Brandi Dean wanted to slink home. Her husband had rushed her to a Boston emergency room for severe vertigo, confusion, and a bizarre weakness on her right side, but neurological and other tests had yielded nothing. Maybe, a doctor suggested gently, it was a panic attack. I was so embarrassed,” said the soft-spoken Dean, who left Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center wondering whether the stresses of being a mother of two young sons had caused her to become so sick. She was still reeling from the experience a week later when her phone rang. One of her lab tests had come back positive — for Lyme disease.
Doctors put the 36-year-old South End woman on three weeks of antibiotics and Dean immediately began to feel well. But when the medication ended, so did her better health. Abruptly, Dean was catapulted into one of the most contentious debates in medicine today: Why do up to 25 percent of people treated for Lyme disease report lingering symptoms, lasting from days to years?.......To ReadMore.....
My Take - This article shows Lyme disease is far more complicated than thought previously. I would also like to point out that Lyme disease isn't new. Museums store many strange things, including dead animals. A number of years ago someone went back into a storeroom of their museum and bought out a preserved fox and texted it for Lyme disease with positive results. So if it has been around for so long why are we so surprised by the resurgence of this affliction? It is my belief that the elimination of effective pesticides by the EPA is at the heart of this issue. Chlorpyrifos (Dursban) is no longer used and that was probably the number one products to control ticks. Would the return of effective chemistry end this problem? No, but it would certainly provide the tools necessary to diminish the impact ticks have on all warm blooded creatures, including man.
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