NEWARK – More than two times as many cases of the tick-borne Lyme disease have been reported to the Licking County Health Department thus far this year, as compared to all of 2018. And the amount confirmed is even more noteworthy.
There were 17 suspected, two probable and three confirmed cases last year for a total of 22. Through Wednesday morning, there were 52 total cases, with the vast majority being confirmed.
In 2017, it was 16 suspected and 10 confirmed for a total of 26 cases.
A 2017 alert, issued by Gale Neville, Licking County Health Department Infectious Disease Nurse, said that prior to 2010, there were no known established populations of blacklegged ticks, or deer ticks, in Ohio. Since then, the tick has been found in at least 60 Ohio counties including Licking, and spreads Lyme disease through its bacteria-infected bite.
Typical symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue and a characteristic “bulls-eye” skin rash. Most cases can be treated successfully with a few weeks of antibiotics. But if untreated, the infection can spread to joints, the heart and the nervous system. Early treatment is key for the disease, so the quicker it’s detected, the better the outcome for the patient.
“Because Lyme disease symptoms are common to many other illnesses, including common viral infections, and because Lyme disease transmission is fairly new to Ohio, it is often mis-diagnosed and under-reported,” Licking County health commissioner Joe Ebel said last month. “Increased public education and (medical) provider awareness results in higher case counts. However, a Lyme diagnosis is sometimes missed until the symptoms have progressed.”
Local residents dealing with the disease have expressed their frustrations about how misunderstood the disease is and how long it often takes to diagnose it, often with debilitating results.
Amanda Johnson’s daughter Emery, a freshman at Granville, was diagnosed with Lyme disease in the third grade and now has Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. She is the oldest of her four children.
“She was at a local week-long summer camp after her second grade year, and we picked her up and immediately drove to Hilton Head,” Johnson recalled. “Well, there was a red, raised area on her hand. When we got there, it was swollen and huge. We took her to Urgent Care, and it was the classic bulls-eye rash. They gave her some cream.”
After a week at the beach, the whole hand was swollen, and Emery came back and started third grade, but her teacher could immediately tell something was wrong.
“She was tired, lethargic, freezing,” Amanda said. “We suspected Lyme disease, and had talked to a mom whose daughter had it.” But medical providers would not test for it until eventually, the Johnsons went to Cleveland, where Emery was diagnosed with the arthritis.
And later, she was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.After six weeks of medicine, Emery’s teacher finally noticed a change.
“She said, ‘your daughter is a totally different student,” Amanda said. “I wish I would have known more. She was almost in a daze for a whole year.”
Johnson, now a financial advisor for Edward Jones, worked for 18 years in medical sales and was a dietician.
“I quit my job for four months, because we were constantly in doctor appointments,” Amanda said. “My husband and I spent thousands, because a lot of it was out of pocket. Some of the medications made her violently ill. It was very frustrating. We went through injections, infusions, EKGs and MRIs.”
Emery’s hand joints are permanently damaged, but she leads a fairly normal life. However, the arthritis still flares up, and she still goes to a specialist.
“They didn’t want her playing sports, but we wanted her to, so she could become herself,” Amanda said. She currently plays freshman and reserve volleyball at Granville.
Kristy Hawthorne, administrative assistant for the Licking County Soil and Water Conservation District. has had to scale back her active life after being diagnosed with Lyme disease in July.
“I went to Urgent Care on July 1, and got the results back July 7,” Hawthorne said. “I had one blood draw, which they ran multiple tests off of. I’m not sure exactly when I contracted it. I live out in the country and am outside a lot for work. So I’m prone to be in areas where ticks are at. I’d been bitten before. I drive by that sign on Route 16 warning about ticks, but I never thought it would affect me.”
The bullseye rash was on a different part of her body from where the bite was, she said. Through her research, she found that about 30 percent of cases do not have the bullseye rash. She also learned about nymphs, a smaller version of the tick, which was found on her.
“The smaller nymphs are more concerning, because nymphs are the size of a pinhead,” Hawthorne said. “They’re very small, they’re tougher to spot and they stay attached longer.”
She did 28 days of antibiotics treatment, but was still having the symptoms.
“The fatigue mimics the flu,” Hawthorne said. “I’m very active but I’ve had to pull back. It’s changed my life. I went to a doctor of infectious disease specialist, and he said I didn’t have the three things they look for in Lyme disease: swollen joints, Bell’s Palsy or heart arrhythmia.”
Eventually, her family physician found had she had low thyroid levels, and her Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D were down.
“I’ve increased my intake to help with the fatigue, muscle and joint soreness,” Hawthorne said. “It will take a few weeks to be effective. I have to be mindful of my self care. I have to eat healthy and listen to my body.”
It’s been quite the education for Hawthorne and Johnson, who have conducted plenty of their own research. There are support groups on Facebook.
“I have a friend who has it who avoids natural sugars, like in fresh fruits,” Hawthorne said. “Another friend had a daughter who had symptoms, but wasn’t diagnosed until a year later.
“If you think you have it, have a good conservation with your doctor and ask for the test,” Hawthorne said. “Try to get the word out about it to medical professionals. I’ve started my own health journal. It’s a misunderstood disease, and nothing is really clear cut.”
Johnson said she had two mothers call her this summer who were at their wits end, because they suspected their kids had Lyme disease. Ultimately, one of them did, and one of them didn’t.
“I want to help other people,” she said. “We have seen the light. She (Emery) does not have cancer and she’s not dying. We’ve tried to make the most out of a bad situation.”
“Follow your gut,” Johnson added. “Don’t stop. Walk into your doctor’s office and say, ‘I want myself, or my child, tested.’ You may have to pay out of pocket, but pay out of pocket. If you or they have a rash, or don’t have a rash, if you or they have a fever, or unexpected stiffness or joint pain, get tested. It’s just a blood test, not bone marrow.”
Olivia Biggs, public information officer for the Licking County Health Department, said they have tried to stay ahead of things.
“We started educating the medical providers in 2017 with Health Alert Network (HAN) messaging about the emergence of Lyme,” she said. “The biggest thing we noticed early on during our suspected Lyme disease investigations were that cases had no listed travel outside of Licking County. Further information collected suggested exposures occurring in Licking County.
“This was something new regarding Lyme disease and something we continued to monitor to see if it was legit. We did establish that it was legit here in the county,” Biggs added. “And not long after that, ODH (Ohio Department of Health) started to address the emergence of blacklegged ticks in Ohio.”
Biggs said numbers of cases reported will rise as awareness is raised, for both the public and health providers.
“We expect it, but it’s best to accurately diagnose our patients,” she stressed. “The only way to get the data is if providers test for it and we get positives.”
Tick-borne diseases (Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever) mostly occur during spring and summer, although blacklegged ticks are active and may transmit disease the year around in Ohio. Suspected or confirmed cases should be reported to the health department within one day of a diagnosis. It is essential there is both clinical and laboratory evidence of infection, the health department said.
dweidig@newarkadvocate.com
740-328-8557
Twitter: @noz75
CDC tick bite prevention tips
Avoid ticks by walking in the center of trails and avoiding wooded and brushy areas with high grass and leaf litter.
Repel ticks on skin and clothing by using repellent that contains 20 percent or more DEET, picaridin, or IR3535 on exposed skin for protection that lasts several hours. Always follow product instructions. Parents should apply this product to their children, avoiding hands, eyes, and mouth.
Use products that contain permethrin on clothing. Treat clothing and gear, such as boots, pants, socks and tents with products containing 0.5% permethrin. It remains protective through several washings.
Find and remove ticks from your body by bathing or showering as soon as possible after coming indoors (preferably within 2 hours) to wash off and more easily find ticks that are crawling on you. Conduct a full-body tick check using a hand-held or full-length mirror to view all parts of your body upon return from tick-infested areas. Parents should check their children for ticks under the arms, in and around the ears, inside the belly button, behind the knees, between the legs, around the waist, and especially in their hair. Examine gear and pets.
Ticks can ride into the home on clothing and pets, then attach to a person later, so carefully examine pets, coats, and day packs. Tumble dry clothes in a dryer on high heat for 10 minutes to kill ticks on dry clothing after you come indoors.
________________
**Comment**
With all the information coming out on ticks and the illnesses they carry, patients are still not believed, and are denied testing and treatment. Many doctors will give you disinformation on what you have to have in order to be infected. Please know Lyme disease can mimic over 300 diseases and look very differently from person to person.
This shouldn’t still be happening, but it still is.
My best advice is to completely bypass mainstream medicine which is still in a coma regarding tick borne illness. Get to an ILADS trained doctor right away where you stand a chance of getting better.
Also, please note the statement, “We did establish that it was legit here in the county…And not long after that, ODH (Ohio Department of Health) started to address the emergence of blacklegged ticks in Ohio.”
Rare M. bovis Infection Found in Michigan Deer Hunter
By Ethan Covey
A new report highlights the risk posed to deer hunters, especially those who live or hunt in Michigan, of pulmonary tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium bovis bacteria.
Although the risk for exposure is rare, epidemiologists have noted that deer populations in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan have far higher rates of M. bovis infection than other areas (MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2019;68[37]:807-808).
“The M. bovis bacteria can cause a latent infection that sometimes progresses to active disease, similar to other forms of tuberculosis,” said Laura E. Power, MD, a clinical assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor.
In May 2017, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services was notified of a case of pulmonary tuberculosis, cased by M. bovis, in a 77-year-old man. The individual reported frequent deer hunting and field dressing of deer carcasses.
The man lived in the northeastern Lower Peninsula of Michigan, where rates of M. bovis have been estimated to affect 1.4% of deer. This rate of incidence is far higher than the estimated 0.05% of deer infected in other parts of the state. Two other cases of hunting-related human infections with M. bovis were reported in Michigan in 2002 and 2004.
“The study alerts health care providers that there is potential for hunters to acquire M. bovis infection while field dressing deer,” Dr. Power said. “The risk is generally low and more relevant in the northeastern part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.”
Dr. Power noted that hunters can minimize risk by wearing protective gloves when field dressing deer. Also, if evidence of M. bovis disease is discovered in a carcass—such as tan or yellow pea-sized lumps, often in the wall of the rib cage or in the lungs—individuals should immediately stop handling the carcass and contact the local wildlife agency.
“The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has an excellent surveillance system for this disease,” Dr. Power added. “Hunters can submit a deer head to DNR check stations in Michigan, and the DNR will assess the deer head and notify the hunter if any evidence of M. bovis or another chronic wasting disease is found.”
Additionally, Dr. Power noted that the American Veterinary Medical Association provides a list of precautions that deer hunters can take to protect themselves from M. bovis and other infections, at this link: Disease Precautions for Hunters
PCOS is a little understood life changing syndrome. What we know about PCOS are the disturbing symptoms it creates in our bodies, but we only know the tip of the iceberg when it comes to reasons behind why these symptoms occur. Moreover, almost 70% of teenage girls/women remain undiagnosed mainly because they dont understand their symptoms and avoid discussing them. We are talking to Dr Carolyn Alexander of Southern California Reproductive Center, about new developments in PCOS symptom management & treatment and PCOS updates from recently held #ASRM2019 Conference. Dr Alexander has conducted extensive research on PCOS and specializes in the treatment of patients facing the diagnosis of PCOS and infertility. Guiding the discussion from the patient panel will be Ashley Levinson @PCOSgurl who has been advocating for PCOS since the last 20 years. Michelle Schwarz, a PCOS patient and researcher, will also be on the panel to discuss about funding and gaps in research in the field of PCOS.
PANELISTS
Dr Carolyn Alexander, Ashley Levinson, Dr Michelle Schwarz, Shweta Mishra
________________
**Comment**
PCOS-like symptoms were my initial symptoms with Lyme/MSIDS. https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/02/24/pcos-lyme-my-story/ I imagine there are many more women out there similarly infected but who will never be properly diagnosed as supposedly Lyme/MSIDS isn’t sexually transmitted.
Mattman isolated living Borrelia spirochetes in mosquitoes, fleas, mites, semen, urine, blood, plasma and Cerebral Spinal Fluid. She discovered that this bacteria is dangerous because it can survive and spread without cell wall (L shape). Because L-forms do not possess cell wall, they are resistant to antibiotics that act upon the cell wall.
Others have found various ways Bb is transmitted as well:
Burgess could infect cats with Bb orally, ocularly, and via IV
“The presence of live spirochetes in a genital lesion strongly suggests that sexual transmission of Lyme disease occurs,” said Middelveen. “We need to do more research to determine the risk of sexual transmission of this syphilis-like organism.”
THE CDC/IDSA/NIH ARE ON VACATION AND STILL HAVEN’T RECEIVED THE MEMO
As to PCOS, my daughter after years of suffering, finally found an effective treatment with Dr. Lichten who was an OBGYN for 35 years but who switched to hormones after going through male andropause and not being after to find effective help. For some unknown reason doctors are deathly afraid of hormones and propagate the myth that they are somehow harmful when our own bodies make them. https://www.theendocure.com
Excerpt:
BLOCKING the TOXINS
Lichten has spent 30-years researching how these xeno-estrogens enter the cell. All standard FDA medications only reduce production of normal hormones. Both natural and xeno-estrogens and androgens compete to get in to the cell through the A-R receptor in the cell wall. Lichten found that naturally occurring, bio-identical nandrolone has 30 times more binding affinity than any estrogen.
*Weekly small dose of nandrolone Works to Stop Pain!
Estrogens stimulate SHBG production that pulls the good nandrolone away, letting estrogens get in.
The following Wisconsin Assembly Bills passed the Senate and Committees in the Assembly:
AB 315,previously LRBs 1758 and 3360– Requires the DNR to post signs to raise awareness of Lyme Disease, inform on how to prevent tick bites, and encourage visitors to check for ticks after visits to be posted in a common area, such as the park entrance, a trailhead or in a campground, in all State Parks, Forests, Recreational Areas, and Trails
AB 316,previously LRBs 1759 and 3359– Requires the DNR to sell bug spray with DEET, which can help to repeal ticks, in all State Parks and Forests when their Park or Forest Office or other location in the Park or Forest, such as a concession stand, is open
AB 317,previously LRBs 2738 and 3358– Requires the DNR to post information in certain Parks brochures to raise awareness of Lyme Disease, inform on how to prevent tick bites, and encourage visitors to check for ticks after visiting a State Park, and requires the DNR to complete an annual awareness campaign in May of each year, which is Lyme Disease Awareness Month, on digital and print platforms to raise awareness of Lyme Disease, inform on how to prevent tick bites, and encourage visitors to check for ticks after spending time outdoors
AB 313,previously LRBs 1652 and 3362 – Establishes a sixteen-member Tick-Borne Disease Study Committee to create a report for the legislature on consensus-based recommendations for policy changes on awareness, prevention, surveillance, diagnosis, reporting, and treatment of Lyme Disease
This last bill would allow Governor Evers to appoint a 16 member advisory panel to offer recommendations on how doctors treat Lyme disease.
Many of us have explained to our representatives about the potential for that bill to go side-ways since nothing about Lyme/MSIDS is agreed upon.
There is still polarity in mainstream medicine on how to diagnose and treat this with many doctors completely ignorant. They continue to tell patients it’s all in their head.
It is also serious government over reach – telling doctors how to treat patients. Imagine for a moment telling doctors how to treat diabetes, cancer, or a broken bone. It just isn’t done.
Please continue to let your representative know we are NOT in favor of such a bill.
Right now the state of Wisconsin has a good handful of doctors treating this appropriately.
We do not want to make things worse for them with a bill that could literally mandate how they treat patients.
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 