This is in response to your (Katherine Morrison) letter in our local newspaper editorial section regarding lack of public and physician awareness to Lyme disease within Southern California, including our community. The California Lyme Disease Association, CALDA, is a non-profit education and communication center for the public and physicians on Lyme and related tick-borne diseases. Recently our organization met with President Bush’s Health and Human Services to discuss the issues of: lack of research and funding, effects of Lyme on children, death due to Lyme,
lack of active distribution of information to doctors and health depts.
At the suggestion of our Malibu Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, CALDA sponsored a hearing on Lyme disease at the State Capital in Sacramento on Feb. 25, 2004. It is important to get the Lyme word out to the public and to medical professionals, yet we face many obstacles. One of which is that Lyme is perceived as an East Coast problem, although we have infection rates in California as high as the eastern U.S. All of our surrounding state parks have Lyme infected ticks. Over 80 percent of bites occur painlessly from nymphal ticks that are as small as a pinpoint.
Making detection even more difficult is the fact that only 50 percent of those bitten will exhibit a rash. In addition, there is the misconception that ticks have to be attached 24 to 48 hours in order to cause infection. In California, 30 percent of the ticks have infection in their salivary glands, allowing them to transmit the bacterium immediately to their host.
Children are the group most affected-25 percent are ages 15 and under. The wide range of symptoms can make diagnosis difficult.
There are 52 symptoms ranging from behavior problems in children, to memory recall, depression, eye manifestations, including double vision, floaters and blindness, gastrointestinal and cardiac problems, transient pain, fatigue, reoccurring rashes consisting of various shapes. A patient may have one or several symptoms that wax and wane, and generally develop over months to years. Complicating the diagnosis further is the fact that Lyme patients generally look well. I was misdiagnosed and have had to take various oral antibiotic medications for the last nine years to stay physically and mentally functional. This is why organizations as ours stress the importance of prompt diagnosis and adequate treatment in preventing devastating chronic illness.
Barbara Barsocchini
Vice President
California Lyme Disease Association