The G8 countries have agreed to tackle the pandemic of dementia that is leading to a crisis in medical and social care costs, but in focusing international attention on vascular dementia, the opportunity may well have been lost to investigate dementias claimed to be caused by stealth pathogens.
In December 2013, the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Peter Piot asked world leaders to confront the looming pandemic of dementia with concerted action[1]
. At the G8 Summit conference on dementia held in March 2014, the world dementia envoy Dennis Gillings told delegates that pharmaceutical companies need to be given incentives to invest in research. I would suggest that it is important for G8 countries not only to fund the companies developing medicines for vascular dementia (around 25% of cases), but to stimulate research into stealth pathogens that potentially underlie the cause and transmission of other forms of dementia and debilitating illnesses.
In June 2014, Alan MacDonald visited London to give the inaugural lecture to the Spirochaete Alzheimer Association. More than 30 years ago, he found plaques in Alzheimer brain tissue comprising biofilms of the spirochaete Borrelia bergdorferi. These are organised bacterial colonies that can be detected in multisystem illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome, human borreliosis and Lyme Arthritis. This spirochaete is a “cell wall deficient” stealth pathogen, purposefully changing its form to evade detection and antibody formation.
Reporting on Lyme borreliosis for the Department of Health, Brian Duerden, inspector of microbiology and infection control, had criticised culture mediums, unorthodox tests and unlicensed laboratories as being unable to provide “valid” evidence of spirochaete involvement for those with a wide range of conditions[2]
. A more proactive view comes from Christian Perronne, a French microbiologist, who reviewed 63 papers on tick-borne diseases and recognised the need to inject investment into research, to address medical complacency and raise awareness of the legacy of chronic disease[3]
.
Lida Mattman, author of a reference book on stealth pathogens[4]
, believes that Borrelia is transmissible from human to human without an insect vector[5]
and, in 2012, Judith Miklossy pointed out the similarities between tertiary neuroborreliosis and tertiary neurosyphilis[6]
, so we need to know whether there are other forms of transmission contributing to the pace at which the dementia pandemic is spreading.
Noel Baumber
Whitby, North Yorkshire
References
[1] Saba Salman. Dementia is the next global pandemic, says Aids prevention pioneer. The Guardian. 11 December 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/11/dementia-next-global-pandemic-aids-peter-piot (accessed 15 September 2014)
[2] Duerden BI. Unorthodox and unvalidated laboratory tests in the diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis and in relation to medically unexplained symptoms. Department of Health, London, UK, 2006.
[3] Perronne C. Lyme and associated tick-borne diseases: global challenges in the context of a public health threat. Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology. 2014. doi:10.3389/fcimb.2014.000740 (accessed 15 September 2014)
[4] Mattman LH. Cell Wall Deficient Forms: Stealth Pathogens. Third edition. Florida: CRC Press LLC, 2001.
[5] Howenstine J. Curing Lyme Disease with Samento. http://www.newswithviews.com/Howenstine/james26.htm (accessed 15 September 2014)
[6] J Miklossy. Chronic or late lyme neuroborreliosis: analysis of evidence compared to chronic or late neurosyphilis. Open Neurol J 2012;6:146-157. doi: 10.2174/1874205X01206010146 (accessed 15 September 2014)
