Accounting for Lyme disease
Excerpted from NewsTimes.com ( Posted: 04/02/2012)
Studies in Massachusetts indicate the undercounting may be even greater than thought — although pharmacies in one county in Massachusetts filled 1,080 prescriptions for antibiotics to treat Lyme disease, only 25 Lyme cases were reported to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
DANBURY — After a mild winter, the black-legged ticks are out, waiting to hitch onto any mammal passing by — including humans — for their first blood meal of the season.
That means it may be a big year for Lyme disease — one of the banes of the state.
The disease may affect as many as 30,000 people in the Connecticut. Maybe more, maybe less.
The Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Official‘s Lyme Disease Task Force is trying to get the state Department of Public Health to do a better job of counting Lyme disease cases.
And the Lyme Disease Registry at Western Connecticut Health Network‘s Biomedical Research Institute is trying to get a better handle on the mechanics of the disease by recruiting more people who have had Lyme to participate in its program.
“We’re trying to marry epidemiology with a science lab,” said Joann Petrini, assistant director for original research at the laboratory, while she gave task force members a tour of the laboratory last week.
Read more: http://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Accounting-for-Lyme-disease-3451693.php#ixzz1qszveIhD
Lyme Handbook 