A Lyme Disease Warning From The CDC
Number Of Reported Cases Of Disease Are Rising Steadily, Warns Centers For Disease Control
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Lyme Disease On The Rise
The Centers for Disease Control recently said that the number of reported cases of Lyme disease has made a dramatic jump. Randall Pinkston has more on the painful infection.
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Lyme Disease
Does every tick bite mean you're infected? Find out more by taking this quiz.
"It gave me this terrible insomnia," said Lyons.
Lyme disease is carried by tiny deer ticks. It often goes undetected for years and can be difficult to diagnose.
"I went to, I would say, over 20 doctors, complaining about these symptoms and nobody had a good diagnosis and nobody tested me for Lyme disease until a doctor finally did it in 2003," said Lyons.
And Lyme disease is on the rise, according to the Centers for Disease Control. From over 9,400 cases a year in 1991, the annual reported cases more than doubled to 23,000 by 2005, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston.
Which begs the question: Is more Lyme disease being spread or are people reporting more cases?
"Well, I think both are true — the public is definitely more knowledgeable about Lyme disease today than they were in 1991," said Dr. Brian Fallon of the Columbia University Medical Center.
Lyme disease is a bacteria named for the Connecticut town where it was first discovered three decades ago. But it's spread far from there by the ticks, which are carried by deer, mice and even birds.
Lyme disease is concentrated in 10 states, mostly in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes.
Typically, the first symptom is a red bull's eye rash. But sometimes there are no apparent symptoms. If it's not treated early, it can progress into a debilitating condition, as it did with Alita Lyons until she got heavy doses of antibiotics.
"We switched around antibiotics and found one that's really starting to make me feel better," Lyons said recently.
While public awareness is up, the Centers for Disease Control believes Lyme disease is still underreported by more than 200,000 cases a year. Experts want the federal government to provide at least $100 million for research.
Visit www.lymediseaseassociation.org for more information about Lyme disease.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Lyme disease costs our nation up to an estimated $2 billion a year and will only rise as more people are disabled by it. Even though Lyme is concentrated in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes, there are cases reported in every state except Hawaii and Montana.
As you mentioned, $100 million is being requested for research to come up with better tests and treatment of Lyme disease. Federal Bill H.R. 741 (Chris Smith/Bart Stupak)"The Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Prevention, Education, and Research Act of 2007,%u201D is currently on the table. I urge everyone to contact their state representatives to co-sponsor/vote on this bill to prevent Lyme disease from becoming the public health burden it is now.
Again, THANK YOU CBS and Mr. Pinkston!
I now suffer from lyme disease since the year 2000. It took over two years to be diagnosed properly. Having taken five lyme tests that where all negative for those years... I think this disease requires more attention.
Please continue to focus on this disease. I believe that it is an emerging epidemic.
Kindly,
Julia S
Basking Ridge, NJ
Here in Sonoma County, when I was first bitten in my backyard in 1991, there was no information available in the library, online or in my doctor's office. Now, great sites such as lymenet.org, ILADS and CALDA websites and libraries can provide valuable clues to the possibility of a tick borne illness.
However, it is news to the general public, such as your coverage, that alerts people to the possibility of lyme disease. Education, of the medical profession and the general public is so important in preventing permanent damage and even death from lyme disease. After six years of being diagnosed with many strange illnesses I had never had before, my doctor finally gave in to the Western Blot positive test, and said "Surprise, you really do have lyme disease."
So now, my hope is for no one else to go through such a frustrating search for answers, all the while, losing the ability to live the life one previously enjoyed.
Ann Krakauer
Healdsburg, CA
It will help in stopping others
from going thru what I have --Jay--
Dont just treat the symptoms treat the disease!!
Teresa from Missouri
Had the doctor in 1993 not laughed at us and done the tests for Lyme, my husband would probably not be on disability today. Due to his autoimmune disorder, bleeding in his lungs, heart troubles, and neurological problems (including cognitive issues) all caused by Lyme, my husband is no longer an active man. Friends and family mow our lawn, shovel our snow, maintain our home.
I am glad to see that there is more awareness now of Lyme Disease and that doctors are more apt to order the tests and begin treatment.
Please, keep this issue in the public eye as much as possible so that more people can get the treatment they need instead of being ignored as my husband was.
Posted by Consciousnes at 09:29 AM : Jun 18, 2007"
Thank you, Consciousnes, for proving that there truly is such a thing as a stupid question.
By your "logic", no disease would ever get funding for treatment except by those who created it. Therefore, we would still have poliom, rampant smallpox, mumps, measles and so forth killing people. We wouldn't try to find a cure for cancer, AIDS, or indeed anything.
Were you dropped on your head as a child?
Posted by Consciousnes at 09:29 AM : Jun 18, 2007
Are you so sure? Read the article in the latest Yankee Magazine. You may find the government may have created the disease and chose ticks as the vector. The ticks were then spread from the isolated island to the nearby New England mainland by birds.
Just sayin'
Posted by bustardo at 10:51 AM : Jun 18, 2007
I guess that the Gvmnt created Smallpox to give the indians (and, Yes I know about the blankets that were handed out), and Bubonic Plague to give the Europeans, I am also sure that polio was created just to make F.D.Rs. life hard.
Nobody seems to think that 'Mother Nature' herself might be doing any of this. I'll bet the old Gal is sitting back saying "Suck it up, Lifes hard and then you die"
We can blame the government, doctors or whoever, but sometimes we have be be aware of our surroundings and the dangers they carry. Sometimes we have to accept responsibility.
It is not only a difficult disease to diagnose, but hard to find a doctor, then its hard to stay on treatment...which for those of us with chronic infectins turns into a job and takes a huge commitment, for some of us until a cure is found. The huge problem of course is the main-stream Ivy League educated md's whose education is limited to Klempner et al studies, which we know are faulty. Yet their jobs depend on denying the disease and they block our progress at each step.
The tests resulting from this batch of "research" are misleading at best, yet every year like clockwork, the JAMA and esp the NEJAMA come out with their latest statements, which resemble their past statements...short course of treatment. After that, doctors are actually coaxed as to what to say...a myriad of excuses to help move us along out of their offices.
Both my daughter and I have had hospital stays, denied treatment while there, and in my daughter's case was told by the entire staff told she did not have "Lyme's" but was "crazy."
the governement is US, we the people. Our tax dollars go for just such things to the CDC and NIH etc, to help find cures. Whether or not our government helped create this disease, they have a duty to us (as they are us) to help.
Not deny. I think the question is really, why such denial. In the face of the facts, the denial follows the Agent Orange fiasco, The Tuskeegee Experiment,and a long list of other government sponsored diseases..not to mention what we are doing to our men and women fighting the current war for us.
The good news is that if you find the right doctor to treat Lymes, you can fully recover. Unfortunately, not many doctors are being educated in this way. They continue to be educated by the drug companies, which only masks symptoms, but doesn't truly heal the body.
My daughter was bitten by a tick in 1996, did not get a Bullseye, had only borderline ELSIAs and we were told that her ensuing illnesses were everything from Fibromyalgia, to "chronic mononucleosis" to depression. FInally, she was given a Western Blot which came out positive and is being treated. Wish her pediatrician had treated her prophylactically back then, rahter than counting on the ELISA, which we know now porobably would not be positive yet at the time she had it...
The sufferers are many, championed by only a few. This is real news, worthy of real coverage with compassion and truth. It's not just about aches and pains - it's so much worse than that. This disease will eventually affect many more people than you could ever imagine. Someone with an available platform needs to help raise awareness and bring the attention to this life-altering disease that it deserves. Until then, it unfortunately will be left to the handful of dedicated medical practitioners and Lyme advocates and sufferers to fight this uphill battle against misinformation, misconception and medical misalignment.
Please do another story soon. It will be the most important reporting you will have ever done. Many personal accounts and researched facts will fall into your lap if you would just care enough to ask.
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by webdudey
May 30, 2009 3:22 PM PDT
- The CDC reports about 10% of cases. So you can imagine how serious the problem is. Even though there is so much doom and gloom about it, there are inspiring true stories about it like this one here: http://www.beatlymedisease.com from an athlete with Chronic Lyme making a comeback. Great job CBS for covering the story on Lyme Disease.
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