Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.mpbn.net/News/MaineNews/tabid/181/ctl/ViewItem/mid/1858/ItemId/11257/Default.aspx
Lyme Disease Cases in Maine on the Increase
July 8, 2009 Reported By: Tom Porter
There's been a notable increase in the number of Mainers being infected with Lyme disease. According to the Maine Centers for Disease Control, there were more than 900 confirmed and probable cases of the tick-borne illness in humans last year - that's an increase of 72 percent.
And that comes on the back of a 57% increase in 2007. The disease is most common in southern and coastal Maine, but it is gradually moving up the state. Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria that is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected deer tick, also known as black-legged tick. The disease often causes symptoms such as joint pain and fatigue.
But for some, it's much more serious. "July 17th, 2007 was the last date she was normal," says Debbie Casterlin of Brunswick. Casterlin describes what happened to her daughter Katonya, a normal healthy teenager until two years ago.
"July 18th she had vertigo, July 21st she had fevers, and then ear infection and then it went into 105.4 fevers and meningitis type of symptoms, and she lost the use of the left side of her body, swelling on the right side, and ever since then it's been a nightmare," Casterlin says.
As Katonya's condition worsened, doctors were unable to diagnose what was wrong with her. At one point, Katonya says, she was told she was probably suffering from a psychiatric condition called 'conversion disorder.' Her family, though, was convinced it was something more.
Among the ordeals she endured: "Emergency surgery because my tonsils swelled up, so I had three weeks left to live, and I'd be lucky if I could make it through the week that they told me, because they were like, it's too severe."
Sometimes having two or three seizures a day, Katonya has visited the ER nearly 40 times. Eventually, 20 months after she fell ill, she was diagnosed with a variety of tick-borne diseases.
"It's not just Lyme disease, I have all the tick diseases, so I have bartonella, Babesia, Lyme disease, and they're all from that deer tick. It's in my heart, it's in my brain. So, it's life-threatening," Katonya says.
The diagnosis came only after Debbie, who also has Lyme disease, decided to send her daughter's bloodwork to an out-of-state lab that specializes in identifying Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. Katonya now takes 12 pills a day, including heavy-duty antibiotics, and is making gradual progress as she tries to catch up with missed schoolwork.
Two months ago, Katonya says, she had her first full 12 hours of energy in nearly two years.
The Casterlins, says Debbie, are a high risk family for two reasons: Firstly, because they live in Cumberland County, which along with York County, sees the most cases of Lyme disease in Maine; and secondly, because they spend a lot of time outside on their 40-acre farm where they operate a family orchard and landscaping business.
"We really don't want to move. We love Maine. We just know that our choices to be outside people, farming and landscaping, means we're always going to have to keep a full-length mirror in our bathroom and be like the primates and chimpanzees and pick each other for ticks."
"Generally what you find is there'll be groups of patients and families of patients that might disagree with some of the treatment decisions that have been made, or what the standard guidelines have been for treatment," says Gordon Smith, Director of the Maine Medical Association.
Smith admits there's growing controversy within the state over how to recognize and treat Lyme disease. It's a point echoed by Dr. Bea Szantyr, a Lincoln-based physician who specializes in educating people about Lyme disease.
Diagnosis, she says, is a big problem for many doctors, as the obvious symptoms are often not there. "When we're fortunate and people show up and tell us that they've had a tick, and then they get the rash and the rash is an expanding red rash at the site of the bite, that's an easy diagnosis. The problem is, most people don't remember a tick attachment and not everyone gets a rash."
She believes the number of people affected by Lyme disease in Maine could be as high as 10,000.
With all this in mind, I met up with researcher Susan Elias from the Maine Medical Center's Vector-Borne Disease Lab to carry out a tick drag in woodland near Cape Elizabeth. The aim is to collect tick samples for analysis. The technique involves dragging big white corduroy flags along the ground, and up against bushes.
After a few minutes - success - as a creature the size of a freckle shows up on the flag. "So there's a deer tick, you see the size of that. It's a female deertick. What you've got - she's heading for my thumb there -- she's responding to my carbon dioxide, and she's like 'aha, host.'"
A couple of minutes later an even smaller insect is captured - this is a deertick nymph, which is a younger, smaller and therefore more dangerous version of the adult black-legged tick.
Elias says they're particularly prevalent this time of year, as they comb wooded areas looking for a host to sink its teeth into.
"This is the time of year where people want to be really, really careful because the nymphs are tiny, they're about the size of a poppy seed. So when you do your deer tick check you have to be aware that it's going to be very tiny. You want to get to know your moles and so forth. If it has legs and it moves, it could be a deer-tick nymph."
Elias says between 50 and 70 percent of ticks collected are testing positive for Lyme disease, meaning they've already fed on a deer or other animal where they have picked up the bacteria that carries the disease, and they're now ready to pass it on to humans.
For more information about Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses visit the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control at cdc.gov.
Lyme Disease Cases in Maine on the Increase
July 8, 2009 Reported By: Tom Porter
There's been a notable increase in the number of Mainers being infected with Lyme disease. According to the Maine Centers for Disease Control, there were more than 900 confirmed and probable cases of the tick-borne illness in humans last year - that's an increase of 72 percent.
And that comes on the back of a 57% increase in 2007. The disease is most common in southern and coastal Maine, but it is gradually moving up the state. Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria that is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected deer tick, also known as black-legged tick. The disease often causes symptoms such as joint pain and fatigue.
But for some, it's much more serious. "July 17th, 2007 was the last date she was normal," says Debbie Casterlin of Brunswick. Casterlin describes what happened to her daughter Katonya, a normal healthy teenager until two years ago.
"July 18th she had vertigo, July 21st she had fevers, and then ear infection and then it went into 105.4 fevers and meningitis type of symptoms, and she lost the use of the left side of her body, swelling on the right side, and ever since then it's been a nightmare," Casterlin says.
As Katonya's condition worsened, doctors were unable to diagnose what was wrong with her. At one point, Katonya says, she was told she was probably suffering from a psychiatric condition called 'conversion disorder.' Her family, though, was convinced it was something more.
Among the ordeals she endured: "Emergency surgery because my tonsils swelled up, so I had three weeks left to live, and I'd be lucky if I could make it through the week that they told me, because they were like, it's too severe."
Sometimes having two or three seizures a day, Katonya has visited the ER nearly 40 times. Eventually, 20 months after she fell ill, she was diagnosed with a variety of tick-borne diseases.
"It's not just Lyme disease, I have all the tick diseases, so I have bartonella, Babesia, Lyme disease, and they're all from that deer tick. It's in my heart, it's in my brain. So, it's life-threatening," Katonya says.
The diagnosis came only after Debbie, who also has Lyme disease, decided to send her daughter's bloodwork to an out-of-state lab that specializes in identifying Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. Katonya now takes 12 pills a day, including heavy-duty antibiotics, and is making gradual progress as she tries to catch up with missed schoolwork.
Two months ago, Katonya says, she had her first full 12 hours of energy in nearly two years.
The Casterlins, says Debbie, are a high risk family for two reasons: Firstly, because they live in Cumberland County, which along with York County, sees the most cases of Lyme disease in Maine; and secondly, because they spend a lot of time outside on their 40-acre farm where they operate a family orchard and landscaping business.
"We really don't want to move. We love Maine. We just know that our choices to be outside people, farming and landscaping, means we're always going to have to keep a full-length mirror in our bathroom and be like the primates and chimpanzees and pick each other for ticks."
"Generally what you find is there'll be groups of patients and families of patients that might disagree with some of the treatment decisions that have been made, or what the standard guidelines have been for treatment," says Gordon Smith, Director of the Maine Medical Association.
Smith admits there's growing controversy within the state over how to recognize and treat Lyme disease. It's a point echoed by Dr. Bea Szantyr, a Lincoln-based physician who specializes in educating people about Lyme disease.
Diagnosis, she says, is a big problem for many doctors, as the obvious symptoms are often not there. "When we're fortunate and people show up and tell us that they've had a tick, and then they get the rash and the rash is an expanding red rash at the site of the bite, that's an easy diagnosis. The problem is, most people don't remember a tick attachment and not everyone gets a rash."
She believes the number of people affected by Lyme disease in Maine could be as high as 10,000.
With all this in mind, I met up with researcher Susan Elias from the Maine Medical Center's Vector-Borne Disease Lab to carry out a tick drag in woodland near Cape Elizabeth. The aim is to collect tick samples for analysis. The technique involves dragging big white corduroy flags along the ground, and up against bushes.
After a few minutes - success - as a creature the size of a freckle shows up on the flag. "So there's a deer tick, you see the size of that. It's a female deertick. What you've got - she's heading for my thumb there -- she's responding to my carbon dioxide, and she's like 'aha, host.'"
A couple of minutes later an even smaller insect is captured - this is a deertick nymph, which is a younger, smaller and therefore more dangerous version of the adult black-legged tick.
Elias says they're particularly prevalent this time of year, as they comb wooded areas looking for a host to sink its teeth into.
"This is the time of year where people want to be really, really careful because the nymphs are tiny, they're about the size of a poppy seed. So when you do your deer tick check you have to be aware that it's going to be very tiny. You want to get to know your moles and so forth. If it has legs and it moves, it could be a deer-tick nymph."
Elias says between 50 and 70 percent of ticks collected are testing positive for Lyme disease, meaning they've already fed on a deer or other animal where they have picked up the bacteria that carries the disease, and they're now ready to pass it on to humans.
For more information about Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses visit the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control at cdc.gov.