EPIDEMIA JOKA ETENEE HUOMAAMATTA

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AOL News: "Olemme pelottavan epidemian keskellä vaikka sitä vaikutelmaa ei saa jos puhuu terveydenhuollon ammattilaisten kanssa. Tautitapaukset lisääntyvät AIDSia nopeammin. Yksinomaan rekisteröityjen tapausten määrä nousi yksinomaan v. 2008 77 % - puhumattakaan raportoimattomista tapausmääristä. Tautiin on sairastunut useita tunnettuja henkilöitä kuten presidentti George W. Bush, Parker Posey, Richard Gere, Alice Walker and Christie Brinkley. Kyseessä on borreliabakteerin aiheuttama sairaus, borrelioosi - Lymen tauti."


A Health Epidemic That's Going Largely Unnoticed

Connie Bennett
Special to AOL News
(May 28) -- We're in the midst of a terrifying epidemic, although you
wouldn't know it to talk to most doctors and health specialists.

The disease is growing at a rate faster than AIDS. From 2006 to 2008 alone,
the number of cases jumped a whopping 77 percent. In 2008 alone, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed 28,921 "confirmed" and 6,277
"probable" cases of the disease, but there could be as many as 420,000 because
of underreporting.

Prominent victims include Parker Posey, Richard Gere, President George W.
Bush, Alice Walker and Christie Brinkley.

If any other disease had stricken so many people, the medical community
would be scurrying for knowledge, scrambling for cures or rushing to warn
patients (think swine flu).

But that's not the case with Lyme disease -- a disease carried by ticks.

Instead, ill-informed doctors are often flummoxed when patients complain of
fatigue, headaches, fever or chills, muscle or joint pain, mental
confusion, swollen lymph nodes and neurological symptoms. It's an appalling display
of indifference.

As Lyme Disease Awareness Month comes to a close and Memorial Day travelers
flock to grassy, tick-infested holiday spots across America, vacationers
and physicians alike need to be on the alert for freckle-sized menaces that
are responsible for the fastest-growing, most misdiagnosed infectious disease
in the country. The CDC has a map that shows where the ticks are most
prevalent.

For my part, I was lucky because my smart nutritionist friend, JJ Virgin,
immediately grew suspicious when, almost overnight, I became an exhausted,
headache-ridden, nightmare-plagued, memory-challenged zombie suffering from
vertigo, sleeping problems, swollen glands, achy eyes, sensitivity to light
and noise, fever, chills and a sore neck.

She insisted I get tested for Lyme disease the next day.

When I tested positive for Lyme disease and babesiosis (a malaria-like
co-infection also spread by ticks), I began to research my condition, reading
books such as "Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic" by science journalist
Pamela Weintraub, watching the poignant documentary "Under Our Skin: The
Untold Story of Lyme Disease" and interviewing experts on my radio show.

Unfortunately, many victims of this poppy-seed-sized predator spend months
or years without effective treatment, because perplexed doctors wrongly
diagnose chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, lupus, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's,
Alzheimer's, arthritis or psychiatric disorders. It took "The Joy Luck Club"
author Amy Tan many years, numerous doctors and her own sleuthing before
she was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease.

We nature lovers need to be vigilant whenever we bike or hike near fields,
wooded areas or trails. (For instance, I always wear white socks; don caps
to cover my thick, curly hair; never sit on grass anymore; and wash my
workout clothes after coming home.)

Each of us needs to inspect our bodies for tiny, black intruders and tweeze
them out before they have time to infect us with any number of diseases.

To reduce the ick factor, we can give this health-wise precaution a
romantic twist, as Brad Paisley humorously suggests in his song "Ticks": "I'd like
to walk you through a field of wildflowers, and I'd like to check you for
ticks."

But more important is the need for public health community to treat this
disease like the epidemic it is, and start putting real resources into
educating the public and the medical profession about how to identify it, treat it,
and prevent it.

Connie Bennett is a journalist, certified health coach, certified life
coach, author of "Sugar Shock!" (Berkley Books) and host of the "Gab With the
Gurus" radio show, where you can listen to shows about Lyme disease.