BORRELIOOSI BRITANNIASSA + TAPAUSSELOSTUKSIA

[Bb]

Lähettäjä: Soijuv Lähetetty: 4.6.2005 16:39

5 borrelioositapausta Britanniasta: Robin, 33, pyörätuolissa, Catherine, työkyvytön vuodesta 1996, Freddie, 50, toistuvasti vuoteenomana, Pamela, 63, vaikeat sydänoireet, Gordon, 36, tarvitsee jatkuvasti kotiapua, kävely tuottaa ongelmia.

Artikkelin mukaan vaikka borrelioosi olisi oikein diagnosoitu ja hoidettu, se voi aiheuttaa vakavia, pitkäaikaisia ongelmia sydämessä, maksassa, pernassa, keskushermostossa, nivelissä, ihossa. Borrelioosista voi olla seurauksena neurologisia ja psykologisia seurauksia kuten perhesiteiden hajoaminen, uran loppuminen, itsemurhat jne. Borrelioosiin ei ole olemassa (tällä hetkellä) varmaa ennaltaehkäisevää tai parantavaa hoitoa.


http://www.countrylife.co.uk/thefield/month.php

BREAKING COVERT
Lyme Disease, The Country?s Hidden Killer

It?s not notifiable in England and Wales, most of us know nothing about it and our vets and doctors aren?t much wiser. Sufferer Colin McKelvie thinks we should wise up

A SERIOUS, fast-spreading plague in our country? Surely not. Benign of climate, fauna and flora, the British Isles hold few serious natural perils, or so we?ve grown up to believe.

Today, however, a stroll in the woods, meadows, or on moorland may land us with an insidious, lingering, sometimes permanently crippling illness. It can do the same to a dog, cat or horse. It?s called Lyme disease and it?s spreading rapidly, but general awareness of it is pitifully lacking. There is a ?plague of ignorance regarding the ignorance of a plague? says Dr Scott Taylor, a medical man and Lyme sufferer.

Lyme is named after the New England town of Old Lyme, where the most rampant outbreak of the disease in modern times began in the mid-Seventies. The nearby woods are popular recreational areas, the deer population is high, and the deer carry high tick burdens. The tick-transmitted Lyme bacterium was first identified in 1982 by Swiss-born microbiologist Dr Willy Burgdorfer, and thus named Borrelia burgdorferi.

?It?s a helluva bug, and I?m sorry my name is on it? says Burgdorfer, who eventually contracted the disease. ? We know you?ve got an initial reaction, the skin lesion following the tick bite, but once the organism escapes the blood stream and enters the general system of the body, then it does its trick. Where it does it, we don?t know yet. But it gets out of control.

Since the Seventies, Lyme disease has been recorded on every continent except Antarctica, and the EU Concerted Action Group on Lyme Borreliosis regards it as ?rampant and spreading rapidly across most of the EU member states, in humans, wildlife and livestock?.

Robin, a 33 y o former forestry worker in Hampshire, is permanently in a wheelchair thanks to Lyme; in 1999 he ran the London Marathon.

40 y o Catherine, who once trained gundogs, hasn?t been able to work since 1996 and has had 27 spells in hospital.

Freddie, a Devonshire farmer and once ?active game shot aged 50, is frequently confined to bed for weeks.

Pamela, a 63 y o who loved dog-walking on the Lancashire moors, became housebound in 2003 and has developed major heart problems.

Gordon, a super-fit Highland stalker aged 36 when I met him in 2001, now needs constant help and can barely walk.

All have Lyme and all contracted it in the same way ? through a tick bite. Yet only 2 of them recall ever having a tick attached.

The common castor bean tick (Ixodes ricinus), as every farmer, gamekeeper, deer manager, game biologist and vet knows, can carry and transmit certain diseases, but they all tend to think of louping-ill in grouse and sheep, or tick-borne fever in livestock. Louping-ill, passed from tick-infested upland sheep, hares and deer to grouse, can devastate a moor and ruin the shooting for several seasons. It?s costly and frustrating for owners, keepers and guns, but that?s trifling compared with what tick-borne Lyme can do to a human.

Even when promptly diagnosed and treated, Lyme can cause grave long-term problems, most commonly affecting the heart, liver and spleen, the CNS, the joints and the skin. There may be neurological and psychological consequences, and chronic Lyme has led to extreme depression, family break-ups, ruined careers and suicides, It blights family life, places intolerable stresses on spouses and children. There is no proven preventative or certain cure.

Can you remember how often you?ve found a tick on your skin or clothing, or had to remove one from your dog or cat? Few of us can. Not every tick carries Lyme, but a high and fast proportion do. Oxford?s Institute of Virology found that ?one third of ticks collected from 230 sites in rural Britain proved +ve in tests for the spirochaete causing Lyme?, and the proportion is growing.

Dr George Hendry, a biochemist and ecologist specialising in tick-borne diseases, observes that ?in a survey of red and roe deer from 27 sites in Scotland, Wales and England, Lyme spirochaetes were found in at least one tick from each site?. Between 20% and 29% of forestry workers in the Thetford area of Norfolk and the New Forest in Hampshire have tested +ve for Lyme, but Dr Hendry emphasises that ?this is not just an occupational hazard because in the same New forest area one in 10 human residents carry Lyme antibodies against one in 50 in the control group of city dwellers. But city dwellers are also at risk. Screening of urban park workers in London?s Richmond and Bushey parks, each with large deer populations, showed that 16 out of 44 [35%] had high spirochaete levels?

If just one infected tick attaches itself to you, your dog, cat or horse, for long enough, the Lyme spirochaete enters the blood stream and that?s when the severe trouble may begin.

Picture a bacterium shaped like a corkscrew, it enters your bloodstream and can then drill into every piece of your cartilage, nerve, bone and other tissue. It?s tiny, barely 4 millionths of an inch long, and can cover itself with a coating that often makes the body?s immune system and many medicines powerless to destroy it. By hiding in body tissue of all kinds, it?s clever at evading the immune system, which is most effective in blood. It?s closest relative is the simpler bacterium that causes Syphilis, and technically it?s a spirochaete.

Doctors in the UK and worldwide are ?largely ignorant? about Lyme disease ?and are frequently irritated when confronted about it"? continues Dr Taylor. Dr Darrel Ho-Yen, and international Lyme authority who heads the unit in Inverness that does Scotland?s confirmation Lyme blood tests, expresses profound concern. ?It?s essential that awareness of Lyme in the British Isles is increased quickly among doctors, high-risk individuals and the public?. His team recorded a 35% increase in +ve Lyme tests in Scotland between 2003 and 2004 ?and very conservatively, we must multiply the annual notified numbers by a factor of 10 to take account of wrongly diagnosed cases, tests giving false results, sufferers who weren?t tested, people who are infected but aren?t yet showing symptoms, failures to notify cases and infected individuals who don?t consult a doctor?.

In Scotland alone that means a probable increase from 430 to 580 cases within 12 months. Lyme is a notifiable disease in Scotland, and mandatory notification also applies to British armed services and their families, wherever they are stationed. It has also voluntary notification in England and Wales: the HPA records for Lyme across most of Britain are therefore incomplete. Nevertheless, they show an increase from 97 cases in 1995 to 230 in 2003. Applying Dr Ho-Yen?s multiplier by 10, that means that at least 970 to 3,200. Laboratory confirmed instances increased 11 fold in England and Wales between 1992 and
2002. Countless others have gone unrecorded. Employers have a legal duty of care to protect their staff from it.

How can we avoid contact with ticks, and if bitten, how might we tell if the bite is innocuous or infected? The game Conservanacy trust (GCT), The Scottish gamekeepers Assoc. (SGA), and the Ramblers Assoc. have recently issued urgent guidelines and the British Horse Soc. is distributing information to its approved riding establishments. SGA vice-chairman Davey Thomson says ?We are extremely worried about the possible effects of tick bites on health and have sought medical advice on behalf of members and the public who spend their leisure time on land managed by gamekeepers. Many people don?t know what to do if they find a tick?.

In Ticks: Your Pets, Your family and You (Mercat Press, £6.95, out in July), Drs George Hendry, Darrel Ho-Yen and Alison Blackwell say ?the best tick repellent is the solid barrier of clothing ? sealed boots, trouser legs tucked into boots or socks drawn over trousers and long sleeved shirts. Light coloured clothing which shows up ticks is better?. They?re wary of repellents. ?There?s a fortune to be made if an effective, risk-free tick repellent were marketed. But that hasn?t happened yet?.

If a tick is attached to the skin correct removal is essential. ?Use tweezers not finger nails. Lay tweezers firmly on the skin close to the tick?s mouth parts, grasp the tick and pull it up and out steadily without twisting, clean the wound, and watch it over subsequent days. Do not prick, crush or burn the tick, as this may cause it to release fluid into the wound. Do not swathe or smother the tick with ointments, soap, petroleum jelly or other liquids?.

Your immediate reaction to a tick bite will be itching, slight swelling at the site, and soreness. This is especially common among children, who might scratch at the spot. The wound left by an uninfected tick usually disappears in a week, but a Lyme-infected tick will sooner or later produce other symptoms of what may become a severe illness. These typically begin with flu-like sensations of generalised soreness, blinding headaches, high fever, inability to tolerate bright light and, in about 50% of cases, a large red rash with a darker central area. If some of these signs develop see your doctor immediately.

No layman tells a doctor how to do his job. But given what Dr Darrel Ho-Yen and Dr Scott describes as the ?alarmingly low levels of awareness of Lyme and its complications among doctors?, you should diplomatically mention Lyme. Under the Patients? Charter you can request ? or even demand ? to be tested for Lyme. Testing produces some false +ves and some false ?ves, but +ve tests demand immediate antibiotic treatment, which may be prolonged and varied, administered either by mouth or as painful doses into the muscles or bloodstream.

What of your dog, cat or horse? Horses are said to display lethargy, weight loss, muscle soreness, lameness, stiffness and behavioural changes; and for cats, dogs and horses. Dr Alison Blackwell states that ?the general view is that hotter summers are seeing an increase in Lyme. However, it?s still
frequently overlooked by vets who are unfamiliar with its symptoms. Infection rates in horses is as high as 50% across Europe.

?The disease in pets is primarily acute or sub-acute arthritis, with approx. 5% of all dogs becoming ill. The obvious common symptom of Lyme in dogs is recurring lameness, usually a front leg. Since Feb 2000 our pets (dogs, cats and ferrets) have been able to accompany on holiday in certain destinations through the Pet Passport Scheme (PETS) which also allows pets from certain countries to enter the UK without quarantine as long as they meet the rules. Increasing numbers of British pets are catching potentially lethal diseases on foreign holidays. In 2000, 14,549 cats and dogs entered England under PETS. Those rose to 136,934 in 2003. Concurrently, exotic tick-borne diseases have shown to increases of about 100% according to veterinary schools.?

The peak risk period for exposure to ticks is April to October. Research shows that the risk of Lyme transmission is highest when the ticks are at the nymph stage, and because the nymph is no larger than a full stop on a page, it?s easy to miss one. Emerging nymphs climb onto low vegetation and latch onto humans and animals that brush against the leaves, heather and grasses. Female nymphs require a meal of blood to breed; and what attaches to you, your cat, dog or horse when it?s as small as a granule of pepper will gorge on blood, swell to the size of a coffee bean, and fall off to lay 2,000 eggs and produce another generation.

Eleanor Watts, working on ticks jointly with the National Environment Research Council centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the GCT has demonstrated that areas with ?high deer densities have higher tick numbers than low deer sites. Although my research is primarily on the transmission on Lyme and other diseases between non-human hosts, it could potentially be very useful for people using the same environment for hill-walking, shooting, stalking and camping.? Lyme-infected ticks have been found on pheasants partridges, grouse, seabirds, voles, mice, hares, sheep, deer, horses, cats, dogs, domestic poultry and scores of other common species.

?Tracing and studying Lyme is like trying to pick up mercury with a fork,? remarks a consultant at France?s Pasteur Institute. ?Few sufferers show identical symptoms. Lyme imitates countless other diseases, which is why it?s known as The Great imitator.? It may lie dormant and unsuspected in the system for years, until stress or another, often trifling complaint such as flu causes it to erupt.

My own dose of Lyme, which the gurus believe was in my blood for years, surfaced when a safari landed me with trivial African tick typhus infection in 2002, overloading my hitherto effective immune system. As a field-sportsman and frequent handler of deer carcasses, perhaps an infected nymph latched onto me as long ago as the Eighties. Or maybe I brushed one off vegetation while walking the dogs. I can?t remember having had an attached tick since my teenage days. At its worst Lyme is hellishly grim. A fellow sufferer remarked,

?Lyme wont kill you but there are days when you wish it would?. He is right ? up to a point. In extreme cases Lyme will kill you; that?s why you need to know about it.