Being in the midst of Lyme Disease Awareness Month, it’s imperative to discuss the difficulty which comes with effectively and accurately diagnosing and treating Lyme disease. The difficulty in both diagnosing and treating early onset Lyme disease is one of the primary reasons for the high occurrence of Chronic Lyme disease. In Weymouth, Cohassett, Hingham, Canton and Milton, Massachusetts, Lyme disease is of the utmost importance. This is specifically due to our enormous population of deer ticks, which are the primary Lyme-transmitting ticks. There have been recent allusions to a new, more effective method of diagnosing Lyme disease earlier than current testing methods.
Diagnosing Lyme Disease
The difficulty in correctly diagnosing Lyme disease is due to the symptoms of Lyme being so similar to the symptoms of other, more common, illnesses. Mostly everyone immediately associates Lyme disease with the infamous “bulls-eye” rash. This can be misleading, as the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society provided information stating less than 50% of Lyme patients ever report having the infamous rash.
To accompany the difficulty is the undetected tick bite itself. Deer ticks secrete a local anesthetic when feeding, rendering their bite almost impossible to notice. Once again, nearly 50% of Lyme patients cannot recall even being bitten by a tick at all.
Adding insult to injury, the current testing methods for determining if a person is infected with Lyme disease misdiagnose the patient nearly 35% of the time. Combining the symptoms (which are often attributed to other, more common illnesses), the difficulty in detecting a deer tick bite as well as inaccurate diagnoses, Lyme disease is often diagnosed too late, if it’s ever diagnosed at all. This is where chronic Lyme disease becomes a real problem. Once Lyme makes its way into the central nervous system, the treatment methods become much more strenuous and difficult. Nearly half of Lyme patients potentially will experience long-term health issues due to Chronic Lyme disease.
Positive News on Lyme Disease Testing
Whereas the current testing methods for Lyme disease are not perfect, there is hope on the horizon for a more efficient method of diagnosing Lyme disease. Whereas the current Lyme tests will return false negatives, particularly during the extremely early phases of the disease, the new testing method shines positive light on a grim subject. A new study, published in Forbes, identifies a testing method which is capable of identifying Lyme in patients 3 weeks earlier than a current antibody response test will. Through the use of Lyme gene signatures, as well as a plethora of words that we won’t bore you with here, the test results are more accurate and quicker to be identified.
While there may be breakthroughs in identifying Lyme disease, and the more successful treatment thereof, prevention is still key. Preventing ticks from inhabiting your yard here in Weymouth, Cohassett, Hingham, Canton and Milton, Massachusetts is essential. With intensive tick treatment from Mosquito Squad of Boston Metro South, we can effectively reduce your yard’s tick population by ~85 – 90%! By not coming into contact with potentially disease-carrying ticks within your yard, you’re already reducing your chances of being infected. Call us today at (781) 471-5793, or click the green “Alert the Squad” button. We look forward to hearing from you soon!