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2014 Volume 26 Number 1
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Polly Murray
When artist Polly Murray and her
family became sick back in the early 1970s,
there was no name for the multifaceted
illness that afflicted her and many of her
neighbors. In 1975, after years of being
misdiagnosed, misunderstood, and dis-
missed by doctors, she was finally able
to persuade the public health authorities
to check out the situation in her town of
Lyme, Connecticut. They sent Allen Steere,
MD, then at Yale University, to investigate.
With Steere's work, a description of a new
tick-borne infection he called “Lyme ar-
thritis” began to emerge. The causative or-
ganismwas discovered 1982 by Willy Burg-
dorfer, PhD, a scientist with the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), after which the
bacterium is named.
LymeDisease.org President Phyllis Mervine
(L) and Executive Director Lorraine Johnson
(R) present Lyme spirochete discoverer Willy
Burgdorfer their 2008 Community Service
Award for “leadership and dedication to
reducing human suffering from Lyme disease
through research, discovery, and compassion.”
Lyme, CT, housewife Polly Murray, shown
here at a Lyme conference, wrote a book
about her experiences that lead to the
discovery of Lyme disease.
Ken Leigner photo.
Willy Burgdorfer,
MD, PhD
By Phyllis Mervine
When
LymeDisease.org
gave Willy Burg-
dorfer a Community Service Award in
2008, we wanted to recognize his leadership
and research. We knew the wily spirochete
might have remained undetected much
longer if not for the unique skills and ex-
perience Willy brought to the task. We also
wanted to appreciate his compassion. He
has been known to talk with patients who
call his listed Montana phone number at
wee hours of the night.
Willy was thrilled when we invited him
to San Francisco to take part in our Lyme
Action Program. ILADS also stepped up
to the plate, shared expenses with us, and
honored Willy with a special video and
ceremony. Willy later told me it was the
highlight of his career.
In 1993 the editors of Clinics in Derma-
tology asked him to write an article about
his 1981 discovery. He decided the story
should “reflect my education, training, and
research interest that provided the back-
ground needed for a discovery variously de-
scribed as ‘a scientific breakthrough,’ ‘seren-
dipity,’ or even ‘an accident.’”
In 1946, Willy was a graduate student
in Switzerland when his professor handed
him a “glass dish filled with light brown
soil from an incubator.” The sand con-
tained ticks from the Congo infected with
The Pioneers
Our Pioneers
More than twenty-five years have passed
since Polly Murray reported the Lyme ep-
idemic and Willy Burgdorfer discovered
the Lyme spirochete. All these pioneers
entered uncharted territory and opened
the way for many more to follow. They had
to be enterprising, courageous, persistent,
curious and open-minded. Lyme disease
fascinated and challenged them. They
brought their clinical acumen and sci-
entific training to bear and refused to give
up. They all cared deeply about patients.
We owe them our respect and thanks.
Eventually, Polly Murray came forward
to tell the world about the spirochetal
illness that was discovered thanks to her
powers of observation, intelligence, and
persistence. St. Martin’s Press published
her book in 1996: The Widening Circle: A
Lyme Disease Pioneer Tells Her Story.
For many suffering from Lyme disease,
The Widening Circle offered hope. With
new viruses and diseases arising every day,
Murray's story remains an example of how
one person can influence the medical com-
munity - to force them to pay attention. In
the end, Polly made a huge difference to the
developing story of Lyme disease.
relapsing fever spirochetes. “Over the next
three years, I dissected thousands of tick,”
Willy wrote. He figured out the complex life
and transmission cycle of the African spi-
rochetes.
His professor also required his doctoral
candidates to have a thorough knowledge
of the “voluminous” literature on relapsing
fevers, thus Willy learned of the “speculative
claim” by European dermatologists that a
type of rash was caused by a spirochete as-
sociated with a tick. In 1949 he also heard
a speech by Hellerstrom reporting that the
rash could be successfully treated with pen-
icillin. No one at the time really believed
that spirochetes were involved.
Fast forward to 1981. Willy, looking for
Rocky Mountain spotted fever
rickettsiae
with his NY colleague Jorge Benach, dis-
sected several hundred Dermacentor ticks
from Long Island, NY. Not finding any
rickettsiae, they decided to check another
species of tick,
Ixodes scapularis
. Benach
provided 44 more ticks. Again, there were
no
rickettsiae
, but in two ticks Willy noticed
“poorly stained, rather long, irregularly
coiled spirochetes.” In a 2007 interview
with
Under Our Skin
director Andy Wilson,
Willy describes the moment of discovery.
I remember that time quite well…. But
it was not an “Aha” [moment]. It was a
“What in the hell? What’s in that smear?”
And then my work [on relapsing fever]
Continued on page 18