Individuals exposed to fleas and ticks are at risk of polymicrobial infections, which can lead to complex multi-system disease. It is difficult and expensive to confirm which infections are present with currently available laboratory testing, so healthcare providers often must clinically diagnose patients based on symptoms and exposure risk. A new direct detection method, the [...]
Going beyond the “one pathogen one disease” model
The outcomes of infectious disease used to be assumed to follow the “one pathogen one disease model.” However, this model has been shown to be quite outdated. Increasingly, medical experts recognize the importance of polymicrobial infection for the infected individual. For example, COVID-19 patients with coinfections are more likely to develop severe disease and die. [...]
Communities Come Together for One Health Day 2021
This week we celebrated global One Health Day together with Louisiana One Health in Action (LOHA), an organization founded by Amy LeBoeuf after her son was diagnosed with bartonellosis after getting a tiny scratch from their cat. People and their families who have been affected by flea- and tick-borne pathogens are at the forefront of [...]
Galaxy’s New Brochure for Lyme Borreliosis
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Galaxy Diagnostics’ research and development team has remained dedicated to advancing diagnostics for flea- and tick-borne diseases. In this new brochure, we discuss Lyme borreliosis and the advantages of our revolutionary Nanotrap® test that was launched last year. Lyme borreliosis is a tick-borne disease that causes both acute and chronic symptoms [...]
Bartonellosis and the Spleen
The spleen, what is it? The subject of jokes and silly songs, and at the same time unpredictable. It can very rarely rupture without warning and even more rarely without an identifiable cause. Some researchers suggest that the number of times there is not an identifiable cause is probably overstated because the cause is identifiable [...]
Three Important Considerations for Bartonella IFA Serology Testing
Immunofluorescence assay (IFA) is an established serology test method used in both research and clinical settings to confirm exposure to a pathogen. Although it is a useful tool for supporting diagnosis of many infectious diseases, choosing the appropriate testing and interpreting results for a suspected chronic bartonellosis case is often more complex than the average [...]