Different Lyme Strains in the Same Patients

If the Lab is Not Testing Exhaustive Strains You Get False Negatives
Different Antibiotics are Often Needed to Kill Multiple Strains

The aim of the present study was to analyze and compare [Lyme] Borrelia strains isolated from two different specimens obtained simultaneously from individual patients with Lyme borreliosis. Fifty such patients and 50 corresponding pairs of Borrelia isolates (100 low-propagated strains) were subjected to genotypic and phenotypic analysis ...

The strains were isolated from two distinct skin lesions (12 patients), skin and blood (28 patients), skin and cerebrospinal fluid (8 patients), and blood and cerebrospinal fluid (2 patients). Out of 100 isolates, 63 were typed as B. afzelii and 37 as B. garinii. From each individual specimen only a single Borrelia species was cultured. Comparison of 50 Borrelia strain pairs isolated from two different specimens of an individual patient revealed that 12/50 (24%) patients were simultaneously infected with two different Borrelia strains; in 3/50 (6%) patients strains differed at the species level, in 4 out of the remaining 47 (9%) patients a strain difference in plasmid profile was established, while 5 out of the remaining 43 (11%) patient strain pairs differed in regard to the protein profiles of the two concurrently isolated strains. The results of the present study indicate that human patients with Lyme borreliosis may simultaneously harbor different B. burgdorferi sensu lato strains.

[Italics, bolding and inserts--mine.]

Ruzic-Sabljic E, Arnez M, Logar M, Maraspin V, Lotric-Furlan S, Cimperman J, Strle F. Comparison of Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato Strains Isolated from Specimens Obtained Simultaneously from Two Different Sites of Infection in Individual Patients. Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 2005;43:2194-200. PMID: 15872241 [PubMed - in process]

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