I know this may be a little off topic w/ Lyme, but what exactly do docs mean by "Zebra" diseases??
I know they are RARE and all ~ but what are they??
Is there a list of zebra illnesses somewhere out there to take a look at?? I tried googling zebra diseases, but didnt get much.
DO they pertain to things such as ALS?? Or are they totally different and virtually unheard of??
ALS is easy enough and well-known. I dont guess that would be a zebra.
Thank you for any insight.
Posted by pab (Member # 904) on :
This is a list of rare diseases. I haven't heard of them called Zebras. They are often called orphan diseases.
Posted by sickoflyme07 (Member # 13368) on :
Holy Moley! That is a HUGE list!! Thank you!!
And thank you also for explaining more about Zebras.
Very overwhelming to think about.
Posted by Aniek (Member # 5374) on :
Never heard of it, so I did a google search. This is from medterms.net
"Definition of Zebra
Zebra: The term "zebra" in medicine does not refer to the striped African animal but to an unlikely diagnostic possibility. It comes from an old saying in teaching medical students about how to think logically in regard to the differential diagnosis: "When you hear hoof beats, think of horses, not zebras."
For example, when someone develops a mild transient cough, tuberculosis is a "zebra." For another example, following the discovery of West Nile fever in New York City in September, 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned doctors to expect more infectious disease "zebras" (diseases due to rare microbes)."
Posted by bettyg (Member # 6147) on :
i thouht you were talking about b/w version zebra!
interesting thread! mom had one of these...carcinoid tumor cancer!
Posted by stella marie (Member # 7216) on :
Ha, ha...my PC called me a 'Zebra' when I first presented to her w/ all the reconizable Lyme Disease symptoms.
This duck just shook her feathers and kept sending me out to specialist who didn't have a clue as what the culprit was.
Finally an ortho surgeon told me it was undiagnosed LD that was causing all my zebra like symptoms!
Posted by randibear (Member # 11290) on :
yep, i've been told by my primary that i'm his "little zebra". he told me long ago to "think horses not zebras" so it became a joke.
well, it was funny until i found out i had lyme.
Posted by shazdancer (Member # 1436) on :
Since 2002, Lyme cases reported to the CDC have averaged to over 20,000 cases per year. And the CDC admits that actual cases can far exceed that.
That doesn't sound like a zebra to me. It sounds more like the doc can't identify hoofbeats.