From anthrax-no list: (First posted July 2000)

 

Re: anthrax vaccine adverse reactions..

 

We data collected in place in two places to report symptoms. Rep. Burton has a website to report illness at: anthrax@mail.house.gov . Then Sonnie has a spreadsheet that he has collected the symptoms.

Note: Sonnies spreadsheet when compared to the Rockefeller report on GWS is the same. What I mean by that, is our current symptoms are identical as GWS symptoms. Our number one most frequent symptom is bone and joint pain, and so is the Rockefeller report and down the line with chronic fatigue, memory loss and skin rashes etc.

 

This symptom profile sounds like what is seen in chronic Lyme disease that is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi. Borrelia burgdorferi has been an agent that has purportedly fascinated both German and Japanese germ warfare scientists.  There is a rumor that the current epidemic of borreliosis in the United States began after some German scientists brought over after World War II were experimenting with it on Plum Island, formerly a biowarfare experimentation facility owned by the Army, now operated by the USDA.

Bone and joint pain, memory loss, and skin rashes all occur with Lyme disease. I understand there have been rashes at the site of the vaccination.  Can anyone describe these?

What is most peculiar when you look at the intersection of these syndromes and what our federal government is doing about these --- you can say NOTHING!  In fact, the CDC is working to dismantle the entire infrastructure in place to deal with the treatment of Lyme disease. This centers around David Dennis, MD at the CDC --- in the Vector Borne Diseases Branch at Fort Collins, CO.  Physicians who go against the CDC version of Lyme disease (i.e., doesn’t exist, doesn’t cause chronic infection, what’s the big deal?) find themselves prosecuted by state medical boards. One physician in New York recently lost his license, and two more heads are being readied for the chopping block.

It’s to the point that Lyme patients are demonstrating in the streets whenever Allen Steere, MD appears in public. There was a demonstration of approximately 300 patients and physicians in Manhattan approximately one month ago.

When I requested copies of documents related to the prosecution of one physician in Michigan, I received back a copy of a fax sheet containing a note addressed to David Dennis, MD at the CDC. Why was Dr. Dennis involved in this physician prosecution? It has appeared to many that the CDC is behind these prosecutions. Why??? Patients are becoming very frightened and desperate for the fact that they will not have doctors to treat them.

I know for example, that public health officials in Missouri and Texas have fought quite foraciously with Dr. Dennis over his refusual to acknowledge the disease in these states. What is also curious is that these two new outbreaks appear to look somewhat different than that in the northeast. New diseases are very unusual. This whole scenario should raise a lot of questions about what is going on here.

The CDC has also promulgated laboratory test guidelines that makes it virtually impossible for anyone to come up with a positive test. Based on some calculations I did from some old data that had been published, it also looks like women may produce significant less antibody to this organism than men, which would also make it even more difficult for females to be able to meet the laboratory criteria for the diagnosis.

Personally, if I were running the show, I believe borreliosis should be in any good differential diagnosis of this symptom spectrum and that it should be aggressively ruled out. By “aggressively” ruled out --- I mean jumping directly to IgG and IgM western blots, PCRs, the LUAT, and also considering the use of antibiotic challenge tests. It appears that in chronic infection with this organism, there is some immunosuppresion, so antibody levels drop over time, making it virtually undetectable with the standard antibody tests.  The antibiotics seem to boost antibody levels, likely by killing the organism and having it “re-presented” to the immune system. It seems to live in the body almost like a parasite—living inside cells, hiding. The antibiotics seem to flush it out enough to stimulate more of an immune response. This is also a technique used in Europe to deal with seronegative syphilis.

So, there’s lots of problems with the laboratory tests for Lyme disease and the CDC seems to like it that way. That’s the other weird thing about the CDC. I know another researcher who cannot get the serological panels from Dave Dennis, MD to run his new test against. There are no good tests for Lyme disease and the CDC knows it. Yet they are blocking new and different tests from coming on to the market. What is going on here?

Again, I think Borrelia has huge significance for GWS, for the post-anthrax vaccine syndrome, and for chronic fatigue syndrome. Also, every patient I have ever worked up for Lyme disease who has come into my office with “chronic fatigue syndrome” has turned out to have Lyme disease. They also have had the typical Jarisch-Herxheimer’s reactions you see with borreliosis.

Oh—another thing I should mention, if anyone has the experience of worsening symptoms while taking antibiotics or after drinking alcoholic beverages --  that can be a big tip off. Essentially what occurs is that the antibiotic or the alcohol can kill of the organism—causing release of substances in the blood stream that make you feel sick. These are called Jarish-Herxheimer reactions. Heat can also produce the same symptoms because the organism can be very sensitive to heat.

It is most peculiar that the public health officials at the level of the federal government are working to cover-up ALL of these syndromes. The thing is that if borreliosis is not treated, given that it is so similar to the organism that causes syphilis, it can progress into other very serious manifestations --- just as heart disease, brain damage, dementia—very similar to what has been seen with late stage syphilis when it goes untreated. This is like a big Tuskegee experiment. Keep in mind that Tuskegee was brought to us by those great folks at the CDC. The organizational culture there is not one that could be described as sensitive to issues related to human experimentation.

Best to you all,

Lynn Shepler, MD, JD