RALEIGH -- As the weather warms and walks through tick-laden woods beckon, state officials have confirmed that Wake County is among the North Carolina counties where Lyme disease is a known threat.
The state Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday that in 2009 two cases of the tick-borne disease were found in patients who had not left the county during the 30 days before they contracted the infection.
Four similar cases were confirmed in the state last year, health officials said: one each in Wilkes, Wilson, Pitt and Carteret counties.
For years, Lyme disease was thought to be primarily a scourge of Northeastern and north central states, where more than 90 percent of reported cases occur. Doctors in North Carolina were reluctant even to test patients for the disease.
Now, public health officials want doctors - and patients - to be aware of the early signs of the illness and appropriate treatments. Early intervention can prevent the development of serious complications, including cardiac and nervous-system abnormalities and a condition called Lyme arthritis.
Jenny Carrington, who lives on a small horse farm near Rolesville, was not surprised by the finding. After suffering the headaches, fever, fatigue, muscle aches and other ill effects of Lyme disease starting in July 2007, she went through three North Carolina doctors before finally getting a South Carolina physician to prescribe high doses of antibiotics.
"This is bad news, but good news," Carrington said Wednesday. "It's bad news it's here, but good news they're acknowledging it. As long as the medical world will recognize it, maybe they'll take it a little more seriously and react a little quicker. Maybe they'll do more, too, to educate people about the disease."
'A big, big deal'
The declaration that Lyme disease exists in Wake County is a "big, big deal," said Marcia Herman-Giddens, an adjunct professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health and president of the Tick-borne Infections Council of North Carolina. Not only will doctors be required to report cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they are also likely to prescribe medications sooner.
"People who don't get treated as quickly generally don't do well," Herman-Giddens said.
Carried by 'deer tick'
Reluctance to acknowledge the presence of the infection in North Carolina stemmed from early observations of the black-legged tick, or "deer tick," which carries the Lyme bacteria. In Southern states, the tick appeared to feed on reptiles rather than mammals. As a result, it had a reputation for biting fewer people in the South and was considered unlikely to transmit the bacteria to humans here.
Carl Williams, state public health veterinarian, said that part of the educational process is helping people understand where they are at risk for the disease.
"They don't necessarily have to go to Umstead Park," Williams said. "If they're pruning azalea bushes in their backyard, that could be a place where they could pick up a tick."
In North Carolina, April is considered the start of tick season.
