Warren filmmaker tackles Lyme disease East Bay, RI
East Bay Newspapers Wednesday, June 4, 2008
WARREN--Warren resident and filmmaker Mary Healy Jamiel recently completed "Hidden in the Leaves," a 24-minute documentary about Lyme disease which will be televised next month on public television.
The film examines the emergence of the disease and why, despite public awareness, it continues to rapidly spread.
"It's striking that if you talk to just a few Rhode Islanders, you come across people that are affected by the disease," either directly or indirectly, said Ms. Jamiel, who has a passion for concerns involving public health and policies. According to Ms. Jamiel, the assistant professor at University of Rhode Island in Film Media and Communication Studies, three quarters of Rhode Islanders are at risk of encountering a deer tick, the disease's carrier, in their back yard.
One of those people affected by Lyme disease is Warren resident Joyce Katzberg, who is a subject in the film.
Ms. Jamiel said she was looking for a new film project when she became aware of her neighbor Joyce Katzberg's plight with the disease.
"After learning she had the disease, and watching her struggle, and her suffering -- she's such a dynamic person -- I wanted to understand more about it," said Ms. Jamiel.
In February 2007, Dr. Thomas Mather, an entomologist at URI, contacted Ms. Jamiel to see if she would be interested in making a film about Lyme disease. The timing was perfect, she said.
"It was an opportunity to raise the level of conversation about Lyme disease, empowering people with good information to protect themselves and form a strategy to combat it," she said.
Dr. Mather said that working with someone outside of science, like a filmmaker, who can understand the issues as he does and communicate those core issues is important. "She's terrific, she's insightful and she's innovative in her thought process," he said.
One of the challenges of the film, which was completed in April, was to have viewers appreciate how small the deer ticks are by using a technique called "macro-cinematographgy." Aerial footage was also used to illustrate the spread and range of the disease.
The film also investigates the history of the disease's growth and the enviromental factors that contributes to its proliferation, the effects of which Ms. Katzberg struggles with every day.
"I'm grateful to Dr. Mather and Mary for making this film," said Ms. Katzberg. She has had the disease for 22 years, though it was only first diagnosed in 2001 (she believes she was bitten by a deer tick on Block Island). Ms. Katzberg said doctors had passed her symptoms off as chronic fatigue syndrome. "I'm hoping that other people who recognize some of these symptoms in the film will go and get checked out. It's a very serious situation going on here."
Ms. Jamiel has won recognition for past films, including her independent work, "Holy Water-Gate," which received a 2004 CINE Golden Eagle Award for excellence in investigative journalism and Best Documentary at the 2005 Rhode Island International Film Festival.
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Watch the film
The premeire for "Hidden in the Leaves" will take place Wednesday, June 4, at 7 p.m. in the Chafee Social Science Center on the University of Rhode Island's Kingston campus. The documentary will air on Rhode Island PBS Channel 36 and Cox's channel 8 at the following times:
at bottom this has 2003 date; is that this old; where does the DISCREPANCY lie?? thx ****************************************
Posted by Cold Feet (Member # 9882) on :
I met Dr. Mather in Westwood, Mass. and was impressed with his sincerity, presentation content and ability to stay under the radar.
Please keep us posted. Also see this link for the related topic:
Betty, that date might be the copyright date of the newspaper? Not sure...but this article was from today's news.
Coldfeet, thanks for the feedback on Dr. Mather.
M
Posted by daise (Member # 13622) on :
quote: ... 24-minute documentary about Lyme disease which will be televised next month on public television.
Wonderful!
daise Posted by Casey Burns (Member # 14611) on :
This documentary (from the clip) raises my eyebrows. It mentions the East Coast and the upper Midwest as the places where Lyme is found. Well folks, it is here in Seattle and all over the West Coast. I caught it here. My LLMD who just opened up her practice here in January after treating over 7000 patients in Connecticut has over 70 she is working on here. I've urged 4 chronically ill West Coast friends here to get tested and all have tested positive with Igenex or Fry Labs tests.
I am worried that it reinforces the incorrect assumption that Lyme is an East Coast problem, as my Lyme unaware doctors at the Seattle Doctor's Clinics told me. This was similar to how Ronald Reagan thought that AIDS was a San Francisco problem, thus not worthy of any support from the Government. We all know how that ended up!
Posted by Tracy9 (Member # 7521) on :
That struck me too, it excludes most of the country as places where ticks are found. I am worried about this message.
Posted by bettyg (Member # 6147) on :
melanie,
thanks for your feedback; in today's paper...
here are 2 statistic charts for 2 posters to me; sorry without scrolling back up...can't remember your names!!!
Once again Pennsylvania and Maryland are topping the list with the most reported cases of Lyme disease so far this year, with California coming in third. And it's still JANUARY!
In mid-December 2007, the Maryland DHMH reported to legislators that they had over 1,000 new cases they hadn't completed or counted. However, the total for Maryland in 2007 did NOT reflect those extra 1,000 cases. Where did they go?
13 states have already reported cases this year... in JANUARY.... and many are cold weather states.
Colorado, which usually only reports a couple of cases per year, if any, already has one on record.
DC dropped from 62 to 13 cases in one year 06-07. Was one of the 13 cases President Bush's case?
Connecticut dropped again (2006-07)- no doubt due to their new fangled, high dollar reporting system that still isn't working properly.
Florida already has several cases reported so far this year, which is unusual.
Guam, Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Oklahoma were the only ones reporting NO CASES LAST YEAR.
Since reporting began in 1980 we have increased from 120 cases a year to over 20,000 cases per year, nationwide. These figures represent ONLY the reported cases.
According to the CDC, for a more accurate figure multiple the numbers by 10. That will provide you with the CDC 10-fold assessment totals and will show what they believe to be closer to the actual number of cases occurring.
And note: 75-90 percent of people with Lyme are being missed using the current standard tests, according to Hopkins and ILADS studies.
These people have little chance of ever being counted, much less diagnosed and/or treated properly, which can result in hundreds of thousands developing late stage Lyme and possibly becoming disabled or worse in the next few years.
Betty note: I tried printing out the chart, but it goes SIDEWAYS, and tried printing in pages 1, 2, 3; it kept printing page 1 only! So just a warning if others try to do this; use your PRINT REVIEW FIRST which I did, and indicated DIFFERENT pages, but still got page 1 only! I gave up after 8 tries! uffda
****************
Printable map 1990-2006 of Lyme- per state+ path of lyme/infection/inflammation!
I just noticed this on the LDA site, a new handy dandy tool for folks to use... (of course that is when I get done playing with it).
It is a printable map that shows the total number of reported cases of Lyme per year in each state... and the total number of cases over-all for each state.
Thought it might be of help to those doing research, reports, support group meetings, etc.
I don't know who "did it" but thanks! *************
Mol Med. 2008 Mar-Apr; 14(3-4): 205-212.
The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
The Pathogenesis of Lyme Neuroborreliosis: From Infection to Inflammation
Tobias A Rupprecht,1 Uwe Koedel,1 Volker Fingerle,2 and Hans-Walter Pfister1 1 Department of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany 2 Department of Microbiology, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
Great article. Thanks for posting. Just wish I had more brain width to truly grasp it.
Posted by MHJ (Member # 15749) on :
The FILM DOES discuss the spread of ticks and Disease beyond the east coast. Please do not judge the film by one two minute clip put online by a small local newspaper. The film will eventually be online in full at tickencounter.org Thank you all for your discussion and interest in the film.
MHJ
[ 06. June 2008, 07:59 AM: Message edited by: MHJ ]
Posted by Cold Feet (Member # 9882) on :
Casey, good points. Even the CDC's site (using data from 2007-07) stated that Lyme was in at least 46 states!
Posted by bettyg (Member # 6147) on :
mary healy jamel aka mhj,
welcome to the board; glad you found us!!
i suggest you UPDATE MY PROFILE and ENABLE PRIVATE MESSAGES; that's how we send LLMD names, and also how i send new members my NEWBIE PACKAGE of info plus!
Also, you probably couldn't find the REPLY button....small black/white area at top/bottom of screen to start NEW POST OR REPLY! i sure couldn't.
Mary, you didn't need to quote the originator of this post.
but if you are going to use this quote "" feature, please do the following for me/others like me ok!
DELETE the bold codings which begin the 2nd line!
[\B] ... that's what i'm talking about; just delete those 4 codes, and the text will be NORMAL print vs. the HARSH, BOLDED text that is VERY PAINFUL to my 38.5 years sensitive lyme eyes!!
mary, could you edit your post and either:
1. delete your quote of original poster.... OR 2. just delete the 4 bold codes i showed you please.
instructions are below....BIG THANKS MARY!
MARY, will your documentary be availble thru the OTHER STATES PUBLIC TV PROGRAMMING?
from what i saw, it's confined to rhode island now, correct?
*****************
WELCOME, would you like a FREE copy of my newbie package of 120 pages info galore sent by LYMENET'S PRIVATE MESSAGE system here; includes TREEPATROL'S LINK of his archive of over 1000 links of good lyme info?
I've been completely REORGANIZING it; NOT DONE YET; but up to page 60 since I have now created a TABLE OF CONTENTS WITHOUT PAGE NUMBERS since it changes DAILY! The part NOT organized yet is the last 30 pages of SSDI, ss disability insurance benefits tips/forms!
also, please go to TREEPATROL'S NEWBIE INFO IN MEDICAL; at top being features; mark it as a favorite! over 1000 links of good lyme info. He/I have some duplicates.
most of mine is very DETAILED info on certain things: SSDI/ss diability insurance benefits; FINANCIAL BURDENS; about IGENEX blood testing, symptoms lists for the basic types, NOIR/no infrared SUNGLASSES, etc. and how to use this board!
If you would like my newbie package, please send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE. PMs are the 2 people standing together icon to right of your name. Just ask me to send you lyme package, and I'll get it to you promptly. Thank you!
**********************
When you post or reply, please break up your solid, continuous block text
welcome to the board! many of us have neuro lyme where we can NOT read long solid block text and be able to comprehend and read it as is.
please edit your post by CLICKING PAPER/PENCIL ICON to right of your name. that opens up BOTH subject line and body text.
now please break up your WORDY SENTENCES into one sentence paragraphs. Then hit ENTER KEY ``THREE`` after each paragraph; we need that space for comprehension.
if you are NOT a wordy person, you can do 2 or 3 total ok. do this for your entire post.
then go to left hand corner and mark box to receive ALL REPLIES, and click EDIT SEND
we thank you for helping us; otherwise, we will SOB, SCROLL ON BY, since we can't read to help you. If I see posts like this, I SOB them; to hard on me. I'm also in the early stages of losing my eyesight from diabetes retinopathy. Posted by MHJ (Member # 15749) on :
Re: HIdden in the Leaves; RIPBS has sent to other PBS's across the country, but I don't know who will ultimately broadcast it - distribution is out of my hands. You can send a letter to your local PBS station, letting them know of the film and that it is available at no charge for Public Broadcast. Kind regards and thanks to all, MHJ
Posted by bettyg (Member # 6147) on :
.. Mary, thanks for the great suggestion; and thank YOU for making this free to PTV!!! God bless you for this.
I'll do this tomorrow !!
I hope those of you from other states will do this as well!!
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