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Lyme disease, spread by infected ticks, is the fastest
growing infectious illness in the U.S. after AIDS. Some
attribute its sudden appearance and spread to ecological
factors.
First documented in the U.S. in Lyme, Conn. about 30 years
ago, Lyme is caused by a bacterium that has now been found
in ticks in every state except Montana.
50 percent of Lyme victims are children and teenagers.
Much of what the public, including most doctors, believe
about Lyme disease is out-dated and based on flawed research.
The result of spreading misinformation about Lyme disease
is devastating, since early treatment is mandatory to avoid
serious illness later.
If Lyme disease is not adequately treated with antibiotics,
immediately after infection, it can become chronic, permanently
disabling and fatal. There are no reliable statistics on
how often this happens. Some say rarely, some say all the
time.
Persons treated in Humboldt County in the 1970s or 1980s
are very likely to have gotten an insufficient dose or a
dose of the wrong antibiotic. Early Lyme is currently treated
with a two to four week course of an oral antibiotic other
than erethromycin.
There is currently no federally-accepted test that can
by itself rule out or rule in Lyme disease. The most commonly
used tests are up to 40 percent unreliable. There are test-positive
individuals with no symptoms and symptomatic individuals
with no positive test results.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will not include
symptomatic patients with negative tests, in either its
research or its incidence figures, yet it advises doctors
to diagnose on the basis of symptoms because the commonly
used tests are unreliable.
According to some Lyme doctors, 30 to 50 percent of patients
diagnosed with Lyme are not counted by public health agencies
because they follow the CDC reporting procedures requiring
a positive test.
Inadequate early treatment with antibiotics may cause
the patient to test negatively forever. The longer the infection,
the less reliable the test.
Chronic Lyme symptoms can appear for the first time years
after infection, in untreated patients, inadequately treated
patients or patients pronounced cured after treatment thought
to be adequate.
The so-called “bulls-eye” rash is 15 years out of date
as a reliable diagnostic sign:
The rash is present in less than half of LD cases.
It may be present but not noticed because of its location
on the body. It is hard to see on dark skin.
It is not usually itchy or painful.
It is not always circular, but sometimes triangular, blotchy
or streaked.
It is not always large, goes from 2 inches to covering the
entire back.
There may be one patch or many.
It may appear 1 day to months after the tick bite, or within
hours if the person already has Lyme from an earlier bite.
Individuals vary widely in their presentation of symptoms
and in the course of the illness. Although there is a “classic”
pattern, there is no universal sequence of recognizable
events.
The percentage of individual deer ticks actually hosting
Lyme bacteria varies widely nationwide, from less than1%
to 90%, depending on location. A recent study in Mendocino
County found the incidence to be 14%. It is not known whether
microenvironments are a factor.
California has 48 species of tick. Only one is known to
carry Lyme, the western black-legged “deer” tick (Ixodes
pacificus). Some experts also suspect Ixodes neotamae, the
wood rat tick, in the West. Both of these ticks can can
live on other species of animals, including birds and mice.
Studies have shown that up to 50% of Lyme patients with
positive test results do not remember a tick bite, a rash
or an unusual illness
Tick nymphs (babies) transmit the disease more than adults.
They are nearly invisible. Only the most sensitive people
can feel them.
They can attach in places hard to see--back, scalp, armpits,
pubic hair, naval, under breasts.
Experts disagree on how long the tick must be attached
to transmit the Lyme bacterium, estimates range from 4 to
72 hours. Time does not matter if the contents of the tick
entered the victim during removal or scratching while the
tick was attached.
LD signs and symptoms mimic many other diseases, not all
of those testable, either:
60 per cent of untreated patients will develop chronic
inflammatory arthritis.
66 percent of LD patients report major episodic depression,
90 % for the first time ever.
LD can trigger chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalagia,
rheumatic symptoms and congestive heart failure due to
inflammed blood vessals, among many other things.
LD can activate or reactivate latent viruses, esp. herpes
family viruses LD can cause high cholesteral and unfavorable
ldl/hdl ratio 80 percent of late stage patients experience
significant weight gain.
Deaths caused by LD are considered rare by those following
research skewed by the “positive test” requirement. There
are no fatality figures based on research that includes
patients with negative tests. In addition, Lyme can cause
death indirectly by triggering and exacerbating other conditions
and by masking their symptoms. (If you are always in pain,
you don’t explore every pain that happens.)
Compiled by Jentri Anders, PhD Humboldt
County Lyme Support Group 3883 Patricks Pt. Dr. Trinidad
CA 95570 jentri@tidepool.com mailed or emailed questions
will be answered.
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