TRANSMISSION OF LYME DISEASE
Can Lyme disease be sexually transmitted?
By: Lauren Heffernan
A common belief held by many medical professionals and the general population about the transmission of Lyme disease is that Lyme disease is a vector-borne disease spread only by the bite of a tick. As a medical microbiologist, nurse, and MA Lyme disease educator, I believe this notion is inaccurate, as it is not fully supported in the current medical literature. In this series addressing Lyme disease and sexual transmission, several hypotheses about additional ways Lyme disease may be transmitted will be discussed.
As a medical microbiologist, I can confirm that Borrelia burgdorferi and other species of Borrelia are spirochetes or spiral-shaped organisms that can cause Lyme disease. Treponema pallidum, the organism that causes syphilis is also a spirochete, and syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease, as documented in the medical literature. So why do we question and refute the idea that other spirochetes, like Borrelia, can’t be transmitted sexually? This subject has recently garnered a lot of attention provoking scientists to further explore the possibility of Lyme disease transmission via intimate human contact.
In the article entitled, Sexual Transmission of Lyme disease: Challenging the Tickborne Disease Paradigm, researchers Stricker RB and Middelveen MJ, discuss the plausibility of Lyme disease transmission being only vector-borne. Based upon statistical analysis of the number of Lyme disease cases per 100,000 of those individuals who had known confirmed tick bites, Sticker and Middelveen concluded that it would take 15 million tick bites per year to achieve the CDC’s estimated rate of 300,000 Lyme disease cases in the USA. Thinking about the probability of 15 million people acquiring a tick bite each year makes it conceivable that there are alternative ways Lyme disease can be spread in addition to a tick bite.
In addition to the above article, a study entitled, Culture and Identification of Borrelia Spirochetes in Human Vaginal and Seminal Secretions by Middelveen, MJ et.al, supports the possibility that Lyme disease may also be sexually transmitted by showing that viable Borrelia spirochetes (the organism that causes Lyme disease) can be cultured from genital secretions of Lyme disease patients. Remarkably, this study is not the first of its kind to question whether or not Lyme disease can be sexually transmitted.
The hypothesis that Lyme infection is transmitted via additional ways other than a tick-bite has been a controversial area of study among scientists for decades. There are two opposing Lyme groups who continue this controversial debate. These two diverse Lyme camps include ILADS (The International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society) and the IDSA (The Infectious Diseases Society of America). The viewpoints of the ILADS’s scientists consists of the following: (1) Lyme disease is difficult to detect due to the limitations of the lab tests and the organisms ability to evade the immune system, (2) the organisms are difficult to destroy because of their ability to dodge the host’s immune system and because of their ability to protect itself against the perils of antibiotic therapy by producing a powerful biofilm or protective shield, (3) LD can become a devastating chronic disease if not caught in its early stages and treated appropriately, and (4) Lyme disease can be transmitted by other avenues other than vectors, which are insects or ticks that transmit a disease or parasite.
Conversely, the IDSA community believe that (1) Lyme disease is easily detected by lab testing, (2) Lyme disease can be treated and eradicated with short courses of antibiotics, (3) chronic Lyme disease is extremely rare or does not exist, and (4) Lyme disease is only transmitted by tick bites. Unfortunately, this ongoing controversial debate and opposing viewpoints between these two Lyme groups have caused much confusion in the medical profession and it has caused an injustice to patients suffering from Lyme disease because it has inhibited new diagnostic testing and proper treatment protocols for patients suffering with Lyme disease.
In conclusion, there is evidence in support of the sexual transmission of Lyme disease via other means than a tick bite. For example, Stricker and Middelveen’s statistical data regarding how many patients would need to be bitten by an infected tick to cause the annual number of Lyme disease cases, and Middelveen et.al, study evidencing that Borrelia burgdorferi has been cultured from genital fluids of infected hosts, and lastly that syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease, and Lyme disease are both caused by a spirochete.
It is unfortunate that research addressing Lyme disease and sexual transmission is limited. More research is needed in order to better uncover the causes of Lyme disease and to better understand the possible modes of transmission. More research will not only provide insight into the causes of the disease but it will also help individuals suffering with Lyme disease live happier, healthier lives (The Sexual Transmission of Lyme Disease, 2016).
Citations
- Raphael B Stricker & Marianne J Middelveen(2015)Sexual transmission of Lyme disease: challenging the tickborne disease paradigm, Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 13:11, 1303-1306, DOI: 10.1586/14787210.2015.1081056
- Middelveen, M. J., Burke, J., Sapi, E., Bandoski, C., Filush, K. R., Wang, Y., Franco, A., Timmaraju, A., Schlinger, H. A., Mayne, P. J., … Stricker, R. B. (2015). Culture and identification of Borreliaspirochetes in human vaginal and seminal secretions. F1000Research, 3, 309. doi:10.12688/f1000research.5778.3
- The Sexual Transmission of Lyme Disease, (2016), Retrieved from http://www.lymediseasebook.com/sexual-transmission-lyme-disease
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