Or a variation... I just caught a brief story re a new tick borne disease supposedly out of China and now appearing in parts of the US. Anyone know about this?
...:Turns out it found a home a while ago in the U.S. "Anaplasmosis is a disease that is already endemic in some parts of the U.S., particularly the Northeast and upper Midwest," says Dr. Joanna Regan, a medical epidemiologist at a branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, "more research is needed to assess whether strains of A. phagocytophilum circulating in the U.S. are different from strains currently found in China," she adds...."
Thanks for the info… really.
After contracting a nasty case of Lyme Disease working out-of-town last summer I have become a bit more interested in tick borne illnesses. While working the same job (in the Albany, NY region) my supervisor actually contracted Anaplasmosis.
After reading about a recent local case I have learned that a given tick can carry more than one disease that can be transmitted to humans. This makes a correct diagnosis even harder.
Lastly, even if you are tested for a possible Lyme Disease infection false negative results are quite common. That is what happened in my case. Due to all my symptoms, that fact that I was frequently exposed to Deer ticks while doing field work; and my awareness of all those factors, the reason for my illness was never really in doubt. That wonderful tell-tale "Bulls-eye" cinched the deal, but it only occurs in approximately 50% of Lyme Disease cases. In fact the physician was initially highly doubtful of my self-diagnose until I lifted up the hem of my shorts and asked, "Well then doc, what about this?" He immediately stopped arguing with me that wrote up a script for 3 weeks worth of Doxycycline.
new tick disease
Not sure if I have heard of that version but here I am in the Northeast on my 3rd year of meds
Unfortunately 3 weeks of doxy doesn't get rid of it for some folks. Fortunately I did photo the bulls eye, because I realized it would disappear before I would be able to see a doctor who might be familiar with it.
Of course I didn't know back then that people like me don't officially exist.
I don't know if there are thousands of us or millions of us, because the CDC claims we do not exist.
Which of course was the last thing we ever expected way back then.
So now older and wiser we tend to look at the CDC as 'the evil empire" preventing folks from getting the medicine they need
Probably sounds a bit jaded but the more you look into the subject the more info you can find about the whole
lack of treatment subject.
..because we supposedly don't exist it is harder for our voices to be heard...
In regard to Lyme Disease
you are correct in stating that not everyone can be cured in 3 weeks (I cannot comment on your CDC allegations).
One point of concern: when is the correct diagnosis made? If I recollect correctly Lyme Disease can have three phases. Simply put it is easiest to catch and treat in phase 1, the earliest phase. That is what I happened to have and it took every day of that 3 week regiment of Doxycycline to put it down. I actually felt lousy for over a month. The disease contributed to me being off the water for all of last year.
If the infected individual progresses into stage 2 or beyond the detection of the disease can be extremely difficult and full recovery may not be in the cards. In the worst cases Lyme Disease can cause permanent disability or even death, if left untreated or misdiagnosed.
For more details:
http://www.medicinenet.com/lyme_disease/article.htm
What exactly does the CDC “claim”?
That there aren't any individuals with uncured lyme disease? That's hard to believe because it's common knowlege that it can be downright impossible to cure once it has had time to really get established. So if not that, what? I'm curious as to the nature of this "claim", since there's nothing particularly unusual about the other stuff you described.
Okay, I just went to the CDC website to see what they say about lyme disease and its treatment, and they definitely recongize that in some cases, particularly certain forms of the disease, orally taken antibiotics don't work, and that intravenous doses are more likely to get the job done. They also make it clear that the disease can be nearly impossible to cure in some cases. It appears that the longer you wait, the worse things will get. Have you asked your doctor about pursuing any of the more serious treatment measures?
doctors
It gets to be a question of which doctors. Those that say if you aren't cured with 3 weeks of doxy or equivalent then you don't have the illness, which works out well giving them a 100 cure rate.
CDC has long maintained that people do not die from Lyme among other things.
Different states are starting to pass laws protecting doctors who treat long term Lyme from prosecution.
Mass & CT have passed laws NH where we are getting a beak out break Failed to pass the law.
So while it might be common knowledge in the region where you live it is far from common knowledge in many places and out right denied in many as well.
Right now the best info available is from an award winning Documentary "Called Under Our Skin"
It quite an education about Lyme those that recover those that don't. etc etc.
I'll check the official CDC site to see if they have changed their tune these past few months. If they have that in itself would be a major breakthrough.
To my understanding their is a CDC dominated Seminar going on or soon to be that some of the major Lyme Awareness or Educational groups have pulled out of as being, well a waste of time, trying to deal with them.
People like myself have learned to say "Lyme like illness" Ticks carry so many diseases that it is safer to say that and a better chance to receive treatment.
CDC has been notorious for insisting that only their version of Lyme testing is acceptable...which came under scrutiny for conflict of interest and brought to court by the CT attorney general
I'll certainly encourage people to learn as much as they can about Lyme and other tick borne diseases.
In case my info is misinformation or out of date.
Kayaking has been my mainstay and I am certainly one of the healthiest of people with Lyme disease...at least this week.
I do know people who self medicate themselves intravenously but i am not willing to go that route
Pulled four ticks off the cat yesterday... 2 the day before...
Depends on the doctor, too
The first time I got it, I was in stage 2 before I got treated, and the GP only prescribed 14 days of Doxy, which made me feel great for 15 days. Then the Lyme came back with a vengeance, and I was sick for 4 months after that.
I went to an infectious disease specialist, who told me “There’s no such thing as Lyme Disease - it’s a myth”, and suggested I had syphillis instead… $5,000.00 worth of testing later, I was declared perfectly healthy, and “imagining the symptoms”. I yelled at my GP, and got an open-ended script for Doxy, which cleared it up in about 3 months.
About 8 months after that, I came down with a heart arrythmia that was diagnosed as being due to nerve damage in my heart. The cardiologist said that Lyme is a very common cause of it. Great.
I’ve had Lyme once since then, and my GP was very happy to nuke it with 60 days of doxy, since he knows my tick exposure is extreme. I’ll have to take anti-arrythmia meds for the rest of my life, though.
Choose your docs carefully, and make sure they know YOU are in charge.
Wayne, spot on with your comment
about doctors.
I was working away from home when I contracted Lyme Disease. I was highly aware that I was doing field work and recreational hiking in areas just loaded with Deer Ticks. I escaped the little buggers for the better part of six months. I was religious about self-checking my body after every foray into one of these tick infested zones. Ah, but one of the little bastages final got me and I didn't even know it.
One day, 6 months into the job, I started feeling poorly. It was a combination of almost flu-like and arthritis-like symptoms. It has been 10 days since I last worked/hiked in a 'tick' zone. I was working out of my hotel room and looked up information on Lyme Disease on the Internet. I ran the full check list of stage-1 symptoms. Yep, I had them all, except for maybe one. What is this 'Bulls-eye'? There was even a link to a photo. I was sitting with my laptop and looked down at my leg. "Oh, that's a 'bulls-eye'!
I went to a local emergency medial clinic, specifically to get Doxycycline. I didn't emphasize it above, but the doctor who saw me was a dick. He didn't agree with me, even with all my evident symptoms and knowledge of where I had been working. Once he saw the "bulls-eye". He didn't say another word and left the room. His nurse eventually came back with the script. When I returned home two days later I was seen by my personal GP. He had no doubt that I had the disease and he was the one who told me about the frequency of false-positive Lyme Disease tests.