From the Los Angeles Times, latimes.com:
Sunday, March 19, 2000
News from Westside, Pacific
Palisades, Malibu in the Times
Community Newspapers
Lyme disease on the rise?
Reporting of higher numbers of
infected ticks could be blessing in
disguise.
By LESLIE PARRILLA
MALIBU - Waking up wondering
what the "physical ailment of the day"
would be was Annie Konklin's reality.
Struck by a complicated palette of
symptoms including disorientation,
severe fatigue, nausea and insomnia,
local physicians sent Konklin home with
prescriptions to get more sleep, change
her lifestyle or stop being
psychosomatic.
"The unacknowledged suffering is
the worst thing I've suffered," said
Konklin. "People would say get your
act together."
Seventy Westside physicians later,
the Beverly Hills resident was
diagnosed with Lyme disease.
Several months later, Konklin's
daughter, Lillian, 13, was also
diagnosed with the disease.
Recently released results show that a
maximum of 4% of ticks collected in
Will Rogers State Park in Pacific
Palisades tested positive for Lyme
disease for the first time.
Another batch of ticks collected at
Charmlee Park in Malibu recently
showed a range of four to possibly as
high as 42 % testing positive for the
disease, according to the Los Angeles
County West Vector Control District.
Because of these findings, it can be
said that Lyme disease carrying ticks
have spread throughout the entire
Westside.
It is unknown exactly how many
ticks tested positive, because the district
tests ticks in pools. Therefore, a
maximum and minimum percentage are
given.
Lyme disease is transferred to
humans and animals when ticks burrow
themselves into the skin for blood
meals. To transmit the disease, ticks
need to be attached to the skin for at
least 24 hours.
In 60% of Lyme disease patients, a
bulls eye rash can be seen several days
to weeks after becoming infected.
Other common symptoms include
fatigue, flu-like symptomsand
headaches. This year's findings show an
increase from last year, when the county
found almost 2% of ticks collected in
the Santa Monica Mountains tested
positive for Lyme Disease.
The state average for the infectivity
rate has remained steady at 1 to 2% for
about the last 10 years, according to
Mark Miller, director of Communicable
Disease Control of Placer County
Health Department, who conducted the
testing.
But rates could be on the rise.
"When all the data is in, the
infectivity rate could be higher than 1 to
2% statewide," said Miller.
For Westsiders like Malibu resident
Barbara Barsocchini, founder of the
Lyme disease Resource Center of
California, the findings are good news.
Barsocchini believes that it's just a
matter of time before the
underrepresented statistics match the
high number of infected individuals in
the Westside, which stands at about 75,
including one in every Westside city.
"According to the Centers for
Disease Control, Lyme Disease is
underreported 10 times than it should
be," said Barsocchini, who was also
misdiagnosed for months by local
doctors. "We wish that there was more
public awareness. Back east they have
signs, newspaper articles, their
physicians are more aware of it."
According to the county, Lyme disease
and recent findings are not cause for a
huge thrust in public and physician
awareness, compared to East Coast
infectivity rates that are as high as 80%
in some areas. "We don't have a major
push on Lyme at this time. We're not
here to not educate people, but if there
were cases all the time we would push
to educate people," said Frank Hall,
director of the Vector Management
Program for Los Angeles County
Department of Health Services. "We
test ticks, that's all we can do."
But for every Lyme disease patient,
time is a key factor in combating the
disease. With less physician and public
awareness comes an increase in latent
diagnoses and misdiagnoses.
If the number of infectious rates
among ticks don't resemble the number
of infected patients, action by the
county on public and physician
awareness may be slow going.
"We don't have any ongoing
programs because [the county's] Acute
Communicable Diseases doesn't
consider Lyme disease a major illness in
Southern California," said Hall.
Lyme disease on the rise?
http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/santa_monica-malibu/20000319/tws0000776.html
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