Ehrlichia

Oh no.

We see the three B's, uh, and in many cases more, more Ehrlichia, more Anaplasma.

We're seeing, you know, a lot more alpha gal.

Um, than we did in the beginning.

Yeah, I know.

And we know that there's a great deal of Ehrlichia and Anaplasma and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

I can't

tell you.

I do.

I do.

I see a lot of Anaplasma, Ehrlichia.

I'm kind of amazed by it, probably starting two years ago.

So that's just a few drops of blood and it tests for three of the major tick-borne diseases.

That's Lyme, Anaplasma, and Ehrlichia.

And we can rule that out, hopefully.

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So there are other vector-borne infections that get kind of lumped into the Lyme, where I think it's easier to say Lyme than, "Oh, I have borreliosis, bartonellosis, and babesiosis." Um, but those are a couple other things.

Babesia, Bartonella, Ehrlichia, Anaplasma, Rickettsia.

There's viruses.

There's other things that come on ticks and other biting insects that these patients often have multiple.

Now we are only doing the passive surveillance, mean that we get ticks from all the patients and from some pet owners, and then we do test for tick-borne diseases.

So in our battery, there is a Lyme disease, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, and Babesia.

Uh, and then by that way, we can see that whether our percentage of tick positivity increasing or decreasing, or the tick population is moving from some places to other places, and we had a great data.

And then, but the problem, again, the funding.

But it was in this chapter where they're talking about these complex mix of infections like Babesia, which is like a blood parasite, kind of like malaria.

Talking about Ehrlichiosis, which is Ehrlichia.

That's another.

So these are all common tick-borne infections now in the United States.

... then I know to put Lyme on that list.

So if you do see somebody that comes in on a SPECT, and you do see a different size, a different shape of the cerebellum, of the brain, there's inflammation, with each infection, like the Bartonella, Babesia, Ehrlichia, and everybody's unique, but what is, like, a first approach generally to a patient when you see that? What's your first steps?

All right, so let me tell you what I see.

So typically I'll see, you know, the brain'll show inflammation-

It just doesn't work.

So the reason you have to be careful with that is certain diseases like Ehrlichia, Anaplasma, Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

You can go to a doctor after a tick bite and get a low white cell count and or low platelet count and or elevated liver functions.

Any one of these three laboratory abnormalities with symptoms, fevers, chills, headaches, body aches, fatigue, means the tick infections have gotten into you and you're at risk.