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December 27, 2000

Other Illnesses

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Question from Johnstown, Colorado, USA:

Is it possible to link Lyme disease to diabetes?

Answer:

From: DTeam Staff

The short answer is no! Yet there is a rather tortuous connection.

A few years ago, a microbiologist in Sweden showed that in a group of about 500 patients with diabetes, type not specified, there was an unusually high incidence of false positive tests for syphilis using the Fluorescent Treponemal Antibody Absorption test. This was ascribed to some quirk of autoimmunity, and no specific explanation was offered, except that about a quarter of those with false positive tests also tested positive for Borrelia burgdorferi which causes Lyme disease.

DOB