Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 10:05:31 -0500
From: Carol Phillips
Subject: Lyme Disease
I am sorry Mr. Kirk that you have Lyme Disease. I can sympathize too with your frustration about the lack of attention the disease gets: it is only recently that some doctors in North Carolina recognized people here can get it.
However, your statements about how Lyme disease is spread are mostly inaccurate: A dog or cat can get Lyme Disease, and inflict a deer tick that then bytes you and stays attached to you for over a day. The study that concluded Lyme can be spread through sex has been largely discounted.
https://www.survivingmold.com/community/health-hype-on-sexually-transmitted-lyme-disease
I don’t know this website, but the article has been peer-reveiwed and does lay-out what valid studies need to include.
The CDC reports on their website:
There is no evidence that Lyme disease is transmitted from
person-to-person. For example, a person cannot get infected from
touching, kissing, or having sex with a person who has Lyme disease.
….
There is no credible evidence that Lyme disease can be transmitted through air, food, water, or from the bites of mosquitoes, flies, fleas, or lice.
Ticks not known to transmit Lyme disease include Lone star ticks
(Amblyomma americanum), the American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis), the Rocky Mountain wood tick (Dermacentor andersoni), and the brown dog tick (Rhipicephalus sanguineus).
http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/transmission/
I’m not a huge fan of the CDC as they tend to be very slow in
acknowledging the existence and/or extent of some diseases. For example, on that same website they state that Lyme Disease is found in the northeastern,mid-Atlantic, north-central US, and the Pacific coast. I believe North Carolina is considered part of SE US. However, The NC Dept of Health and Human Services write:
During 2013, North Carolina reported 173 (39 confirmed and 134 probable) cases of Lyme disease.* For the 5-year period from 2009 to 2013, the state reported 601 (134 confirmed and 467 probable) cases.* Human cases have been diagnosed year-round, with most cases occurring April through July. By the end of 2013, four counties in North Carolina ‘“ Alleghany, Haywood, Guilford and Wake ‘“ had been classified as endemic for Lyme
disease for surveillance purposes. This means that two or more cases have been confirmed in each county and the patients’™ travel histories indicate that the infection was acquired in that county.
Carol Philips
Silk Hope