This is a tick that can kill people

Not enough warnings about critters that cause Lyme disease, father says

By JOHN GILLIS Health Reporter, Chronicle Herald, September 12, 2008

Some Bedford residents whose loved ones have contracted Lyme disease from infected ticks in the area say health officials aren’t doing enough to let other residents and local doctors know about the threat.

Public health officials have cautioned people since late 2005 that the black-legged ticks capable of carrying Lyme disease had established themselves in Admirals Cove Park near the Eaglewood subdivision.

But material posted on the Health Promotion and Protection Department’s website continues to state that the only Nova Scotians infected with the disease since 2002 have been in the Lunenburg area.

At least two other people in the Bedford subdivision, a man and a boy, are now being treated for Lyme disease, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 14 since 2002.

The boy’s father, Andrew Payzant, said it took about two months to figure out what was causing the swelling and pain in his son’s knee and during that window 11-year-old Bradley wasn’t really getting any treatment.

He thinks authorities should do more to make people and doctorsvigilant for Lyme disease.

"There’s an awful lot of people in Bedford, and particularly in the area that we live within Bedford, that are at risk . . . and may be sick with something that is being misdiagnosed," he said.

Lyme disease may cause a rash, fever, fatigue, muscle aches and headaches. If untreated, it can lead to facial palsy as well as chronic joint and heart problems.
After a course of oral antibiotics proved ineffective, Bradley is about to start a month of intravenous antibiotics to combat the disease.

Mr. Payzant said a letter mailed to area residents in late August as a reminder that tick season lasted until the winter did not say that local people had been infected with Lyme disease.

He said he would also like to see a more aggressive approach to controlling the population of deer, on whose blood the ticks feed, and controlling the ticks themselves, similar to the way governments have battled the brown spruce longhorn beetle that kills trees.

"This is a tick that can kill people, and not only are they not telling anybody about it, they don’t do anyt hing about it," he said.

Martin Maloney, a neighbour, was also diagnosed with Lyme disease this year after experiencing fatigue and joint pain. His wife, Lisa Nicks, said neither her husband nor Bradley had the bull’s-eye rash that is a common and conspicuous symptom of the disease.

She said area doctors don’t seem to have all the information they need to identify Lyme disease from general symptoms.

"They don’t know that it’s here and they don’t know that it doesn’t present (in the traditional way)," she said.

Tim Outhit, the regional councillor for the area, said he would like to get more information to people in the community in the short term and ahead of next year’s tick season.

"My feeling is that the doctors and the public in the Bedford area . . . don’t realize there’s actually been a couple human beings diagnosed with it as well.

"That’s been kind of frustrating because it’s kind of hit-or-miss whether doctors are actually looking for this enough."

Dr. Robert Strang, the former medical officer of health for the Capital district health authority, held a meeting with area residents when black-legged ticks were first found in Bedford and Dr. Gaynor Watson-Creed, who’s now in that role, is arranging a meeting with Mr. Outhit to see what more needs to be done to inform people about Lyme disease.

Dr. Watson-Cre ed said it’s expected that once disease-carrying ticks have become established in an area, a small number of people will become infected.

Earlier this year, the ticks were found in a third area of Nova Scotia, around Gunning Cove in Shelburne County.

Information about the Bedford cases and how to treat suspected new cases was sent to all emergency and family doctors in the Capital Health district. That information did mention specifically that, in some instances, patients did not have the bull’s-eye rash, Dr. Watson-Creed said.