Lyme Disease is Spreading

Lyme Disease Spreading

If you live in the northeastern United States you’ve probably heard about Lyme disease. There are an estimated 30,000 cases of this disease reported each year in the US, mostly in the northeast, but for years, Lyme has often gone undiagnosed. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Zajac: The number of cases is going up all the time. Part of that is probably related to the fact that there is increased reporting as people understand it better and know about it. There’s more reporting of the infection.

Anne Zajac is a professor in the veterinary College at Virginia Tech.

Zajac: It’s believed that the deer tick is really responsible for the majority of transmission of Lyme disease.
That tick picks up the infection in the larval stage usually, when it feeds on a small rodent, mice usually. And then it’s able to carry the infection with it as it goes through its different life stages.

Zajac: Lyme disease is particularly worrying to people because we we believe now probably there are impacts of the disease that go beyond an initial period of fever and pain.
We see what appears to be long-term effects that can relate to joints, to mental capacity. It’s controversial certainly, and this is part of the problem with Lyme disease because not everyone recognizes that these chronic effects can occur. It makes it harder for physicians to diagnose and treat impacts that may be extended and everybody worries about that .

We’ll hear more on Lyme disease in future programs. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Lyme Disease is Spreading

An estimated 30,000 cases are reported each year in the US.
Air Date:02/19/2018
Scientist:
Transcript:

Lyme Disease Spreading

If you live in the northeastern United States you've probably heard about Lyme disease. There are an estimated 30,000 cases of this disease reported each year in the US, mostly in the northeast, but for years, Lyme has often gone undiagnosed. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Zajac: The number of cases is going up all the time. Part of that is probably related to the fact that there is increased reporting as people understand it better and know about it. There's more reporting of the infection.

Anne Zajac is a professor in the veterinary College at Virginia Tech.

Zajac: It's believed that the deer tick is really responsible for the majority of transmission of Lyme disease.
That tick picks up the infection in the larval stage usually, when it feeds on a small rodent, mice usually. And then it's able to carry the infection with it as it goes through its different life stages.

Zajac: Lyme disease is particularly worrying to people because we we believe now probably there are impacts of the disease that go beyond an initial period of fever and pain.
We see what appears to be long-term effects that can relate to joints, to mental capacity. It's controversial certainly, and this is part of the problem with Lyme disease because not everyone recognizes that these chronic effects can occur. It makes it harder for physicians to diagnose and treat impacts that may be extended and everybody worries about that .

We'll hear more on Lyme disease in future programs. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.