Infectious Disease Warning

EIR April 24, 2009 April 2—The fastest growing infectious disease in the U.S.A. is a spirochetal bacterial infection, similar in symptomology to tertiary syphilis. Untreated it becomes a progressive, degenerative disease that attacks the muscles, joints, central nervous system, heart and other organs, and finally the brain. Infection is characterized by a wide variety of possible symptoms, including joint and muscle pain, fatigue, light sensitivity, mood disorders, inability to focus, memory loss, facial palsy, tremors, cardio-vascular complications, loss of control over limbs, seizures, and eventual cerebro-neural deterioration resembling the general paresis of late-stage syphilis. The causative agent is a spirocheteform bacteria, first identified in 1982 by the Swiss-born American microbiologist Willy Burgdorfer, and known as Borrelia burgdorferi. The spirochete is usually transmitted to humans by the bite of the black-legged deer tick. Juvenile cases often begin with fatigue, joint pain, mood disorders, memory loss, and difficulties in school, and progress to such symptoms as locomotion problems, seizures, loss of speech, and sometimes, death. School districts in highly infected areas have reported as high as 15% infection rates among children. Experts estimate the rate of new infection at 200,000 cases per year in the U.S.A. The greatest concentration