Lyme
disease
WGGB
Springfield, MA
by Katherine Shepardson, Reporter
26 May 2004, noon
and 6am
Katherine Shepardson:
As you get ready for that Memorial Day picnic, a sobering reminder not to
forgot the bug spray. This year alone, hundreds of thousands of Americans
are expected to be infected with Lyme Disease. Problem is, thousands will
go misdiagnosed. In today’s health, the clock ticks as Lyme Disease
spreads. ABC 40’s Beth Ward has our report.
Beth Ward: The
stories are sobering. Like Samantha Davis, whose Lyme Disease went undetected
for years.
Tom Coffey:
I lost my ability to walk for three years. I couldn’t walk for three
years. I lost my ability to read for two years.
Beth Ward: Tom
Coffey’s doctors were also at a loss.
Tom Coffey:
Some of the finest physicians in the world at one of the best hospitals
in the world sent me home to die.
Beth Ward: Those
are extreme cases. But it’s important to note that a significant number
of Lyme patients never see the telltale signs.
Dr. Deborah Hoadley
(Infectious Disease, Baystate): It’s easy to miss because not every
patient remembers a tick bite or gets a bul’ls-eye rash and many patients
have a flu-like illness they think is the flu or viral illness and they
don’t realize it’s Lyme Disease.
Beth Ward: And
studies show neither do many doctors. So a group called the International
Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, or ILADS, today released a new set
of Lyme Disease treatment guidelines.
Dr. Deborah Hoadley:
They are a group of people that treat Lyme a little bit longer than other
doctors sometimes do and they are a little more aggressive about treating
patients that may not have laboratory evidence of Lyme disease.
Beth Ward: Doctor
Hoadley says tests for Lyme are not always black and white. She says it’s
critical to treat each patient individually
Dr. Deborah Hoadley:
We have to remember that people are individual patients. They aren’t
test tubes. When you see a patient you see the whole patient and you may
decide that the guidelines are just that: guidelines.
[
