QUOTED FROM THE LOUDOUN COUNTY TIMES NEWSPAPER
The Loudoun County Health Department now recognizes Lyme disease as an epidemic in the county and is working on initiatives to combat the problem, but many local Lyme sufferers fear progress is too slow and not aggressive enough.
Dr. David Goodfriend, director of the Loudoun County Health Department, said the vast majority of reported Lyme cases in the county are acute and can be cured with a few weeks of oral antibiotics.
The problem is that many Lyme cases go unreported, especially chronic cases because they’re more difficult to diagnose and there’s increasing controversy over the definition of Lyme and standard treatment protocols.
In order for Lyme to be considered chronic, according to guidelines by Lyme specialist Dr. Joseph Burrascano Jr., the illness must be present for at least one year. Acute Lyme cases detected and treated early are far less dramatic than chronic.
Goodfriend estimates the actual incidence of Lyme in Loudoun is at least two times greater than the reported incidence. Some Lyme specialists say it's as great as 10 times underreported.
Over the past five years, the number of reported cases in Loudoun has increased from 29 to more than 100 per year, which now represents more than 40 percent of all Lyme cases reported in Virginia.
The incidence of Lyme in Loudoun is 20 times greater than that of the Virginia average.
Loudoun’s reported cases are enough to catapult the county into third place for national Lyme incidence – behind Connecticut, where Lyme was discovered, and Rhode Island.
“If you look at any measure of epidemic, it’s an epidemic,” said Goodfriend.
At a recent meeting of the Western Loudoun Lyme Disease Support Group at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Purcellville, Lyme sufferers from Loudoun and beyond described their struggles with the disease, and expressed frustration after going years, sometimes even decades, without being properly diagnosed and treated.
“I can guarantee in another two decades we will look back on this and say [Lyme] is exactly where AIDS was 25 years ago,” said support group founder Charlotte Healy, of Purcellville.
Healy is a Lyme disease survivor and the lone founder of the grassroots effort, Hope to Heal Lyme Inc., which is hosting the second Lyme Disease Conference Designed for Patients in Reston, April 1-2. See box for details.
During the course of the emotional, two-hour meeting, members broke down into tears and erupted with anger while telling tales of six-figure financial loss, crippling physical pain, mental anguish and even death.
