Ticks And Lyme Disease Dangers

The only way to keep from getting the illness is to stay away from the tiny ticks that transmit the disease and, if you can't, be scrupulous in checking yourself for them after you've been in tick-infested areas.

A leading Lyme researcher, Andrew Spielman of the Harvard School of Public Health, said that the infected ticks have become so widespread, in fact, that if you frequently see deer near your home, whether or not you live in a coastal area designated as Lyme-prone, you should take precautions. The ticks feed and mate on deer.

Paul H. Etkind, director of epidemiology programs at the state Department of Public Health, agreed: "I would expect, with the expansion of the tick's range, we would be seeing more cases, and people would not have to travel to vacation spots along the shore in order to be exposed.

Lyme disease was first identified in 1975 by Dr. Allen C. Steere, then at Yale University, who noted cases of what seemed to be rheumatoid arthritis in several children in Lyme, Conn.

In the next few years, cases were found in the United States only in spots on islands off Cape Cod, the Connecticut shore and in Wisconsin. Since then, known Lyme "hot spots" have grown to include Ipswich, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod, Long Island and Westchester County in New York, Block Island and coastal Connecticut, parts of the New Jersey shore and spots in Oregon and Northern California.

Lyme cases have been reported in 32 states in all. The federal Centers for Disease Control receive about 1,500 reports a year of Lyme disease, but many cases probably go unreported. Steere, now rheumatologist-in-chief at New England Medical Center in Boston, estimates the actual total is 10 to 20 times that number.

Lyme disease is caused by a spiral-shaped "spirochete" bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi, carried in 25-40 percent of Ixodes dammini ticks, which are far smaller than the more familiar dog ticks.

In humans, the infection is usually, but not always, marked within days or weeks of the bite by a red ring rash that expands around the bite. Within days, flu-like symptoms, including fever, aching muscles and joints and swollen glands, may set in. Facial paralysis called Bell's palsy sometimes occurs.

The peak time for Lyme infection is May through July, but bites and infection can occur at other times.

Lyme Disease