Lyme Disease on the rise in York, Adams PA
- From: mark_denton2006@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: 29 Jun 2006 22:14:34 -0700
Lyme Disease on the rise in York, Adams
By TOM JOYCE
For The Evening Sun 6-25-06
When Gail Sheffer and her family first moved to their home in
Wellsville, York County, 12 years ago, the rural location was a big
selling point.
Sheffer loves animals and wanted to raise some in a farm setting. She's
also intensely interested in organic gardening, and she wanted to
cultivate a big garden of her own. Unknown to her, however, the setting
exposed her and her family to the ticks that spread Lyme disease, a
particularly insidious health disorder that's been proliferating in
York County's rural areas.
For nearly 10 years, Sheffer suffered through migraines, panic attacks,
sinus infections, periodic abdominal pains that took her to the
emergency room and chronic fatigue that prevented her from getting out
of bed for long periods.
Her husband and her two daughters, even her dog, suffered symptoms of
their own before finally getting a correct diagnosis and subsequent
treatment. Now Sheffer is co-chairwoman of the York Lyme Disease
Support Group. She only wishes she had more chance to work in the
garden that brought her to York County in the first place.
"The garden is really tiny now," she said. "I don't have a lot of
energy to do much gardening anymore."
As Lyme disease sufferers, Sheffer and her family are part of a growing
population in York and Adams counties and in Pennsylvania. According to
the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the first reports of Lyme
disease in the state came in 1984, with four reported cases. In 1991,
there were 995 cases reported statewide. By 2005, that number had grown
to 4,042.
In 2005, the last year for which figures are available, York County had
the fourth-highest incidence of Lyme disease in the state, with 386
reported cases. By contrast, there were 17 reported cases in 1991.
Adams County had 43 reported cases of the disease in 2005. This
compares to five cases in 1995, the first year Lyme disease was
officially reported in Adams County.
Richard McGarvey, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health,
believes an increase in the deer tick population in York and Adams
counties could be the reason the disease has become more common in this
area. Deer ticks are a known carrier of the disease.
Past years have shown a prevalence of the disease in the Philadelphia
suburbs and in several counties in the state's north-central region.
But York and Adams counties have seen a dramatic increase in recent
years.
"It has to do with more people being exposed and coming down with it,"
McGarvey said.
In May 2005, several state lawmakers and Lyme disease activists from
York county were so concerned about the disease's increasing local
presence that they organized a conference on the subject at Susan P.
Byrnes Health Education Center in York, attended by about 200 people.
Now that more than a year has passed, we're once again in the season
where the disease is most likely to be transmitted, according to Karen
Forschner, chairwoman of the Connecticut-based Lyme Disease Foundation.
In late spring and early summer, the ticks that spread the disease are
active, but they're not yet full-grown and thus easy to miss.
The disease itself is easy to miss, Forschner said, because it
manifests itself in an array of symptoms, many of which resemble the
symptoms of other disorders. For that reason, Lyme disease activists
are constantly struggling with two goals on the state and national
level: educating physicians to recognize it and persuading insurers to
cover it.
State Rep. Bev Mackereth, R-Spring Grove, one of the organizers of last
year's Lyme disease summit, said she's determined to stay involved with
the issue, for the sake of people throughout the county and the state.
"Sometimes it takes a little bit of a push," Mackereth said. "And if we
back off, I'm afraid it will fall apart."
Robin Rohrbaugh is head of the Healthy York County Coalition, which has
also been involved with the issue. She said that York County has some
events planned to deal with the local Lyme disease problem.
In October, Wellspan Health is planning an education program for
physicians within its system, to help them recognize and treat Lyme
disease. Rohrbaugh said the Healthy York County Coalition is also
planning another Lyme disease summit like last year's, but with more of
an emphasis on medical education.
Things haven't been moving so easily on the state level, according to
state Rep. Merle Phillips, R-Sunbury, who was at last year's Lyme
disease summit in York.
Phillips sponsored a bill that would establish a Lyme disease task
force with the state Department of Health and would require insurers to
provide coverage for all Lyme disease treatment prescribed by a
physician. His bill passed in the state House of Representatives a year
ago. But it went into the state Senate's Banking and Insurance
committee, which has not released it for a vote.
State Sen. Gib Armstrong, R-Lancaster, chairman of that committee,
could not be reached for comment.
"I send (Armstrong) information almost every week about the problem,"
Phillips said. "But he just sits there and doesn't move it."
Sheffer said she eventually found a doctor who diagnosed her disease.
But that wasn't until she got a referral from a support group in
Gettysburg, where she eventually went after conducting a lot of her own
research.
"A lot of patients are going undiagnosed because they don't know enough
about Lyme disease," Sheffer said. "Neither do the doctors they're
going to see."
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