Ticks pose health hazard to humans, pets

By Pam Linn
Associate Editor
The Malibu Times
September 4, 1997

While finding a tick on one's dog is a common occurrence, people who
hike or ride in brushy areas of the local mountains should be aware that
ticks carry several diseases.

Last spring, despite the pleas of activist Barbara Barsocchini and
several other Malibu residents diagnosed with Lyme disease, county
health officials said they lacked evidence that local ticks carried the
infectious disease.

Researchers have now discovered several diseases carried by California
ticks, including ehrlichiosis, babesiosis and Lyme disease. In a
recently published study of a Sonoma County community, scientists from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that "in
Northern California, the risk of infection with these emerging tick-
borne diseases may be greater than previously recognized . . .
particularly in children." They found that more than 50 percent of
residents had found a tick on themselves in the preceding 12 months, and
23 percent had positive blood tests for one or more of the three tick-
borne diseases, in spite of a modest tick infection rate of only three
percent among the nymphal ticks, which are thought to be the main
culprits in transmitting the disease to humans. In some Northern
California locations, the nymphal tick infection rate is as high as 14
percent. One rural community in Mendocino County found 24 percent of the
residents had positive Lyme disease tests and two percent had been
exposed to babesiosis as well. In Southern California, the U.S. Army has
reported finding infected ticks at military installations near Monterey,
Santa Barbara and San Diego.

The CDC study indicated that Californians may have had their heads in
the sand about the seriousness of tick-borne diseases on the West Coast.
When Lyme disease was first brought to public attention in the late
1980s, early research reported that California tick infection rates were
very low (0-2 percent). Although these estimates have now been revised
dramatically upwards, many doctors still tell patients that Lyme disease
doesn't exist here. Others think it is so rare that they won't treat
people coming in with tick bites and symptoms. Few physicians bother to
report their cases, so the numbers of Lyme cases reported are
artificially low. Some Lyme patients are misdiagnosed with chronic,
incurable diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome,
multiple sclerosis, and fibromyalgia, while others go to dozens of
doctors before finally obtaining a diagnosis and effective treatment
(antibiotics).

Hazards and treatments will be discussed at Emerging Tick-borne Diseases
in the Western United States Conference, presented by The Lyme Disease
Resource Center at a one-day medical conference at the Vector Control
Building in Los Angeles Sept. 13.

The conference is approved by the California Department of Health
Services and UC Davis Extension for six contact hours of continuing
education credit for physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists,
laboratory technicians, veterinarians and vector control technicians.
The registration fee is $125 and includes a catered lunch. Conference
8 a.m.-4:45 p.m. A free public forum follows from 5-6 p.m.

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