Comment by stormdennis
4 years ago
I was pretty nervous about Lyme Disease a couple of years ago after there was a lot of publicity about it. Now I feel like it's all a bit overblown. I come from a family that's worked in dairy farming for generations on both sides. People who've worked in hay meadows and silage fields all their lives and there's no history at all of Lyme disease that I know of. It seems to be towns' people who occasionally visit the country side that are overwhelmingly get struck down with this which sounds to me like there's an element of hysteria about the whole thing, not least because of the number of cases where testing has proven inconclusive.
It depnends on the country I suppose. Here on Poland the problem is real . I personally know two persons (my father and my cousin) who were affected by it. My father had to go to early retirement and stop being a laywer beause lyme destoyed his nervous system and he could not read longer texts anymore. My cousin almost got thrown from medical university (he could not keep up after the symptoms kicked in).
Both of them did not even noticed when the tick bitten them and got through quite a long period of no symptoms.
After this events I am seriously afraid of lyme - as a knowledge worker this is like a death sentence.
Nice anecdata to share from Poland! I did not know that Lyme disease also exists in Europe. Related: Does Poland vaccinate for TCE (tick-borne encephalitis)?
>> Related: Does Poland vaccinate for TCE (tick-borne encephalitis)?
I would say yes, but only on case by case basis - it's recommended for people who work around and in forests (forest rangers, holiday camp caretakers etc.).
I believe TCE is far more rare so the vaccine is not so important for regular people as vaccine for lyme would be (if I read stats correctly there is two orders of magnitude difference between them - 200 cases per year for TCE versus 20000 for lyme)
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> I did not know that Lyme disease also exists in Europe.
I guess it exists anywhere the ticks do.
> Does Poland vaccinate for TCE (tick-borne encephalitis)?
Not obligatorily, AFIK. But I, personally, got my vaccine some years ago.
the only person i've heard that were affected by lyme also were living in Poland, in the woods.. They were badly taken care of for years until they couldn't even move from their bed.
Seems like poland really is a danger zone..
Yeah I also have some anecdote from 20 years ago.
There was this guy that was locally known gangsta-like alcoholic - this whole thing taking place in small town, gangsters life style were scaled down to the size of the town. He lived in apartment in residential estates near one of my best friends (hence I know the story). One day, after some big party, he got so drunk that while getting home by foot, he fell asleep in some gutter (or rather trench full of grass).
Next day, after regaining consciousness, he found more than 30 ticks stuck all over his body. Being gangsta and all around tough he just removed those and failed to go to doctor in time.
Only after some serious symptoms started to appear he managed to get to hospital but it was to late - the damage was done. He lived about few months after this and died because his nervous system was so devastated that there was no way to for doctors to help him.
Lyme disease is one of those silent diseases. You don't see or hear that much about it because it's so debilitating that those who suffer from it are effectively removed from society. To put it in perspective, a lot of people that suffer from ALS hope that they have Lyme disease, since you might get better with time, but the symptoms are quite similar.
From what I understand, both tick populations and Lyme disease cases are increasing. However, Lyme disease horror stories seem to be from people who had undiagnosed Lyme disease. My partner is currently going through medical school (M4) and believes that we are far better at detecting it today than we used to be (and she is not one to trust the medical system overall.) Of course, this is all anecdotal.
If it can be isolated and observed, it's not hysteria. Difficulty in testing and effects of the disease are not indicative of non existence.
I'm not saying it doesn't exist. I know it does, it's more that it is maybe not as serious a public health issue than the coverage of it would suggest.