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Friday,
May 30, 2003
Tick
season is here
Lyme
disease danger grows
By
Gigi Wood
Iowa
City Press-Citizen
She was at the height of her fashion design career - she could
be seen on television and riding in limousines - until she
was bitten by a tick nine years ago.
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Wanted
dead or alive: Ticks
•
Entomologists
at Iowa State University want to determine where these
ticks occur in Iowa. You can help. If you find any
ticks on yourself while in Iowa:
•
Wrap the tick in a tissue.
•
Put the tissue in a small plastic bag.
•
Add some blades of grass so the tick does not dehydrate.
•
Send to Lyme Disease Project, Department of Entomology,
440 Science II, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
50011. Include your name and address, the geographic
location where you found the tick and whether it was
attached or not and to what. Send the tick whether
it is dead or alive.
You
will be sent a postcard telling you species of tick
you have found.
•
Also, the University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory identifies
ticks and performs testing on blood for Lyme disease.
Send the tick wrapped in a moistened tissue and placed
in a plastic bag to: University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory,
102 Oakdale Campus, #H101 OH, Iowa City, Iowa 52242
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When
Time magazine called Judy Weeg for an interview about her
highly successful fashion business in 1994, she was barely
able to move, having been diagnosed with end-stage Lyme
disease. The eldest daughter of computer pioneer Gerald
Weeg, she had to decline the interview.
"I
was out and about with people like Joan Rivers one day,"
said the Iowa City native now living just outside of Des
Moines. "And the next thing I knew I was lying in bed sick."
She
never found the tick that bit her, but had been working
in a wooded area of Pennsylvania when the symptoms of Lyme
disease began to surface. She developed a swollen rash,
flu-like symptoms, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, headaches
and swollen glands. Early summer months are the peak time
for young ticks, known as nymphs, to develop. By September,
they will reach adulthood.
Because
scientists do not track tick populations, there is no way
of knowing how many ticks will be out in the fields and
lawns this summer, said Wayne Rowley, an entomologist at
Iowa State University who leads the Iowa Lyme Disease Project.
The
project team collects and identifies ticks sent to their
office. Any deer ticks they receive are sent to the University
of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory to be tested for Lyme disease.
Last
year, the project received 700 ticks. So far this year,
they have received 390 ticks, 42 of which were tested. Nine
tested positive for Lyme disease.
The
project team does not receive an accurate sampling of Iowa
ticks, Rowley said. So he cannot say that receiving more
ticks means the tick population is growing.
Increasing
the public's knowledge about ticks and Lyme disease is one
of Weeg's main goals these days.
"I
want to make sure no one walks in my shoes," said the 52-year-old
Weeg, who spends all but four hours of each day in bed because
of fatigue and pain. "This disease will kill me, but I'm
not going to die in vain."
If
caught early, Lyme disease can be treated with antibiotics.
The disease commonly leaves a "bullseye" rash on the skin,
which should receive immediate medical attention.
In
Weeg's case, she underwent two years of diagnostic tests
before she was diagnosed, she said. Weeg was treated by
a specialist in Kansas City who confirmed that Lyme disease
is the cause of her symptoms. Extreme pain and fatigue are
the symptoms that affect her daily.
"It's
like one of Dante's biggest rings of hell. It feels like
a butcher knife shredding my muscles and bones every day,"
Weeg said.
Lyme
disease is a disorder that is recognized by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and is transmitted by
a tick bite. The disease is named for the community of Lyme,
Conn., where residents experienced an epidemic of acute
arthritis in the summer of 1975. Since then, Lyme disease
has become the most commonly diagnosed tick-borne illness
in the United States, with about 15,000 cases reported annually,
according to the CDC.
For
more information about Lyme disease, visit the Iowa Lyme
Disease Association Web site at www.ildf.info/home
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