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TThree years ago, a few weeks after a family trip to the New Forest, I began to feel constantly nauseated and tired. A small red spot appeared on my ankle. I turned to the Web for answers and Google found strengths: to my horror, my symptoms matched those of the bacterial infection transmitted by ticks, Lyme disease.
My general practitioner doubted (we were living in London and I did not notice any ticks on me) but I agreed to have a blood test. He came back positive and the rest of my family was tested. My husband and my daughter had them too, but, paradoxically, my son – whom I spotted a tick – did not have one. Lyme disease is similar to malaria in that you may be bitten by a mosquito but some of them carry the disease.
Warnings issued last week that Lyme disease is on the rise – and that the number of cases could be three times higher than expected – do not surprise me. When I got it, I was shocked to see how easy it was to convey it, how unreliable the tests were and how terrible the consequences were for those who had not received the right one. diagnosis in time.
My symptoms spoiled our Christmas holidays and antibiotics affected my daughter's health during school exams. But we were lucky. I later learned that of two other people who had contracted Lyme disease in the New Forest, one – a child – was neurologically affected.
Since the hosts of New Forest ticks were deer, suffice it to say that I no longer want to cry at the movie Bambi and – unpopular opinion alert – I began to hope that people would see the deer in Richmond Park not through fogged eyes, but through the sight of a rifle. (I was not alone.) A letter to Time last week, we asked, "If deer are considered a significant threat to human health and if increasing slaughter is considered a reasonable solution, then why are we hesitating?")
But my research revealed that deer were only part of the problem: the unimaginable truth is that ticks are carried by other animals, including cats, dogs and birds. The International Society of Lyme Disease and Associated Diseases said, "The home of a patient does not necessarily reflect the risk of contracting Lyme disease. People travel, pets and ticks. "Migratory birds carry ticks over great distances," he adds.
You can not immunize yourself against Lyme disease – a lesson learned by Claire Enders, a media badyst. She had Lyme disease twice and the second fight was not diagnosed for a year because the results of her test gave a false negative. An eloquent businesswoman of a family of Nobel laureate doctors of medicine, she has gained such authority over illness that after telling Jeremy Hunt that the guidelines on the Lyme NHS website were inadequate, the health secretary at the time had updated them.
Yet she had to work hard to convince her doctors that she had it again: "I was asked if I had aDaily mail disease & # 39 ;. It was humiliating. I felt devastated by the disease, so it was awful to tell me that it was in my head because the test was negative.
Enders was unable to walk and suffered nerve damage, but luckily was better after a cycle of antibiotics and 18-month hydrotherapy.
Language is important to raise awareness. She describes the disease as a "disease caused by climate change" and states that Lyme disease should be compared to tropical diseases and not to flu: "It's a neural disease."
Experts say that milder winters have increased the tick population, as fewer people are killed by the freezing cold. Enders remarked, "This country is covered with wood and crawling with deer. People forget that birds catch ticks, as do cats, dogs and other animals. "
She highlights how the United States has responded to the rise in Lyme disease – by opening special clinics where antibiotics are administered. British doctors are more reluctant to prescribe antibiotics because of increased resistance, but according to Enders, they are the only cure for it. About 70% of his American family has had Lyme disease and his heritage is now being sprayed to kill ticks after employees have died from the disease.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has identified areas in the UK that are particularly at risk of contracting the disease. These include New Forest and the Scottish Highlands, where businessman Kenny Young caught Lyme from ticks in the ferns. At first he was very tired, but he thought nothing until a rash appeared a few weeks later. "Fortunately, I knew enough about Lyme to understand it," he said. "My doctor was in London and had never met Lyme before. However, when I explained what had happened, she had me a great help and even prescribed the antibiotic treatment recommended by the NHS.
He thinks the increase may be due to milder weather but also to different land use: "In the past, there was a lot more fern burning that kept them under control."
Young now checks for ticks and says, "Let's hope that the sharp increase in Lyme disease in the United Kingdom and the United States will encourage greater investment in the search for a vaccine. "
Vaccination or better tests could help stop cases like that of former English rugby player Matt Dawson, whose misdiagnosis of Lyme led him to need heart surgery. The costly problem the government faces is the ticks and the bacteria they transmit. further research is needed on this mysterious and complex disease.
My expert, Dr. Darius Armstrong-James, said, "There seem to be other factors that we do not understand. It was said to me at the medical school that it was mostly [in the] New Forest and acquired by deer ticks. Now, it seems that the animals that harbor Lyme disease are accepted as being much larger and the geography is obviously very broad. "
After the disappearance of my symptoms and the end of my antibiotic treatment, my samples were sent to Porton Down to check that I did not have Lyme disease. However – and I guess I should not have been surprised by this – it's not a process as simple as you think. Once you have Lyme disease, your blood will always show a positive test, even when the disease is gone.
Ticks can be worn by dogs and cats, as well as by wild animals such as deer and birds. Photography: 4FR / iStockphoto
Symptoms include circular red mark on the skin, multiple rashes, fatigue, painful joints, dizziness, fever, night sweats, difficulty concentrating, stiff neck / headache, numbness or tingling, nausea, palpitations, shortness of breath, and changes in skin tone. ;mood.
What to wear insect repellent, a hat and long clothes in the woods; check yourself and pets for ticks.
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