Gazette- Maryland Community Newspaper

Support for Lyme disease bill sought

June 24, 2009

Montgomery County's reported cases of Lyme disease jumped from 85 people in 2006 to 475 in 2007.

Using the Center for Disease Control's 10-fold assessment, approximately 4,750 residents were exposed to Lyme disease. Unfortunately, many with Lyme will be misdiagnosed or improperly treated.

In 10 years approximately 20 percent of Montgomery County's population could be suffering from a disease that can cause chronic illness (affecting the brain, heart, joints, muscles and other organs), permanent disability and even death.

If current disease trends continue, within five years there will be more people in the county with Lyme than the total number of residents in Gaithersburg, Germantown, Bethesda and Rockville combined.

There currently are no coordinated government efforts addressing ticks and the diseases they carry and no test to determine if a person is infected or free of active disease (tests currently miss approximately 75 percent of those infected).

There are inadequate cookie-cutter medical guidelines (IDSA) in place recommending no additional treatment for those who remain ill or relapse after receiving a minimum dose of a "cost-effective" antibiotic.

Please call your congresswoman, Donna Edwards, (202-225-8699) and ask her to co-sponsor the Lyme disease bill (HR-1179).

And don't forget, do a tick check.

Lucy Barnes, Centerville

The writer is director of the Lyme Disease Education and Support Groups of Maryland.

http://www.gazette.net/stories/06242009/montlet174820_32529.shtml