Humboldt Lyme Awareness Group

Welcome to Humboldt Lyme Awareness Group

Tiny Ticks Many Diseases~Don’t let the tick bite!

Deeply affected by Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases  and noting the lack of educational program and awareness locally we join forces to raise awareness about Lyme diseases & other tick-borne diseases in our local community in Humboldt County.

As a result in just a short time and with a minimal outreach  and on a grass root level we have been contacted and spoken with over 250 people just within a 40 mile radius who have struggled with Lyme disease and or other tick-borne diseases in our community.   Those people were sick for years or decades prior to a proper diagnosis and this is including children.  Needless to say Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases are way under the radar and we are very ill prepared.

We find that the most amazing part is that people in our community are not being educated and informed about the potential serious outcome of Lyme disease  and or other tick-borne diseases.

While there is a wide spread misconception that Lyme disease is rare it as been reported in every single state of the United States.  There are about 35,000.00  confirmed cases reported each year by the Center of Disease Control (CDC) but it is estimated that 200,000.00 to 300,000.00 people are infected each year. It is virtually impossible to truly know the true prevalence of Lyme disease cases due to three factors.

1)  The CDC estimated that the cases are under reported by 6-12  fold

2) The CDC does state that the surveillance criteria is not for a diagnosis.

3)  Patients usually are not monitored after initial treatment of a tick bite.

The high risk regions identified by the CDC are East Coast, Upper Mid West and Northern California.

The Center of Disease Control has been highly criticized for decades of their narrow surveillance case definition criteria for Lyme disease as it creates a false sense of security and awareness. It also truly underscore the prevalence of how endemic this illness is.

There also has been major concerns as well that county health department,  laboratory or health care provider are using the CDC case surveillance criteria definition for people that truly have Lyme disease and are being missed.

As a result and decade later here is a statement by the CDC as of 2008.

Center of Disease Control information  of Lyme  disease endemic to county

“This surveillance case definition was developed for national reporting of Lyme disease; it is not intended to be used in clinical diagnosis.  A county in which Lyme disease is endemic is one in which at least two confirmed cases have been acquired in the county or in which established populations of a known tick vector are infected with B. burgdorferi.”

http://www.cdc.gov/ncphi/disss/nndss/casedef/Lyme_disease_2008.htm

Furthermore ticks harbor many other diseases that can be transmitted to human aside from Lyme disease those are other bacterial infections, viruses or parasites.

Known tick-borne diseases in California  by the California Department of Public Health

http://www.cdph.ca.gov/HealthInfo/discond/Pages/TickBorneDiseases.aspx

Dr. Horowitz a physician well versed about Lyme disease and other tick-borne disease  wrote  and sings this  song about Lyme disease journey please enjoy!

Just just click on the link below.

Ballad of the Dear Tick by Dr. Horowitz is a great song about Lyme disease!