One of our listeners was kind enough to send me the following information.
I have a couple of family friends that were diagnosed with Lyme disease and it was horrible to see. It can be very debilitating.
Dear Tracy,
I caught the tail end of your story about a tick bite on your neck that resembled a mole but I didn’t hear if this was a recent bite.
Per the attached UMass Amherst tick study 77% of the ticks tested in Litchfield, NH tested positive for Lyme disease. With percentages that high the probability of that tick transmitting a tick-borne disease is quite high.
Rapid transmission of Lyme disease under 24hrs has been identified:
Clinical evidence for rapid transmission of Lyme disease following a tickbite
Dr. Willy Burgdorfer who discovered Lyme disease said at a Lyme disease conference at Bard College in 1999 that about 5-10% of ticks that are carrying Lyme disease have a systemic infection and have the disease in their saliva and can transmit it as soon as they bite. He said, “There is no safety window.” That means that all statements that say it takes “at least” so many days or hours for a tick to transmit Lyme disease are false.
The telltale bulls-eye rash develops less than 50% of the time as reported by the State of Maine Dept of Health but we think that it is closer to 30% based on what we hear from Lyme patients here in New Hampshire.
The antibody tests we use to detect Lyme disease (Elisa/Western blot) will produce false negatives within the fist 4-6 weeks because our immune system does not produce antibodies early in the infection in quantities large enough for these tests to detect. So a negative test result is quite common.
We believe there is a narrow window of opportunity to treat Lyme successfully with a short course of antibiotics but that opportunity is most likely within the first three weeks.
The single–dose Doxycycline as prophylactic treatment for Lyme disease after the initial bite fails to eradicate an early infection and those who treat Lyme exclusively here in NH usually prescribe a full 30day supply of Doxycycline at the 200mg twice per day dose.
Believe it or not you now know more about Lyme disease than most primary care practitioners do.
I submitted the following article on Friday to the Hudson-Litchfield news awaiting publication. I have been contacted by the publisher who wants to set up an interview.
Please take the time to read this important message and share it with others:
