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Dr. Burgdorfer Identified Lyme Cause, Dies

Dr. Willy Burgdorfer, PhD, zoologist and microbiologist, Scientist Emeritus, NIH’s Rocky Mountain Labs, Montana died November 17, 2014, according to an early report from LymeDisease.org. Dr. Burgdorfer determined that there were spirochetes in Ixodes ticks, and then he received serum from recovering Lyme patients and found antibodies in the serum that reacted to the spirochetes. He then grew spirochetes in a test tube using tissue from the infected ticks. Thus according to NIH, in late 1981, he found the cause of Lyme disease, published the research in Science in 1982, and for his role, the spirochete causing the disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, was named after him. 2014 Burgdorfer Smith Laking 1999Will Burgdorfer, PHD, NIH Rocky Mountain Labs, LDA President Pat Smith, & LDA 2nd Vice President Corey Lakin at the LDA’s first annual “Lyme Disease and Other Spirochetal and Tick-Borne Diseases” conference at Bard College in New York, 1999

Dr. Burgdorfer was the keynote speaker at the LDA’s first CME conference presented at Bard College in New York in 1999, his talk entitled “The Complexity of Vector-Borne Spirochetes: Historical Analysis.”

One of the statements he made at Bard was about tick attachment time related to infection with Lyme disease, and that infection with Bb could take place in a much shorter time period than was being propagated by government officials and some researchers then and even now. In his Acta publication and similarly at the conference, he said, “thus the migration of spirochetes from the midgut into the salivary glands during early feeding, as has been postulated for Bb s.s. in Ixodes scapularis, is no longer a prerequisite for early transmission via saliva.”

Said LDA President Pat Smith, “Tens of thousands of Lyme patients across the world have valued his body of work and his willingness to have devoted so much of his life to research such a complex and menacing organism and to persevere in such a politically volatile environment. His scientific contributions are difficult to quantify. The human life value of his contributions over a lifetime are immeasurable. The LDA sends condolences and support to his family and friends who will miss him very much. Lyme patients, advocates, researchers, and physicians who have the utmost respect for his honesty, integrity, and dedication will greatly feel his loss.”

Read New York Times article on Dr. Burgdorfer

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/health/willy-burgdorfer-who-found-bacteria-that-cause-lyme-disease-is-dead-at-89.html?_r=1

Watch an excerpt of Open Eye Pictures’ interview with Dr. Burgdorfer, discussing the controversy surrounding Lyme disease