Syphilis & Lyme: a comparison

A BRIEF SUMMARY COMPARISON:

Dr. Alan MacDonald: “Everything you want to know about Lyme Disease is in this book: Modern Clinical Syphilology by John H. Stokes, 1945. Watch this 4 minute youtube.

SYPHILIS:

Before 1943 when penicillin was discovered to be a treatment for syphilis, the disease was epidemic in the United States, with estimates between 10 and 15% infected. Patients would go to many doctors seeking a diagnosis before finding a syphilis specialist and being treated with limited success with toxic medications. Without reliable laboratory tests, diagnosis of chronic disease was made based on a careful history noting symptoms and progression over time.  After initial infection the pathogen, a spirochete, would enter the blood, reproduce, and then wiggle its way to all parts of the body. Soon after infection, flu-like symptoms would appear -- fever, headache, malaise, joint pain. Called "The Great Imitator" because of its facility to imitate almost any disease, syphilis would go through a period of latency and apparent cure, appearing years and decades later, moving from one system of the body to another--including the skeletal system, the gastrointestinal tract, the liver and spleen, the cardiovascular system, and the nervous system. In 1913 Noguchi found syphilis spirochetes (Treponema pallidum), in the autopsied brains of patients with late neurosyphilis.

LYME:

2018: the CDC posted that Lyme, an emerging disease, is the most commonly occurring vector-borne disease, changing its estimates from 30,000 to 300,000 new cases a year. Patients go to many doctors seeking a diagnosis before finding a Lyme specialist and being treated, often with limited success, with repeated courses of various antibiotics. Without reliable laboratory tests, diagnosis of chronic disease is made based on a careful history noting symptoms and progression over time. After initial infection the pathogen, a spirochete,  enters the blood, reproduces, and then wiggles its way to all parts of the body. Soon after infection, flu-like symptoms appear -- fever, headache, malaise, joint pain. Called "The Great Imitator" because of its facility to imitate almost any disease, Lyme goes through a period of latency and apparent cure, to reappear years and decades later, moving from one system of the body to another--including the skeletal system, the gastrointestinal tract, the liver and spleen, the cardiovascular system, and the nervous system In 1985, following Noguchi, MacDonald found Lyme spirochetes, Borellia bergdorferi, in autopsied brains.