Ticked Mom Gets Lyme Awareness Week Declared in California May 4 - 10, 2005

The California state legislature has just proclaimed May 4-10th, 2005, Lyme Awareness Week. Despite being endemic throughout the state, Californians think of Lyme as a problem primarily of the East Coast. As the legislature has recognized, nothing could be further from the truth.

UKIAH; LOS ANGELES, CA (PRWEB) April 27, 2005 -- The California legislature has just passed Resolution SCR23 declaring May 4-10th Lyme Awareness Week in the state. Bev Feldman, a realtor in La Canada Flintridge, worked with CALDA (the California Lyme Disease Association) and Senator Jack Scott to introduce the resolution.

Ticks are sewers of infectious diseases," says Bev, who ought to know. She and her daughter, Silver Feldman, 16, learned about Lyme the hard way. Both were bitten by ticks. Silver was bitten either on a hike in Malibu or on a high school biology field trip, and ironically Bev was bitten a year later in Massachusetts at the clinic where Silver was being treated for Lyme. Not one of the twenty California doctors who saw Silver when she became sick over a seven month period thought to test for Lyme disease.

"Lyme disease is just not 'on the map' with the public, parents, schools, HMOs and medical professionals, so we don't understand the seriousness of it," says Bev. Anywhere there's deer, there's ticks, and where there's ticks, there's Lyme. This is why Im doing what I can to raise the level of awareness about Lyme in California." Because of the delay in diagnosis and treatment, Silver was unable to attend school for a year and required home-schooling. After intensive antibiotic and alternative treatments, she's back in high-school and Bev is working full time in real estate.

Lyme disease is a serious bacterial infection that can attack the joints, hearts and nervous system. The California Lyme Disease Association states that Lyme awareness, education, and prevention is a critical public health issue". Those who spend time outdoors hiking or gardening are at particularly high risk. Twenty-five percent of Lyme patients are children under fifteen.

Even though Lyme disease is endemic throughout the state, Californians tend to think of it as an East Coast problem. But as the California legislature has recognized, nothing could be further from the truth. The black-legged tick that carries Lyme disease is present in virtually all California counties, and Lyme has been reported in 54 of the 58 counties state-wide. Early diagnosis and treatment are key to combating the disease. But because Californians are unaware of the risks posed by tick bites, they dont take appropriate precautions to avoid exposure and California doctors are less versed in spotting the symptoms and treating the disease.

Common symptoms include fatigue, arthralgia , fever or chills; stiff neck and anorexia. A characteristic "bulls-eye" rash, sometimes occurs, but CALDA cautions that it is present in fewer than 50% of Lyme disease patients. Other common symptoms include headache, shortness of breath, cognitive impairment, and mood disorders. The constellation of symptoms are usually misdiagnosed as separate conditions such as migraines, arthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, MS, mono and others.

One tick bite can transmit a number of diseases, which makes the condition more difficult to treat. Dr. Ray Stricker, a San Francisco Lyme specialist, agrees that the lack of awareness of physicians is a real problem. Dr. Stricker states that Lyme disease is the fastest-growing infectious disease in the country" and notes that the annual infection rate of Lyme now surpasses that of AIDS. Yet most of his patients have been misdiagnosed for years.

CALDA and Bev want the public to know that:
-Ticks should be removed carefully, using tweezers at the head of the tick. Applying pressure to the body of the tick or using heat to remove it, will cause the tick to regurgitate.
-People who have been outdoors, especially in a wooded area, should perform tick checks when they go inside.
-Sitting on logs or in oak leaf litter increases the risk of getting a tick bite.
-Loose ticks can be carried into the house by pets, exposing pet owners to being bit in their own homes.
-Infections identified early can be cured by antibiotics. But because of misdiagnoses, presently the average time from symptoms to diagnosis is four and half to six years.
-Blood tests may not detect active infection, so you want to find a health professional with clinical Lyme experience.

You dont have to look far to find Lyme disease. Bev says, "I just closed escrow on a house where the seller's 37-year old son had been sick for twenty years and was disabled. His doctors kept changing the diagnosis, but his symptoms were very familiar to me. Turns out he had been a camp counselor in the San Bernadino mountains. I referred him to a specialist who diagnosed him with Lyme and he's getting treated. I was the right agent for that seller."

For more information:
Bev Feldman 818-445-7936, 818-790-7418, www.ticked.org
CALDA -- www.lymedisease.org.
Lorraine Johnson, CALDA Executive Director 323-461-6184
Dr. Ray Stricker 415-399-1035

About CALDA (California Lyme Disease Association):
CALDA is a 501(3)c non-profit corporation that exists to promote Lyme disease awareness, education, and prevention. CALDA publishes the Lyme Times four times a year.

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