In Loudoun, they said, entire families and sections of streets have been wiped out by the disease.
Dave Hunt, of Waterford, is a longtime Lyme disease sufferer, and his wife and two children have also been diagnosed. He said there are three whole families on Hamilton Station Road who have it. "It's a family who participates in this game," said Hunt. "It's also a high-dollar sport to play."
11 past and current residents of the Frasier Hill Lane and Ridgeside Road in Mount Weather have been treated for Lyme.
Scott and Susan Wetzel, of Gerrardstown, W.Va., both have Lyme, and so do five of their seven children. After years of chasing symptoms and misdiagnoses, they're fed up with doctors and traditional medicine, and have turned to natural remedies.
"A lot of people are going to die because no one will listen," said Scott Wetzel.
To help combat Loudoun’s Lyme problem, the Loudoun County Health Department is working on two initiatives to help with Lyme prevention and chronic Lyme treatment.
The first initiative is a survey that was sent in February to the 371 residents known to have Lyme disease. The deadline to submit was March 10.
Survey questions are geared to give the health department a better idea about who has contracted the disease (age group, ZIP code, sex), how it was contracted, how they were diagnosed, what symptoms they experienced, and if they’re still suffering.
Once the results are analyzed by the end of April, Goodfriend says the health department will better understand the risks and be better equipped to target an intervention through education and other programs.
“The results will help us keep people from getting Lyme,” he said.
The second initiative the health department is working on with state and regional agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the public is to address chronic Lyme patients.
That includes looking at the definition of Lyme to ensure chronic patients fit the requirements and get counted, examining the standard treatment protocol for Lyme to see if it needs to be adjusted, and developing a more accurate picture of the burden of the disease.
None of the county’s health department budget is earmarked specifically for Lyme disease, but it’s included in the communicable disease program.
Part of the county budget is dedicated solely to West Nile virus, although Goodfriend says the burden of West Nile is “not nearly what it is for Lyme.”
He says West Nile has its own stipend because it's a new disease that came to Loudoun in 2001, and it kills people quickly. Lyme does not.
