Topic: hshbmom Posted this Public Health Surveillance
treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 4117
posted
The CDC published their case definition of Lyme disease for Public Health Surveillance to provide uniform criteria for reporting cases of Lyme Disease. Part of this definition is listed below.
The CDC's definition of an endemic county is a county with 2 confirmed cases of Lyme disease. TWO!
You may know of at least 2 confirmed cases of LD in your county.
We can get our county declared endemic for Lyme disease. This step will help overcome one familiar obstacle to the diagnosis of Lyme disease...the "We don't have Lyme disease here" syndrome.
A history of "exposure" depends on whether your county is considered endemic.
Also, many of us have photos of our EM rashes...and have been diagnosed with LD on the basis of having this EM by a LLMD.
Once a county is recognized as being endemic for Lyme disease it should be easier to get a correct diagnosis.
Your input is welcome. I need someone to take this idea and put legs on it.
Nancy
"Case Definitions for Infectious Conditions Under Public Health Surveillance
State and local public health officials rely on health-care providers, laboratories, and other public health personnel to report the occurrence of notifiable diseases to state and local health departments. Without such data, trends cannot be accurately monitored, unusual occurrences of diseases might not be detected, and the effectiveness of intervention activities cannot be easily evaluated.
In the United States, requirements for reporting diseases are mandated by state laws or regulations, and the list of reportable diseases in each state differs. In October 1990, in collaboration with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, CDC published Case Definitions for Public Health Surveillance (MMWR 1990;39{No. RR-13}), which, for the first time, provided uniform criteria for reporting cases.
This report provides updated uniform criteria * for state health department personnel to use when reporting the nationally notifiable infectious diseases listed in Part 1 of this report."
The following is a part of the CDC's definition of Lyme Disease:
"Definition of terms used in the clinical description and case definition:
Erythema migrans. For purposes of surveillance, EM is defined as a skin lesion that typically begins as a red macule or papule and expands over a period of days to weeks to form a large round lesion, often with partial central clearing. A single primary lesion must reach greater than or equal to 5 cm in size. Secondary lesions also may occur. Annular erythematous lesions occurring within several hours of a tick bite represent hypersensitivity reactions and do not qualify as EM. For most patients, the expanding EM lesion is accompanied by other acute symptoms, particularly fatigue, fever, headache, mildly stiff neck, arthralgia, or myalgia. These symptoms are typically intermittent. The diagnosis of EM must be made by a physician. Laboratory confirmation is recommended for persons with no known exposure.
Exposure. Exposure is defined as having been (less than or equal to 30 days before onset of EM) in wooded, brushy, or grassy areas (i.e., potential tick habitats) in a county in which Lyme disease is endemic. A history of tick bite is not required.
Disease endemic to county. A county in which Lyme disease is endemic is one in which at least two confirmed cases have been previously acquired or in which established populations of a known tick vector are infected with B. burgdorferi."
This web page is huge, use "Control" and "F" to search for Lyme. ******************
Betty broke this statement up to make it easier to read. She also posted the statements at the bottom.
Erythema migrans. For purposes of surveillance, EM is defined as a skin lesion that typically begins as a red macule or papule and expands over a period of days to weeks to form a large round lesion, often with partial central clearing.
A single primary lesion must reach greater than or equal to 5 cm in size. Secondary lesions also may occur.
Annular erythematous lesions occurring within several hours of a tick bite represent hypersensitivity reactions and do not qualify as EM.
For most patients, the expanding EM lesion is accompanied by other acute symptoms, particularly fatigue, fever, headache, mildly stiff neck, arthralgia, or myalgia. These symptoms are typically intermittent.
The diagnosis of EM must be made by a physician. Laboratory confirmation is recommended for persons with no known exposure. *********************************
Now for us to take action!
so we call our COUNTY HEALTH DEPT. to get our county declared endemic
-------------------- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember Iam not a Doctor Just someone struggling like you with Tick Borne Diseases.
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