May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month

A proclamation, signed by Governor Chet Culver, declares May as Lyme Disease Awareness month.  Lyme disease is contracted from Lyme-infected ticks which is now an Iowa problem.  Co-directors, Judith Weeg and Melanie Barker, of the Lyme Disease Association of Iowa, receive phone calls from all over the state from potential Lyme disease (LD) cases.  Weeg says, “We advocate for the caller who is concerned that he/she may have the disease.”

If you have been bitten by a tick – and you have one or all of the following symptoms— Call- (515) 432-3628.

Signs and Symptoms

Early Stage: Symptoms may appear from 48 hours to several weeks after an infected tick bite.

*Flu-like symptoms—fatigue, muscle and joint pain, headache, fever, chills, swollen glands, sore throat, stiff neck

• Only 1/3 of infected people may have a rash

 Later Stage: These may occur weeks, months, and even years after the bite and the symptoms may come and go.  Peak disease is associated with increasing numbers of spirochetes in the tissue while regression follows the antibody response.  It is very cyclic and fluctuates in intensity so that symptoms are present on some days and not on others.

Symptoms include:

* Continued flu-like symptoms with swollen glands, low grade fevers

* Depression, psychiatric disorders

* Sensitivity to lights, sounds, motion, odors, blurred vision, or loss of sight

*Cognitive dysfunction, difficulty organizing or making decisions, memory loss

* Muscle pain, weakness, numbness, tingling, motor dysfunction, and paralysis

* Stiff neck, severe headaches, loss of balance, dizziness, poor coordination, Bell’s Palsy

* Irregular heartbeat, palpitations, heart block, chest pain, difficulty breathing

* Tremors, seizures, panic attacks, anxiety, sleep disorders, swollen joints

Lyme Disease Awareness Proclamation Signed by Governor Chet Culver