People actually feed the deer. The Japanese government hasn't put out any kind of advisory for lyme because they don't want to scare away tourism.
Would greatly appreciated if anyone can give any advice or knows of anyone who might have been bitten by a tick while visiting Japan.
I think a friend might have gotten bit there as she visited both places and began showing signs of being sick about 10 days after coming home.
Shes really sick and we can't figure out whats wrong. We've taken her to all kinds of doctors and now she is being referred to psychiatrists/psychologists as they are telling her all her symptoms are in her head.
Please, if anyone knows of any cases of lyme from Japan, respond. Thank you again.
Posted by lou (Member # 81) on :
Yes, lyme is in Japan. If you do a search on pubmed (the national library of medicine), you will come up with a number of articles. Here is one.
Detection of ehrlichial DNA in small rodents captured in a woodland area of Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, where lyme disease is endemic
Muramatsu Y, Ikeda E, Morita C, Tamura Y.
School of Veterinary Medicine, Rakuno Gakuen University, Hokkaido 069-8501, Japan. [email protected] Abstract
The ehrlichial gene was detected in small rodents trapped in a Lyme disease-endemic area in Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. Primer pairs of 16S rDNA targeting the genus Ehrlichia and other regions of the 16S rDNA specific for E. chaffeensis and E. muris were used for identification. The DNA fragment specific for 16S rDNA of Ehrlichia spp. was detected in 4 of 94 Apodemus speciosus mice (positive rate: 4.3%) and 5 of 73 Clethrionomys rufocanus bedfordiae mice (positive rate: 6.8%). The nucleotide sequence of the amplified 16S rDNA fragment was most similar to those of E. muris-like Ehrlichia, Ehrlichia spp. HF565 and Shizuoka-36, originating in the northern and central parts of Japan. In phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rDNA sequences, the northern, central and western groups of E. muris-like Ehrlichia from a cluster with microorganisms of the E. muris group. These results suggest that there are a group of E. muris microorganisms and a group of E. muris- like microorganisms in Japan.
PMID: 16249629 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]Free Article
Posted by lou (Member # 81) on :
There are more possibilities than lyme, and she might have gotten more than one germ.
Why don't you find a lyme doc in CA, and get a differential diagnosis. They will consider lyme, as most of the docs you have seen already will not. Post in the seeking doctors section or contact a support group in the list (see support groups line in green menu box).
Posted by jeffinca11 (Member # 25584) on :
thanks lou. i know lyme is almost everywhere now. the article above mentions hokkaido which i looked up and is in the north of japan.
she was in tokyo and south of it.
i'm wondering if anyone else has visited these places where the deer run wild and gotten sick. i'm sure they have.
if so, i want to know if they were tested and what the results were.
Posted by nenet (Member # 13174) on :
Jeff,
Here is someone from Australia reporting they contracted Lyme disease after visiting the Nara deer:
Searching for this topic dug up a lot of very misinformed postings from folks that either thought there was no Lyme in Japan, or that you had to have a tick attached for 24-36 hours before there was risk of infection; absolutely dangerous misinformation.
I also noticed people seemed to think that the deer had to get close to you or touch you for there to be risk of a tick getting on you. They seemed to not understand that ticks are all around, and the ones on animals are generally feeding already, though some may not be.
Anyway, I don't know how much informed comment you are going to find from Japanese locals or tourists, as it appears the misinformation about Lyme and vectors is just as bad there as here in the US.
I'm very sorry about your friend - if she is in California, she has a decent chance of finding an LLMD in state.
She really needs to see someone that specializes in Tick-borne-diseases (LLMD) so that she can be properly assessed. The sooner the better, whatever she has.
LLMDs by the nature of their work, must do differential diagnosis to rule out other possible causes besides Lyme and other tick-infections. It is in their patients' and their own best interest not to misdiagnose something else as Lyme disease, to protect their reputation, and their patients' health.
Posted by jeffinca11 (Member # 25584) on :
thanks nenet. yes, we found a llmd here in socal that we are going to see. hopefully, when tested, we can have a better understanding of what's going on.
they should warn people (the Japanese government) but as tourism is the main source of revenue for both of these cities, I don't think they will be warning of this hazard anytime soon.
sad. lots of kids play with the deer and feed them. they are often times surronded by deer and who knows how many ticks they are carrying.
how many people will get sick and not put 2 and 2 together?
it's only after intense research that we even came up with the possibility that it could be lyme from her visit to deer infested parts of japan.
Posted by erikjh1972 (Member # 20964) on :
i think your missing an important fact. deers themselves are just carriers of lyme not the cause.
my point is just because there are deer in japan doesnt mean there's an epidemic.
in the first acticle the rate of infection was .08 per 1,000,000. thats hardly an epidemic.
Posted by nenet (Member # 13174) on :
quote:Originally posted by erikjh1972: i think your missing an important fact. deers themselves are just carriers of lyme not the cause.
my point is just because there are deer in japan doesnt mean there's an epidemic.
in the first acticle the rate of infection was .08 per 1,000,000. thats hardly an epidemic.
I don't think anyone used the term "epidemic".
Just to summarize and clarify the research as I found it-
Japan is considered an endemic country, by the standards of that term.
Japan has several ticks that have been found to carry Lyme, and migratory birds seem to be a main component of the Lyme traveling to each of the islands.
So I think the issue here is that being very close to wildlife that is part of the Lyme-carrying tick's life-cycle is inherently risky and deserves extra care and caution, which apparently is not currently being applied or suggested by any authorities.
I would be just as concerned about rolling around on the ground with a bunch of white-footed mice, or any other animal that carries or attracts disease-carrying ticks.
I guess I just wanted to clarify that I don't see anyone overreacting or talking as if there is an epidemic. What we are acknowledging is an endemic place, and a certain rare situation where wild animals have become imprinted on by humans allowing for a magnified risk.
Posted by erikjh1972 (Member # 20964) on :
fair enough. i apologize for using the term epidemic.
i think that travel to another country and then becoming sick warrants a look at every possibility.
i just think you have a greater risk getting lyme here than in Japan.
Posted by kellephant (Member # 24885) on :
this is interesting...
i lived in okinawa, japan for 6 months!
okinawa is not in the mainland though Posted by jeffinca11 (Member # 25584) on :
Hi Kellephant.
Since you are there, perhaps you can do a little digging and see what you can come up with?
If you read japanese, can you do a search on the web? Maybe ask some friends if they know about lyme disease?
Any information we can get would really help. Thank you!
Posted by jeffinca11 (Member # 25584) on :
"Lyme disease occurs in temperate forested regions of Europe (including the UK) and Asia and in the northeastern, north central, and Pacific coastal regions of North America, Australia, China and Japan. It is not transmitted in the tropics."
Posted by 'Kete-tracker (Member # 17189) on :
Quote: "The Japanese government hasn't put out any kind of advisory for lyme because they don't want to scare away tourism"
Being a NH resident all my life, I can't understand why the folks at our Statehouse haven't seen the wisdom of warning it's citizens- via the broadcast media- of the growing danger of contracting Lyme here in the "Granite State". (We've got the fastest rise in reported cases for 2 southern counties in the whole freagin' Country!)
I can't help thinking that substituting "NH state" for "Japanese" in the quote above would yield an accurate statement. )
Has anyone seen the latest TV spot for NH tourism? 2 sets of legs dangling off a dock, with a body of water (lake?) in the background.
I'd sooo LUV to see someone "add" a coupe li'l black & red ticks crawling up 1 of those legs. Posted by jeffinca11 (Member # 25584) on :
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