Lyme Disease PA

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Plain sheets vs Patterns

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:28:00 +0000

Every little thing you do to prevent Lyme disease can help.

My wife has been buying solid light colored sheets for our bed. A big advantage of that is that you can more easily see if there are any ticks crawling on the sheets. That sounds a little crazy but I was thinking about how many ticks we have caught that way. We almost never get into bed without having taken a shower if we were previously outdoors. Even so, we still find an occasional tick.

Mouse Killer

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 05:41:00 +0000

Spring is coming fast and with it, Lyme disease season.

One of the key factors in the Lyme disease cycle is mice. We regularly put mouse bait stations out with mice killer. Be careful with this if you have cats in the area and be sure to follow directions and your local and state laws.

We put the stations around the outside of the house at about 15 foot intervals and in the flower beds near the house. A couple more go under the shed.

The idea is to get rid of the mice and break at least part of the cycle.

You start off with an appropriate number of bait stations similar to the following

You will need the mouse baits to fill the stations similar to the following:

Be very careful with the mouse baits. You need to be absolutely sure that children and pets cannot get to it. In some locations, only licenced exterminators can deploy the baits. We make sure to wear disposable gloves and a mask when handling the stations and the bait. (the mask might be a little overboard but it's better to be safe)

Note that there is a possibility that your local mouse population could become resistant to one type of poison.

Pet areas at the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:04:00 +0000

We just spent a couple of Days at the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Va.

We were on the second floor of the Garden Wing (South Wing). I was working in the sitting area in the Garden Wing and noticed a number of people walking through with dogs. I had thought that they had a no pets policy and that these were animals coming back from the kennels.

After returning home I happened to check out their website and found that they offer "Pet Friendly Rooms. (Homestead pet rooms). I called the front desk and found that the first floor of the Garden Wings contained the "Pet Friendly" rooms.

I found this to be deeply disturbing. My wife and I are continually battling Lyme disease. We spent over $50,000 out of pocket and spent 2 years receiving high doses of antibiotics. We tend to avoid homes with pets when possible.

If I recall correctly, I did see people bringing pets through the Great Hall and the areas near the restaurants (Not in the restaurants).

The pet friendly policy bothers me on a number of levels.

The area around the homestead is full of deer. Dogs visiting there are likely to pick up ticks. Once these ticks are picked up, they can and will drop off in the building. Using the public areas can expose you to ticks.
I am not comfortable with the fact that housekeeping may be coming from rooms with animals before they visit our rooms, again increasing our exposure to possible tick bites.
As this policy progresses, I would think that an increasing number of people will be bringing their pets to the Hotel. The problem is that visitors may not be aware of the fact and may not be as alert as they should be for ticks. Keep in mind the miniscule nature of the deer tick and deer tick Nymph.

We really enjoyed our stay but unfortunately that will probably be our last visit unless this policy is reversed. If you are paying several hundred dollars a night to stay there, you don't expect to be staying in a kennel and exposing your family to ticks and Lyme.

Chimpanzee with Lyme goes on a rampage

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:10:00 +0000

Feb 2009

There is a tragic story from Connecticut. A chimpanzee that was being treated for Lyme disease went on a rampage severly mauling a woman and injuring several others. Police officers shot the animal to death.

The Chimp was remarkably intelligent. It could log onto the computer, bathe itself and brush it's teeth and dress itself. Connecticut is well know as a Lyme disease hotspot. As many of us who are familiar with Lyme know, it can affect the nervous system. Apparently this animal was affected and the owner was trying to treat it with Xanax for it's mood swings.

The government, insurance companies, and some in the medical community insist that a 30 day treatment is all that is required. They ignore the long term effects of the disease.

It is sad that such a tiny organism inside such a tiny insect can cause so much grief.

While I realize that the Chimpanzee was a dear friend of it's owner, I am hoping that the medical community can gain some insights from it into how Lyme disease affects the nervous system. Supposedly Chimpanzees share something like 98% of their DNA with Humans.

Here are a few links to articles about this incident:

It's time to start thinking about Lyme disease season

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:13:00 +0000

Springtime is just ahead. Now is the time to start thinking about lyme prevention. Here are a couple of quick thoughts:

- order any guinea keets or chicks
- put out mouse bait such as contrax. Mice are a key part of the lyme cycle.
- repair any deer fencing . Deer are another part of the lyme cycle
- clean up leaf debris. Tick eggs live under the leaves
- check vaccinations for pets
- make sure you will have enough tick repellant to start the season

Ticks hate sunlight and dryness. So a little prevention now will go a long way layer.

The "Stimulus Bill" could be a nightmare for Lyme Suffers

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:57:00 +0000

Buried in the current stimulus bill is a provision for what amounts to government taking over a large portion of your medical care. We are talking about rationing.

The idea is that all of your medical records would be centralized. OK, .. HOWEVER, when you need treatment, your physician will have to clear the treatment with a government bureaucrat. You know, the same people who brought you the Fannie/Freddie Disaster

The Bloomberg article has more details. A key point in that article is

One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective

Lyme disease sufferers know how hard it is to get treatment currently. If this bill is passed, it may become nearly impossible to get the proper treatment. Look at what happens with Government run health care in Canada and the UK. You can bet that the politicians in Washington will want to keep costs to a minimum. Forget about anything more than 30 days of antibiotics, if that.

Also, we all know that time is of the essence when getting treated for Lyme. This will add unneccessary time to the cycle.

One other thing, our overworked doctors will now have a huge regulatory burden placed on them.

I don't want to sound dramatic, but this stimulus bill will cause untold pain and suffering for Lyme disease suffers. Call your senators and congresscritters and tell them you oppose this provision. If it passes, then we need to work to get it reveresed. I am very pessimistic that could be accomplished.

Suction cup system for tick and insect bites

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:21:00 +0000

You need to decide if you want to use something like this or not.... It is a series of suction cups for insect bites. If you are bitten, you put the appropriate cup on the syringe and push the lever. It creates a strong suction that pulls the blood and, hopefully, any venom or disease out of the bite.

There are some schools of thought that say this might make things worse. I keep a kit in the car and one in our first aid kit. A while back, I was bitten by a small jumping spider which caused a very painful wound. I immediately used the suction kit and got instant relief.

Sawyer Tick Pliers

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:14:00 +0000

It is important when removing ticks to make sure you don't crush them. When a tick is crushed, the organisms, including Lyme disease, can be pushed into your bloodstream.

These pliers are specifically designed to remove ticks without crushing them.

Latent Lyme disease and exercise??? a link?

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:14:00 +0000

As I've stated on this site, my wife and I had Lyme, Babeosis and Erlichosis. We spent about 50 grand, two years and a lot of antibiotics to get back on our feet. I've been relatively OK.

HOWEVER, I started a new project around the house. My 20,000 gallon in ground pool is surrounded by patio blocks that aren't even close to level, in fact, they look more like the Tetons. Also, I'm getting water intrusion around the coping that is wrecking the bond beam. The quotes we got were about 15 grand or so to redo the deck. I figured that since I don't belong to a gym, it might be a good thing to get some manual labor in. My 13 year old son and I have been removing blocks, knocking off the mortar, regrading, hand tamping and resetting the stones. The results are looking great.

BUT - the other day, I came down with a 24 hour 'flu'. Part of it might be that the window fan was blowing on me. But I began to think. It seems that every time I get into a heavy project, I end up with a 'flu' lasting anywhere from a day to a week.

THEORY - It is pretty much of a fact that lyme buries itself deep in the tissue. I suppose that what might be happening is that the exercise is forcing blood down into the muscle which is causing a herxheimer effect (an effect where the killing of lyme disease results in a fever). This makes sense in that, when I think about it, it seems that there is a correlation between hard exercise and the onset of a fever. I don't keep a journal so I don't have hard data on this.

ACTIONS - My first thought is that I probably want to keep up with the pool. and other regular hard exercise. (1) I need to get it done and (2) It seems like it might be killing the Lyme that is buried deep. Also, I think I need to get back to regular appointments with my massuese. She does deep tissue massage which seems to have a similar effect.

Anyway, I'd appreciate anyone who has had similar experiences if you would chime in here.

Youtube video on Lyme Disease

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:13:00 +0000

Here is a Youtube video about Lyme Disease.

Lyme disease is often misunderstood and misdiagnosed. This particular video covers the basics and shows some of the pain that Lyme disease sufferers endure.

Lost everything to a fox

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Sat, 24 May 2008 14:13:00 +0000

We were down to one leghorn. All of the guineas had met their demise as well as most of the chickens. I had 10 chicks that had feathered out and I put them out in the chicken shed.

About a week ago I saw something white moving at the edge of our woods. As I ran into the backyard, I saw a fox carrying off our leghorn. There wasn't much I could do as we are in a no-discharge zone. I went back to the shed and found the corner where the fox had gotten in. All of the chicks were gone (probably as fox brunch).

So, the lessons learned

The critters will find any weak spot in your protection. The chicken wire needs to be inspected regularly.
Have a backup plan to battle ticks - We are still supposed to get guineas although they won't be ready to roam for a couple of months. In the meantime, I'm keeping the grass short, putting out mouse bait and will be ordering some pullets from our local poultry place.

Lyme spreads in Chester County

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:56:00 +0000

Lancaster Farming has an article on the spread of Lyme disease in Chester County.

A really intersting quote in the article was

“Vets are more up to date on Lyme disease than medical doctors,” Pete said of using their services for their dogs, who also have also tested positive for Lyme.

I have to agree with this. For some reason it seems that the medical community is either ignorant about Lyme, slow to treat it when they find it and unwilling or unable to provide an aggressive enought treatment regime (Perhaps large contributions by the insurance companies to our state legislators???) .

http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/1070

Guineas in harsh winter environments - reader question

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 02:12:00 +0000

A reader emailed the following question to us

"Our neighbors have guniea hens and we have been thinking of getting some. However we live in Wisconsin and have cold winters. What would we have to do to protect these hens during the winter months? Could we let them out or would we have to keep them inside?"

I'm not that familiar with the weather in Wisconsin. I imagine it's a little more harsh than Pennsylvania. I'd check with people in your area if you can find anyone who has guineas.

Our birds are pretty wild and are not trained to live in a coop. If you can build a coop or avairy and get the birds to return to it each night, that would probably work. If you do a coop the problem is that you really need to be there each night to close it up. Otherwise a critter might get in for a late night guinea snack.

What we do is simply

put a poultry waterer out that sits on an electric heater. You can probably purchase that at a feed store or over the internet.
Make sure that the birds have plenty of food. We use layer pellets. We also have a regular bird feeder and they guineas (if you don't have too many of them) can scavenge what falls from the feeder.
If we are going to be away for a while, I try to set up an automatic deer feeder loaded with layer pellets. that way, even if it snows, the feeder will dispense pellets regularly.
The birds will usually stay in the tree until I plow at least part of the driveway. You just have to make sure that the birds dont' get in front of the snowblower.
They can use a place where they can get in out of the snow and especially the icy rain. Our birds like to get under our picnic table. Keep in mind we have a small flock.

That pretty much takes care of it. There was one time when it was really nasty and the birds weren't doing too well. I was able to catch them by putting a towel over them. I put the tractor outside the shed with a tarp and let the birds sleep in the shed. You have to watch that they don't try to eat some of the stuff in the shed.

One goal would be to have at least a couple of birds survive the winter. The experience they pass on to the keets is invaluable in helping them survive.

Good luck...

Raccoons in the Henhouse

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:22:00 +0000

A couple of days ago, our son noticed that the birds were making a racket in the henhouse. It was about an hour after dark and we had locked up the henhouse at dusk.

I went out with the big handheld searchlight and saw two coons in the henhouse. It looked like they were eating the eggs and hadn't gone after the chickens yet. There isn't a whole lot of light around the henhouse so I went and got the tractor to shine it's lights on the house. While we were watching, it sounded like the coons escaped through the back of the building. (It's an old building that has seen better days).

Two of the birds came out of the house so we locked them in the other outside enclosure. I decided to go in to check on the remaining two birds, a leghorn and a rhodie. Both were sitting on their usual perch which was a metal stock tub on top of the nesting boxes at about waist height. They looked OK. I just didn't consider that they would sit there calmly if the raccoons were still in there.

Chris and I went around the back of the house to try to see how the coons got out. For the life of me I couldn't figure it out. There is a gap under the house where critters have dug access holes but the floor had seemed to be intact. I got some expanding caulk and cayanne pepper. I filled the holes with layers of cayanne and caulk. (that should keep the critters from nibbling through..)

OK, now I was getting confused, I saw no way that the little Houdinis had gotten out. I went back in again and didn't see any critters or escape routes. Now, we know that they can't teleport so there had to be another answer. Had I thought to apply Occam's Razor, the simplest solution would be that the critters were still in the shed.

Chris wanted to go in an pet the leghorn that we call 'whitey' . Against my better judgement I said Ok. As I went in, I took one last look... There was a gap of about 6" between the wall and the tub. Whitey was perched right over a clump of grey fur. I warned Chris and we immediately got out of the henhouse. Being in close quarters with two raccoons could turn deadly even without rabies.

So now, we had a dilemma, how do you get the birds out safely?? I could have shot through the wall with a .22 and hit the coons except that (1) the town is a no discharge zone (2) there are too many houses nearby anyway and (3) If the raccoons were rabid, that would put rabies tainted blood all over the place.. So, on to a plan B.

Plan B was to punch through the plastic window and use a long pvc pipe to dislodge the birds.. After about 10 minutes it was mission accomplished. We got them into the outside enclosure and pulled the henhouse door closed. Now I had two irritated raccoons trapped inside the henhouse. I wasn't sure what to do so in the words of that famous senator I figured "I'll drive off that bridge when I get to it" and turned in for the night.

I heard some commotion at about 5 am and went out to look. I saw a larger coon right outside the henhouse and it waddled off. The birds looked ok.

When it was daylight I let the birds loose and looked in the windows. There was no sign of the critters. Eventually I carefully opened the door and sure enough, they were gone. They had chewed through the bottom of the henhouse door. I found where they got in which was where the top chicken wire meets the side wire. There was just one weak spot. I took about 25 of those plastic electrical ties and closed up any and all gaps.

It occurred to me that the two coons must have gone right by the chickens when they escaped but didn't appear to go after them.

Anyway, here are some lessons learned.

Be extremely careful if you think there are raccoons in the henhouse. I was in there three times at least and did not see them. The houses is only about 4'x8'. There isn't any clutter other than the tub. We were very lucky not to have gotten bitten or worse. Had we reached over to handle the chickens that might have been enough to cause all heck to break loose.
Raccoons will find any and all weak spots in your henhouse. You really need to go over it periodically to make sure that there are no spots where they get in. This means going over just about every square inch looking for gaps and rusted chicken wire.
Raccoons carry rabies and a really nasty parasite in their feces. The eggs can live for something like 10 years. If you ingest the eggs of the parasite, the worm will work it's way to your brain and eat your brain (that might explain some of the behavior in congress lately). The next day, I wet down the straw to keep the dust down, used a good mask, rubber gloves etc and cleaned the shed out. Even with the precautions, there is some risk to doing that.
I could use a better lighting system in the shed. Harbor Freight had reasonably priced lights that were solar charged. I'm going to pick one of those up and set it up for lighting the inside of the house if I go in there at night.
I'm not sure if a motion detecting light would help. Again, Harbor Freight has solar powered motion detecting lights. I'm not sure if that would scare the little buggers off or not. Maybe one of those halloween gadgets that screetches and cackles when you walk by would work.
I had seen our trashcans overturned a couple of times prior. I should have been more proactive and made sure that the raccoon trap was baited and set.

Final Scores

Birds:0
Raccoons: 3 eggs
People:0

Pheasants and tics - Response to comment

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:02:00 +0000

Sorry to whoever posted the question asking if pheasants will eat ticks. I got fumble fingered and accidentally deleted that comment.

As I understand it, gallinaceous birds eat insects including ticks. Gallinaceous birds include grouse, pheasant, turkeys, quail, partridges etc.

The downside is that the birds can also be hosts for ticks to some extent. However, there is evidence that the presence of birds will reduce the tick population significantly. You can get some info on that study from Mother Earth News

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Livestock-and-Farming/2003-10-01/Go-Ahead-Get-Guineas.aspx

We are getting eggs now

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 04:04:00 +0000

One of the benefits of chlckens for tick control is that you get eggs.

The pullets we recently purchased just started laying. We are getting two eggs per day from five older pullets. Pretty soon we should be seeing a half dozen per day.

As far as the tick and bug population, it appears that the birds are doing their job well.

More eggs and less ticks, I like that!

Down to one guinea from this year's batch

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 04:04:00 +0000

Unfortunately, it appears that we are down to only one bird left from the 12 we were raising this year. I'm not sure what got the most recent bird.

The local fox is not helping things. Also, we have coons and possum.

Some lessons for next year:

- make sure the coop is ironclad. Crittera will find the slightest weakness.
- Once they learn to roost in the trees, let them all out. Otherwise, the free birds hang too close to the cooped birds.
- If possible, be aggressive in trapping coons and possum. Be aware of the danger of rabies and local laws.

We are really hoping that the remaining young bird will survive the summer and winter to be able to pass survival skills to next year's batch.

We are also considering trying to purchase adolescents although it is harder to keep them near the property.

Lyme Disease Pickets protest new guidelines

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 23:03:00 +0000

According to an article in the Atlantic City Press, On June 28th, Lyme Disease activists protested the proposed new guidelines for Lyme disease. These guidelines would make it much more difficult to treat patients with suspected Lyme Disease.

This is a serious disease with devastating implications for those infected and yet it seems that some are trying to minimize it and do everything they can to make treatment more difficult to obtain.

The article makes an excellent point that, if fewer cases are diagnosed due to the stricter guidelines, funding for Lyme Disease research may be cut.

Atlantic City Press Article

Guineas can swim !!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:39:00 +0000

I was getting my breakfast together at about 8am.. The chickens were still in their pen when I heard a commotion. I saw a fox less than 15 feet from my kitchen window (and my dang camera was upstairs where I knew I couldn't get to it in time).

The fox seemed to be trying to get to something. I realized that one of the younger guineas had landed in the pool and was swimming like a duck. The problem was that, with his feathers wet, he couldn't seem to get out. He tried to get into the skimmer but luckily the filter had not turned on yet.

When I went out, the fox trotted off. I couldn't hold onto the bird when I pulled him from the skimmer and he started swimming again. I got the skimmer net underneath him and old soggy was able to hop out. With the level of chlorine in the pool, I expect to see that we will have an albino guinea fowl for a while.

The old one eyed guy had gotten up in a tree and the other young bird got up on top of the chicken house, out of harms way. Once I got soggy out of the pool, the three teamed up again.

Anyway, I don't have the pictures to prove it, but guineas can swim pretty well. It actually looked pretty graceful in the water. If the bird had worked it's way to the shallow end, it probably could have gotten out on the steps. I'm not sure how long it could swim though.

Ticks up one's nose and scotch tape.

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 12:52:00 +0000

In spite of all of our precautions, I felt a tick on me while I was in bed the other day. As I sat up, the darn thing fell of my arm and onto my nostrils. For a moment, I had visions of it going up my nose. I have no idea how I would have gotten it out at that point. Fortunately it didn't go up a nostril. We have off white bedsheets so it was easy to spot.

The question now was how to execute the critter. I couldn't find my needlenose pliers and killing it with a lighter on the bedsheets was out of the question... There was a roll of transparent office tape handy. It's great for trapping a tick. You just slam it down on the critter and fold it over. It can't move it's legs, so it can't escape. Also, you don't have to handle it and incur the risk of any diseases that might be on it. Still, its a good idea to wash your hands afterwards.

Our Adolescent Guineas are now roosting with the old guy

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 12:40:00 +0000

We are now down to only 2 of our 12 original keets. A local fox and raccoon have gotten 10 of them. Our son noticed the other day that the 2 remaining birds are now roosting high in an evergreen with the old one eyed guy. That's good news because in the past, they would keep roosting on the ground and end up as easy prey for whatever happened along (fox, possum, raccoon or even cats).

This year I had fenced off part of the outside of the chicken house for the guineas. There was an enclosure where they could get out of the rain if necessary. What I think happened was that the chicken wire kept them relatively safe (We did lose a couple due to a tiny opening. Details, details, details. Anyway, the birds became aware that critters are out there at night looking to eat them and that the ground is not the safest place to be. They had all started roosing on top of the game feeder that was in their part of the enclosure.

Lessons learned so far this year:

You need to check every square inch of the chicken wire. Predators will find the tinyest weak spot
If the birds can see what is going on, they will learn to roost off the ground.
If at least one halfway intelligent bird survives from the previous years, they will be instrumental in teaching survival skills to the young birds.
Regular 1" chicken wire is not an adequate barrier. In the past critters have reached through and literally pulled the birds through the wire. I went with a double layer that is offset to make it difficult for paws to get through
Until you let all of the birds free, they free birds will roost near or on top of the enclosure making them vulnerable to predators. However, if you free all of them too early, they might wander off.

Tough month for the Guineas

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 13:08:00 +0000

We apaprently lost two guineas last night and definitely one the night before. There is a fox or coyote in the neighborhood. I've only gotten a fleeting glimpse of it.

I think the problem was that I have not yet released all the guineas. I had them in a portion of the chicken wire enclosure around the hutch. I was keeping a couple in the enclosure so the others would stay nearby. The problem was that at night, the free birds would roost on top of the chicken wire. I think that has been where they've been getting hit. It's getting nearly impossible to get the birds back into the enclosure for the night.

So, it's time to gamble on letting them all out. Hopefully, they will roost further up in the trees out of harm's way. At this point, they should be comfortable enough with us to hang around the property without running off.

Fox, quial and guineas

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 11:48:00 +0000

The neighborhood fox is still coming around. The other night we lost one of the guineas we let out about a half hour before dusk. It appears that the bird was by the door of the guinea enclosure and got attacked. There weren't a lot of feathers around, just a patch on the birds side where it was missing some feathers.

The guineas are starting to get the idea of roosting off the ground. I have an automatic game feeder that I use when we are going to be away. It's a 5 gallon can with an automatic feeder attached. It's perfect for laying down food on a regular basis when we aren't there. Anyway, the birds are piling on that at night. I'm hoping that means that when we finally release them, they will roost in the trees and not on the ground.

I have some work today. The chicken wire on the door to the chicken house is a bit old. I got a 10 gallon air tank which means I can take the air nailer/stapler out to the chicken house. The plan is to replace the chicken wire with new stuff and check the wood framing of the door. It's a lot better to be pre-emptive.

The quail have been doing nicely in their outside hutch. It's a little hutch that is really made for rabbits. I have a heat lamp that is on a GFCI protected extension. I put heavy plastic around three sides and cardboard on the bottom. So far, it's been about 2 weeks and we've only lost 1 out of 20 birds. They seem to like dandelion greens. The little buggers go crazy over them.

New CDC Lyme disease report - Cases doubling!!

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 00:46:00 +0000

There is a new CDC Lyme disease report released June 14, 2007.

Reported cases of Lyme disease have more than doubled since 1991

I'm not sure if the above is good or bad news. The problem is that there has been tremendous under-reporting of Lyme. If cases have been level but reporting is up, then that is good news since the problem is being properly identified. If cases are really going up, then, of course, it is bad news.

The report also said 93 percent of reported cases were concentrated in 10 states.

The bad news for Pennsylvanians is that we are one of those 10 states...

In 1991 fewer than 10,000 cases of Lyme disease were reported.

There has been an increase in awareness of Lyme disease. There is still a lot of work to be done and a lot of the medical community and legislators are in denial or ignorance as to the true extent of the problem.

Below are some notes regarding the actual report

With approximately 20,000 new cases reported each year, Lyme disease is the most
common vector-borne disease in the United States

The question is, how many people have not been adequately diagnosed. The reality is that it is probably impossible to answer that question.

Since Lyme disease became nationally notifiable in 1991, the annual number of
reported cases has more than doubled.

It is good news that the statistics are being kept on a national level for the last 16 years.

According to the report, the number of newly reported Lyme cases are as follows

2003 5730

2004 3985

2005 4287

One of the disturbing pieces of information in the report is the number of cases in children aged 5 through 9 and 10 through 14. A lot of kids are coming down with Lyme.

The CDC Press release can be found at
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/2007/r070614.htm

The Full report link can be found at
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/ in the June 15, 2007 / Vol. 56 / No. 23 issue

The report iteself is at
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5623a1.htm