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Defending against Lyme disease
By Sean Kelly
The Evening News
New Glasgow Nova Scotia July 24 2006
It's a fight against a chameleon.
Tick collection this year reveals that 30 per cent of the ticks in Lunenburg County carry the bacteria which causes Lyme disease and 7.5 per cent in the Bedford/Admiral's cove area.
For Brenda Stirling-Goodwin of New Glasgow, who lives with Lyme, awareness and education is the best defence – and for now, it's one of the few.
"They call it the great imposter," she said, because Lyme mimics a host of other more common ailments, carrying similar symptoms as multiple sclerosis, A.L.S., lupus, fibromyalgia, arthritis, chronic fatigue and others.
"My feeling is that everybody is different. For each person, the Lyme (disease) can be different because we're all unique."
Sterling-Goodwin believes she may have contracted the disease in 1997. At the time she was working as a veterinary technician. But it wasn't until last year she was actually diagnosed as having Lyme.
"There's no question. It's life changing." At home in New Glasgow, Sterling-Goodwin, a green belt in Chito-Ryu karate and a once avid gardener, admits she's "not so Speedy Gonzales anymore."
"If we can do something to avoid somebody else having to be in our shoes, then go for it."
Lyme disease is a preventable, treatable illness, which can be transmitted by a blacklegged tick once it has attached itself to the skin for about 24 hours. It's considered one of the most prevalent vector-borne diseases in the Northern Hemisphere. Like syphilis, it's caused by a form of spirochete bacteria, whose symptoms will sometimes disappear early on in the disease but return. If caught early, it is treated by common antibiotics. A red "bulls-eye" rash is usually indicative of Lyme but doesn't always manifest.
There have been four reported cases of Lyme disease in the province since 2002.
Sterling-Goodwin said if the fight against Lyme in Canada is to move forward, there needs to be more research and a better recognition of the disease, even within the medical community.
"It's more prevalent than the system wants to acknowledge."
Lyme disease information is available online at: www.gov.ns.ca/health/ocmoh/lyme.htm.
For another source on the disease and recent articles, visit http://canlyme.com.
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