This is strange, according to my NBC affiliate, the lyme rates had more than doubled in the last 3 years here in Oregon, not declined as reported by Fox. Wonder what is going on here....
Posted by OtterJ (Member # 30701) on :
What's going on is the real numbers aren't getting reported. They want CDC-positive tests, and not everyone gets that many bands, or any bands at all, in many cases.
Contrary to what they say in the article, the Western fence lizard is not keeping infection numbers down here. It may reverse Lyme in the ticks that bite it, but that don't keep infected ticks from biting.
And DEET is too weak to use for protection. This article is pretty lame...
Posted by Dove7 (Member # 39546) on :
My doc said they are getting in people with classic symptoms who can recall bites from "very large flies" but no tick bites.
Hmmm, other ways of transmission as many people have thought?
Posted by lostlyme (Member # 38561) on :
You can read here why some southern states have had a decline . A lot of it comes to money .
A South Carolina survey of physicians found that doctors diagnosed 334 Lyme disease cases in that state in 1990 (6). The same year, Georgia reported 160 Lyme disease cases - quite a noticeable drop from the prior year, but still placing us 9th highest in the nation.
That year the Georgia Legislature cut the funding for the free tests (4). Additionally, the CDC changed the reporting criteria and, as we recently learned, the Georgia Division of Health implemented their own reporting practices over the years which differed greatly from the CDC's national surveillance guidelines.* Georgia's reported case numbers began to plummet.
Georgia may be the worst state to get Lyme disease in! Even a positive test, symptoms and history are a false positive. After all the CDC is right there. Georgia does not report positive cases ! It's a horrible situation there and a big hidden secret.
Posted by KentuckyWoman (Member # 38894) on :
We have someone in our Kentuckiana group that says he knows he got lyme from being bitten by flies. He saw himself get bit, and he got a bad rash and has the boatload of symptoms. He came seeking info for testing.