Headline on Lyme disease story gives wrong impression

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Headline on Lyme disease story gives wrong impression

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The April 23 story, ‘‘County mounts campaign to exterminate Lyme disease,” is a timely article for warning about the dangers of this disease that is becoming an epidemic in the county.

The headline was unfortunate in that implied that the county has a plan to exterminate the disease. Nothing is further from the truth. Giving citizens useful advice like walk in the middle of paths, might prevent a case, but it will not eliminate the problem. (News flash: Ticks can walk down the middle of a path too.) Hopefully no one read only the headline and felt relief that their county will remove this worry from their lives.

Two significant omissions were the link that the whitetail deer play in the life cycle of the disease causing organism and the distinction between the two different types of ticks that are endemic in our area. The larger dog tick is not a vector, while the smaller blackleg tick is.

While efforts to reduce deer have been made in some areas of the county, until a serious effort is made to remove the deer from suburban areas, this disease will continue to bring misery and suffering to more and more people.

Fred Winkler, Chevy Chase