234 lines
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Plaintext
Executable File
234 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
health
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8511954
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# Deadly Lyme disease on increase as more of us spend time outdoors
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## Why a tick bite could ruin your summer if you develop Lyme Disease
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![Asian tick][1]
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Asian tick Photo: EPA/PATRICK PLEUL
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By Elizabeth Grice 7:00AM BST 16 May 2011
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[Comments][2]
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Michael Palin calls it "one of the most unpleasant illnesses to which
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travellers can be exposed", a rather stoical description for a disease that
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can cause blindness, deafness, facial palsy and excruciating pain - and can be
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caught at this time of year in your own back garden.
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Cases of Lyme disease have tripled in the past 10 years as more and more
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people take up outdoor pursuits. It comes from the bite of an infected tick
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and can attack the central nervous system in unpredictable ways. Although no
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bigger than a poppy seed, the insect inflicts a disproportionate amount of
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damage when it decides to leave its animal host - typically a deer - in search
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of human blood. A cunning operator, it abseils down from long grass and hooks
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on to unprotected skin, anaesthetising as it bites so that its victim has no
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warning sting, no reason to seek critical early treatment.
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The symptoms that develop over the next few days and weeks are so complex and
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so easily confused with those of other conditions that they are frequently
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misdiagnosed. Although antibiotics are commonly prescribed when a blood test
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has proved positive for Lyme, according to specialists there is no good
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evidence about which type of antibiotic is most effective.
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Stella Huyshe-Shires, 60, waited three increasingly desperate years for
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confirmation that she had Lyme disease. In that time, she suffered intense
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pain, fatigue, loss of hearing, stiffness in her joints, panic attacks and a
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general inability to function normally. Eventually, she had to take early
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retirement on grounds of ill health.
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She was bitten, unawares, while working in her garden at Sidbury, east Devon,
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in 1999, and developed an irregular circular rash on her thigh. "It didn't
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hurt and it didn't sting, but it went on expanding," she says. "When it
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started to encroach on my groin, I went to the doctor. He gave me some steroid
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cream. The rash faded, and I thought no more of it."
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## Related Articles
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* [Lifecoach: I'm worried about my tick bite][3]
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27 Apr 2011
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* [Blandford fly: surge in 'infected' insect bites blamed on new
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superfly][4]
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29 Jul 2010
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Then she started to have other symptoms. She became hypersensitive to other
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people's voices and lost 20 per cent of her hearing. Two months on, she had
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pains behind the knee, under her feet, between her shoulder blades and, most
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severely, down her spine. She woke with palpitations in the middle of the
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night. For the next three years, this bizarre set of symptoms alternated,
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receded, returned.
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Her husband, Stephen, came across Lyme while researching a rheumatological
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condition, and his suspicions were aroused. "Do you remember that rash you
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had?" he asked her. It was the characteristic "bull's-eye" rash of Lyme.
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A blood test proved positive. Huyshe-Shires was put on low-dose antibiotics
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for two weeks - standard treatment for Lyme. "It made absolutely no
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difference," she says. "New symptoms, such as numb hands and a sensation of
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walking on glass, were happening all the time, as well as the old stuff. It
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was frightening. I asked to be referred to a neurologist in Exeter."
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After another "very positive" blood test, she went to hospital for two weeks
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of intravenous antibiotics. "I thought I was going to get better. I got worse.
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From then on, it's been a fight to get anyone to pay any attention."
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But Huyshe-Shires is not your average crushed and disappointed patient. She
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has a useful degree in agricultural botany and worked as a plant pathologist
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before joining the IT department of the NHS in Exeter. She joined the charity
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Lyme Disease Action in 2007 and is now its chair, lobbying MPs to change the
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rules governing the use of antibiotics.
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Doctors in Britain follow the advice of the Health Protection Agency, which
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adheres to guidelines set by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. The
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guidelines state that patients should not take antibiotics for longer than 28
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days.
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"Scientists have found that Lyme can survive a short course of antibiotics,"
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she says, citing a recent paper form the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
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Medicine, as well as other sources. "That is why we are urging the Department
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of Health to establish clinical trials into the effect of long-term antibiotic
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treatment for the condition."
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The charity also takes issue with the department's claim that blood tests are
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99 per cent sensitive to Lyme (some people with Lyme do not produce enough of
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the right sort of antibodies to achieve a positive blood test) and its
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assertion that "there is no biological evidence of symptomatic chronic Lyme
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disease among those who have received the recommended treatment".
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The overriding problem, she says, is doctors' lack of awareness and knowledge
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of tick-borne diseases. "Many people with typical symptoms will not be tested
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for the disease. They remain undiagnosed or misdiagnosed."
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A fellow Lyme-sufferer, Sue Ockwell, a director of Travel PR, says: "It is
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terrifying how little recognised Lyme is. The worst is that you cannot get
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anyone to take you seriously. You are made to feel a loony, on top of feeling
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desperately ill. Lyme is so complicated that you end up almost being your own
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physician."
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Ockwell was struck down with arthritis-like symptoms in 2007 but not diagnosed
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with Lyme until a year later. In her case, Lyme led to the autoimmune muscle
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disease dermatomyositis, which in turn may have triggered Hodgkin's lymphoma,
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for which she has just finished treatment.
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"With Lyme," she says, "you learn to expect anything. It manifests itself in
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many strange ways. No one knows whether Lyme has gone or whether it has been
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kicked into a corner by all the other drugs I have had."
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Huyshe-Shires is still in its grip, awaiting a decision about the next stage
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of treatment: probably more and different antibiotics but with a maximum
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course of 28 days, she believes the treatment will not be long enough.
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"The most extreme of my symptoms now is back pain, which can make me cry out
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in the night. The pain goes down the back of my legs, making it uncomfortable
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to sit, and I cannot drive for long because my hands hurt. The itching across
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my waist is sometimes so intense that it's like standing in a nest of ants and
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being bitten."
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She believes that she and others can recover with the right treatment, but are
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disadvantaged by a lack of research into appropriate diagnosis and treatment.
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As the Netherlands Journal of Medicine reported recently: "The randomised
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studies that have been performed have been of questionable quality and were
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heavily underpowered to detect potential effects." The report went on to
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underline the unreliability of blood tests alone to diagnose Lyme, its
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exasperated authors asking: "Why do doctors do their best to argue that
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patients consulting us about Lyme disease are over-demanding and should not be
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taken seriously?"
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As Huyshe-Shires points out: "Doctors are hampered both by the Department of
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Health and by lack of evidence about what course of treatment is most
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effective. We do not know enough about the microbiology of this bacteria. It
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is not enough to say that because you have had 'adequate treatment', you can't
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have Lyme any more."
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For more details, visit [www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk ][5]
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[X][6] Share & bookmark
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[What are these?][7]
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* Share: [Share][6] [ ][8] [ ][9]
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[Tweet][10]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8511954/Deadly-Lyme-disease-on-increase-as-
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more-of-us-spend-time-outdoors.html
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Telegraph
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## [Health][11]
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* ### [Travel »][12]
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* ### [Lifestyle »][13]
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* ### [Family »][14]
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[![Meet some of the bacteria that make up 90 per cent of the living cells in
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your body][15] ][16]
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### [Meet your bacteria][16]
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[![Spring hay fever season: scanning electron microscope pictures of pollen
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grains][17] ][18]
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### [Pollen grains up close][18]
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[![Elizabeth Hurley ][19] ][20]
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### [Liz Hurley's tips for looking good][20]
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[![Telegraph Medical Insurance][21]][22]
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### [Telegraph Medical Insurance][22]
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[X][6] Share & bookmark
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][7]
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Share:
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* [ ][6]
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* [ ][8]
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* [ ][9]
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* [Tweet][10]
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* Advertisement
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![][23]
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telegraphuk
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Please enable JavaScript to view the [comments powered by Disqus.][24] [blog
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comments powered by Disqus][25]
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[![tele_med_insur][26]][27]
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Advertisement
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[TELEGRAPH MEDICAL INSURANCE »][28]
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* [Calculators][29]
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* [Advice][30]
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