The Relationship Between Deer Ticks And Lyme Disease“True lyme disease deer tick is a fairly uncommon disease in North Carolina,” asserts Dr. Newt MacCormack, head of the state's general communicable disease control division. “Not to say that there are not some occasional cases of it,” he says. Eight cases have been reported in North Carolina this year. Instead, MacCormack and other public officials say North Carolina residents are much more likely to contract tick-borne illnesses such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever or ehrlichiosis. Part of the reason, he says, is that the American dog tick and the Lone Star tick, primary carriers of these diseases, are much more plentiful here. Reported cases of Lyme disease vs. Rocky Mountain spotted fever would seem to bear that out. In the past five years, there have been 329 cases of Lyme disease; 715 cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. But people like Dr. Kenneth Liegner, a noted Lyme disease specialist in New York who believes that Lyme cases are underestimated in the South, say the system of reporting is flawed. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting guidelines say a Lyme disease diagnosis requires the characteristic bulls-eye rash or specific involvement of the Musculoskeletal, nervous or cardiovascular system and a positive blood test. Liegner believes those rules mean physicians miss a lot of cases. “There are hundreds of strains of the Lyme's organism,” Liegner says. A typical Lyme's test screens only for one. Furthermore, only half of infected people develop a rash. And Lyme disease can mimic other illnesses and viral infections such as the flu, mononucleosis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis. It's not a perfect system, admits Dr. Karen Becker, a CDC epidemiologist with the state. But she still believes that Lyme disease is over diagnosed in the South. She points to the fairly recent discovery of a Lyme-like illness as part of the problem. Called Southern tick-associated rash illness, or STARI, the illness is transmitted by the Lone Star tick - not deer ticks - and can cause a rash, low-grade fevers and general malaise often associated with Lyme. STARI is treated with antibiotics, and symptoms generally go away in a few weeks. It does not invade the heart, muscle or nervous systems as in true Lyme cases. “So it could be we're thinking its Lyme disease, and it looks like Lyme disease, but it's really something different,” she says. Jordan believes such comments miss the point. “Even if what some people do get is a Lymelike illness, as far as the Lyme specialists are concerned, what they're seeing is it causes all of the same late problems. So it doesn't matter.” |