9/86. Her Oh exposure included rural WY 1935-45, rural CO & UT 7/70, & high Sierras 10/82. Cranial MRI showed high reflectance focal signals in deep white matter. RML IFA showed Bb 1:64, Bh 1:28.