Lyme

Adele and Charles Sands cherish their daily hike in Oregon Ridge Park. But as the vegetation has grown more lush, the Timonium couple has become increasingly apprehensive about the ticks they find clinging to their dog, Samantha. Although the Australian shepherd has had shots to prevent Lyme disease for several years, the Sandses recently joined the first wave of humans to try vaccination as protection from the tick-borne illness.Adele Sands has already had a brush with the infection. About a year ago, she developed a circular rash that looked suspiciously like the classic bull's-eye rash of Lyme disease, a bacterial infection that can invade different systems of the body.

With some exceptions, any illness can strike anyone at any time. One of the more dangerous to emerge in recent decades is Lyme disease. Harford County, as many of us know either first-hand or because of someone we know, is not immune from the tick-borne disease. The revelation last week that Harford County Council President Billy Boniface has contracted the sickness is yet another reminder. Lyme disease is treatable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but it can also be debilitating.

Summer months bring the threat of Lyme disease, and along with it often comes hysteria. President Clinton even named the week of June 6 "Lyme Disease Awareness Week." In some instances, Lyme disease can be prolonged, painful and even life-threatening. There is a dispute, though, over the number of confirmed cases and whether physicians are relying on inaccurate tests for the disease.A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that only 23 percent of patients admitted to the New England Medical Center for Lyme disease were actually infected.

Hundreds of Baltimore-area families have volunteered for a government study to spray their suburban yards with pesticide, which researchers hope can protect them from Lyme disease but that environmentalists warn is unsafe. The goal, federal and state health officials say, is to find a new way to prevent the widespread illness, which is spread by tick bites and can cause fever, headaches and fatigue — and, if untreated, may even affect joints, nerves and the heart. Half of the 185 families who've signed up this year in Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties are having the edges of their yards sprayed with bifenthrin, a chemical pesticide commonly applied around homes to fight ticks, fleas and mosquitoes.

Although more than 30,000 people in the U.S. are infected with Lyme disease each year, Dr. Robert Edelman says most infections can be avoided or, if not, then treated. "Even [with] a tick that has been feeding on you for one day, your chance of getting Lyme disease is remote, because it takes two to three days of feeding to infect people," he says. "Besides, four out of five ticks are not infected." Some ticks are difficult to see. When I'm checking my body, what areas should I pay closest attention to?

A Johns Hopkins University scientist says he has identified the Lyme disease bacterium in two white-footed mice captured in Druid Hill Park.Dr. Brian S. Schwartz, a medical epidemiologist, told a gathering of entomologists in Baltimore yesterday that, while the findings are still preliminary, "we think that's the first time Lyme disease has been found in an inner-city park."The search for infected mammals in the park was prompted by a diagnosis of Lyme disease last year in an elephant keeper at the Baltimore Zoo, which is in the park.

A growing number of Lyme Disease victims whose often crippling symptoms don't disappear after conventional treatment are clamoring for long-term antibiotic treatment that the experts insist is probably a waste of money.There is no evidence in the medical literature that [long-term antibiotic therapy] is necessary, or that you get a better result" than with the standard two to four weeks of oral or IV antibiotics, said Dr. Allan C. Steere, chief of rheumatology and immunology at the New England Medical Center, in Boston.

Epidemiologists don't yet know what to make of the discovery of Lyme disease spirochetes in ticks found on mice in Druid Hill Park. So far, the likelihood of a mass disease outbreak is small, even though the park borders crowded neighborhoods, according to Brian S. Schwartz, the Johns Hopkins entomologist who found the bacteria.That's because of the way the disease is spread. Young deer ticks live on white-footed mice, the type in which Dr. Schwartz found the disease, and they live exclusively in wooded areas.

The Howard County Health Department reminds residents that spring and summer months increase the risk of exposure to ticks and the possibility of Lyme disease, which spread through the bite of an infected tick. According to the National Lyme Disease Risk Map developed by the Centers for Disease Control, Howard County and Maryland are in the high-risk areas of the United States. Ticks that carry the disease are commonly found in woods and in areas between lawns and woods. Symptoms may include fever, headaches, fatigue and a rash in the shape of a bulls-eye.

Lyme disease has been a controversial, almost faddish ailment since the tick-transmitted infection achieved widespread notoriety in the East in the 1980s. The symptoms such as arthritis, irritation and malaise are also associated with numerous other causes, physical and psychosomatic.Yet the bacterium carried by the black-legged tick is real, and human treatment with antibiotics seems clinically effective. A vaccine was developed for dogs, who can't avoid ticks, and scientists are working toward a preventive inoculation for horses.

As if robocalls didn't have a bad enough reputation in the world of Baltimore media and politics thanks to consultant Julius Henson's activity in the last gubernatorial election, along comes WBFF (Channel 45) Monday night with its own questionable computer-generated calls into hundreds of thousands on Maryland homes. And the calls continued Tuesday. I received one at my home in Baltimore City both days. Raquel Guillory, director of communications for Gov. Martin O'Malley, also received one at home in Howard County Monday night around dinnertime.

Dan Rodricks has twice written columns suggesting chronic Lyme disease does not exist ("MPT's flawed decision on flawed film," June 19). I represent just one of thousands of men, women, and children who have had their lives, careers and finances lost and torn apart because of incorrect information the Infectious Diseases Society of America is giving to physicians about Lyme disease. In 1993, I was misdiagnosed by a physician as having chronic fatigue syndrome. Each year I got worse even though I pushed myself to continue working.

Dan Rodricks ' article, "MPT's flawed decision on flawed film" (June 19) is on the button. Mr. Rodricks' article may have been about MPT, but it highlights what is wrong with our heath care system. The MPT film, "Under our Skin: A health Care nightmare" is bound to get under the skin of most Infectious diseases specialists who study and treat Lyme disease. The film's premise, that chronic Lyme disease, requiring treatment with long term antibiotics is an epidemic condition, is neither an objective nor a proven observation but mere speculation and exaggeration by patients who suffer from a hodge podge of nebulous symptoms and doctors who are willing to bet their licenses that those symptoms are related to persistent Lyme disease.

I am astounded to see The Sun publish its second Dan Rodricks column attacking the documentary, "Under Our Skin: A Health Care Nightmare" ("MPT's flawed decision on flawed film," June 19). In his most recent hatchet job, Mr. Rodricks chastises the local PBS channel for airing the film. What is most curious is the columnist's' unwavering devotion and promotion of the Infectious Disease Society of America's guidelines and propaganda without ever vetting this position with recent developments in the battle against Lyme.

Thanks to Maryland Public Television for scheduling the airing of "Under our Skin" ("MPT airing deeply flawed film about Lyme disease," June 19). A controversy in medicine is not a new thing, and the push to stop the airing of this film is quite telling. It's great to know that MPT is still in the business of free speech. Bravo. K. Meyer, Vienna, Va.

Maryland Public Television is set to air a polemical film about Lyme disease that is built on fear-provoking speculations and assertions while advancing a central message that has been discredited by experts in infectious diseases. Despite being apprised of the film's serious flaws, MPT has "Under Our Skin: A Health Care Nightmare" on its afternoon schedule for June 26. Other stations throughout the Public Broadcasting Service also have "Under Our Skin: on their schedules; some already aired it. The program was distributed free to stations by the National Educational Telecommunications Association.

HOWARD COUNTY lived in blissful oblivion to the danger of deer ticks until the mid-1970s, when Lyme disease was first associated with the tiny insects. It was about that time that West Friendship veterinarian Wendy Feaga first suspected she had the tick-borne disease. "The disease is pretty prevalent," Feaga said. "A lot of people have it and don't know it." While the name of the affliction is now commonly known, the disease remains somewhat a mystery to doctors and victims alike. Pinhead-sized deer ticks are the primary carriers of Lyme disease, a bacterial infection that is fairly common in the Northeast.

Reported cases of Lyme disease in Maryland doubled last year and more than tripled in Howard County, leading the county health officer to join state officials yesterday in warning citizens and recommending prevention measures. "We're seeing a dramatic increase in Lyme disease in the area," said Dr. Peter Beilenson, adding that experts believe many cases go unreported. Statewide, the number of reported cases jumped from 1,248 in 2006 to 2,576 last year. In Howard County, the number increased from 113 to 358 during the same period.

I was bit by tiny ticks that were the size of a pencil tip in Cecil County in the fall of 2009. In a matter of weeks I had strange symptoms; heart palpitations, shooting pains, joint pain, and abdominal pain but I never got a rash. I wouldn't have known what was wrong with me if it weren't for the fact I had recently seen the film "Under Our Skin," a documentary about Lyme disease. I went through an initial round of antibiotics which made me even sicker. After seeing several doctors I was told 'that I had MS' since my symptoms weren't going away.

Last summer, I had my first experience with the Lyme disease people — those who are convinced that the dangers of the tick-borne disease are much greater than mainstream science says — when "Under Our Skin," a film about the disease, played at Baltimore's Senator Theatre. The film had all the markings of a documentary: extensive interviews with Lyme disease patients and people who believe they had the disease, doctors and researchers; smartly produced graphics; original music and location footage from throughout the United States.