Florida Articles: BACK
Tick-borne Diseases Expert shares facts on Lyme disease
Mary Ann Koslasky, Times staff writer
St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg, FL
May 13, 2001
May is Lyme Disease Month. Floral City resident Lucy Barnes has been active in Lyme disease education since 1987, developing and presenting slide programs and lectures for the public, private organizations and medical personnel. She has written a number of articles and papers dealing with Lyme disease prevention, the symptoms, various treatments and related material.
Additionally, she has been assisting individuals who are fighting the chronic effects of the disease. Barnes shared some information with Citrus Times staff writer Mary Ann Koslasky.
QUESTION: What is Lyme disease and who is at risk?
ANSWER: Lyme disease is caused by a spirochete (similar to the one that causes syphilis and leprosy) found in ticks and other insects and numerous wild and domestic animals. Once transmitted to humans, the spirochete causes damage by spreading to various parts of the body. It can infect any and all organs and tissues in the body, causing a multitude of symptoms that can make a person very ill, sometimes totally disabled, and it can be fatal.
Q: Can it be transmitted from person to person?
A: The spirochete that causes Lyme disease has been found in semen, urine, blood, breast milk and other body fluids and tissues. Those who have Lyme disease are prohibited from donating blood or organs. Lyme disease has also been shown in many cases to be passed from mothers to their unborn children and to babies through breast milk. The spirochete can be found in the blood of deer which poses a threat to hunters and it is recommended that anyone handling raw venison use gloves.
Q: What are some of the signs and symptoms of the disease and its effects?
A: Unless a doctor is very experienced with Lyme disease, (he or she) may not recognize it until it is too late or not at all. Lyme has been misdiagnosed as a variety of other conditions: multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue, Alzheimer's, fibromyalgia and various forms of arthritis. The list of possible symptoms is overwhelming. Everything from hearing loss to panic attacks surfacing in otherwise healthy individuals as the first indication of Lyme. Some patients do not recall a tick bite and many never get the typical bull's-eye rash or flu-like symptoms that are often associated with early stages of Lyme. There is often brain "fog," memory problems, confusion, difficulty thinking and speech difficulties. Extreme fatigue can be a constant problem, along with muscle spasms and joint pain.
Q: Can it cause other diseases?
A: Lyme can mimic many diseases and can force the patient to require treatment for a variety of other problems. The thyroid responses can be thrown off and require adjunct therapy. Other infections are hard to fight off once the immune system is compromised. As the spirochetes inhabit and die off in the human body, toxins develop, which can cause a multitude of chronic problems unless treated properly.
Q: If caught early, can the effects be minimized?
A: Outdated information indicates a tick must be attached for at least 24 to 48 hours to infect a person. This is not the case. If you are bitten by a tick, the old wait-and-see approach can be devastating. Once in contact with an infected source, the earlier the treatment the better.
Q: What type of treatment is available and how long does it run?
A: Treatment protocols vary depending on the amount of time between the infection and when treatment begins. Current guidelines indicate early cases should be treated with antibiotics for a minimum of four to six weeks, and late stages usually require a minimum of four to six months of treatment, either IV or oral medications, or both. If treatments are discontinued before all symptoms of Lyme disease have ended, the person can remain ill and relapse.
Q: What are the long-term effects of Lyme disease?
A: Those who have developed late stage or chronic Lyme disease can suffer from the buildup of toxins in their systems. Patients can relapse with any and all of the original symptoms, develop new ones and progressively deteriorate as time goes by. Lyme disease can affect the ability to walk or exercise. Speech, writing skills and communication problems may worsen. Many become bedridden or house bound. Damage to the brain and other organs can result. The financial burden of Lyme can be devastating. Still, some insurance companies continue to deny treatment, which further stresses individuals and worsens their condition.
Q: What is the risk of Lyme disease in Florida?
A: Florida's very mild winter weather makes it optimal for year-round exposure to ticks and other insects carrying Lyme disease. The female tick can produce 2,000 to 5,000 babies. Once an area has a small tick population, the numbers increase rapidly. Ticks are carried into new areas by birds, pets, wildlife and people.
Q: What is the best way to prevent getting Lyme disease?
A: In Florida, it is difficult to do as folks in the north are told to do: wear long pants, long sleeve shirts, shoes and socks and a hat outdoors in the summer. In 90-degree weather, that is almost impossible and could cause heat stroke or heat exhaustion. I recommend regular tick checks while outdoors and once returning home. I also recommend a treatment of Repel Permanon be applied to outdoor clothing, hats, outdoor duffel bags and equipment. This unscented product kills ticks as they crawl across treated surfaces instead of trying to deter them. Yards can be treated with Sevin, available locally in a dust or concentrated liquid form. It won't kill all of the ticks but it will reduce the numbers to a safer level.
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 13, 2001
Firefighter in battle with Lyme disease
Tamara Lush
St. Petersburg Times
Hudson, Florida
December 10, 2000
As a firefighter and EMT, Vincent Sota spent the past decade saving lives.
Now, he must rely on others to save his.
More than a year ago, Sota was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal, degenerative disease of the nerve cells commonly called Lou Gehrig's disease, that leaves its victims unable to walk, talk or move.
Sota, then 45, was given two years to live.
His symptoms started with a nagging twitch in his chin and slurred speech. He took a leave of absence from his job at Pasco Fire Rescue in August, and now, he can't talk or move his left arm. He has gone from a strapping 230 pounds to 150 pounds on his 6-foot-2 frame.
Mary, his wife, refused to believe the ALS diagnosis. She researched the Internet for more information.
"I was desperate," Mary Sota said recently. "We were willing to take our chances."
A paragraph in one article said that the symptoms of Lou Gehrig's disease -- facial twitching, slurred speech, weight loss -- were also that of Lyme disease, caused by bacteria contracted contact with ticks. Lyme disease is easily treatable with antibiotics if diagnosed early, experts say, and is more common in northern states than in Florida.
"We hike, we camp, we've seen ticks," Mary Sota said. The family had vacationed in Minnesota, a hotbed of Lyme-carrying ticks. At some point, she's not sure exactly when, she noticed a rash on Vincent's torso, which is one of the main symptoms of Lyme disease. It went away, and she didn't much pay attention to it.
But as she read more about Lyme disease, she became more convinced that it, not ALS, was plaguing Vincent.
"Lyme disease is called the great imitator," Sota said.
But doctors weren't as convinced. In all, Vincent was evaluated by 15 doctors, and most told him that he had ALS. When Mary Sota told one neurologist about her Lyme disease theory and the need to put Vincent on antibiotics, the doctor told her that he had no idea what she was talking about.
The last doctor they saw diagnosed him with Lyme disease, said Mary Sota.
Lisa Conti, a public health veterinarian for the Florida Department of Health, said there are about 50 cases of Lyme disease reported every year in Florida. About two-thirds of those cases are people who contracted the disease in other states.
Nationwide, more than 128,000 cases of Lyme disease have been reported in the U.S. since 1982, according for the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
Part of the confusion with many Lyme disease diagnoses is that many tests for it yield false positive results, Conti said. Vincent has taken three different tests for Lyme Disease, and on the most accurate test, he tested positive.
Vincent's latest doctor has put him on antibiotics for four months. He also has a feeding tube in his stomach because he can barely swallow.
While Vincent struggles to scrawl a few letters on a piece of paper, his wife is fighting for him. She has taken a leave of absence from her part-time job as a printer at the Pasco County Sheriff's Office so she can care for her husband.
She spends hours on the phone each day with insurance companies, and tries to keep the family's life as normal as possible for the couple's two children, aged 7 and 5.
"When you have a wonderful husband, you want to keep him around," she said. "I will fight to his dying breath, which should be around the age of 99. I'm not going to settle for anything less."
Mary Sota credits their "family," the employees at Pasco Fire Rescue, for helping them in their darkest hour. Volunteers have worked Vincent's shifts so he will still get paid and donation boxes have raised enough to buy the family groceries.
Without the donations and help, the Sotas bring in his regular salary, but because Sota is not working and due to the additional medical expenses, the money is not enough to pay the mortgage or raise two children.
"(Pasco Fire Rescue) has kept this family going," she said. "They know how strong he is."
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 10, 2000(Vincent Sota lost his life to Lyme disease in July, 2002)
Diagnosis: Lyme disease
The Miami Herald
July 11, 2005
Florida State quarterback Wyatt Sexton, suspended last month after a bizarre incident with local police, was diagnosed last week with advanced Lyme disease and will miss the 2005 season.
FSU announced in a news release early Saturday morning that Sexton's condition is curable and that he will try to return to school next year. Dr. S. Chandra Swami, a specialist in Hermitage, Pa., consulted with Sexton and his family Thursday and recommended that he not be involved with school or the Seminoles' football team while being treated.
''Wyatt has active Lyme disease that has resulted in neuropsychiatric and cardiovascular deficits,'' Swami said in the statement. ``I have strongly recommended intensive therapy with a goal to obtain an optimal state of health. This should include academics and athletics.
``He should not be stressed by these two disciplines for now.''
Sexton started seven games last season, completing 55 percent of his passes for 1,661 yards and eight touchdowns. Now, the Seminoles are left with only two scholarship quarterbacks -- redshirt freshmen Xavier Lee and Drew Weatherford -- and no quarterback on the roster that has thrown a pass in college.
The announcement capped off a wild month of speculation after the June 14 incident in which Sexton called himself ''the son of God'' and had to be subdued with pepper spray.
Despite reports from several news outlets speculating that the quarterback was under the influence of drugs, FSU running backs coach Billy Sexton, Wyatt's father, issued a statement in June that doctors had assured the family that ``drug use is not the problem.''
In Saturday's release, Sexton's parents again said their family had been hurt by ``media reports that were simply not true.''
According to the American Lyme Disease Foundation's website, the illness is contracted through the bite of an infected deer tick and can lead to mental disorders if left untreated.
''Late-chronic Lyme disease really focuses on the neurological and cardiovascular systems,'' said Dr. Penny Tenzer, vice chair of the department of family medicine and community health at the University of Miami School of medicine.
The national Center for Disease Control reported 23,763 cases of Lyme disease in 2002, but it is rare in Florida. There were 79 reported incidents throughout the state that year, and 43 the year before.
FSU's press release offered no explanation as to when or where Sexton was infected.
''With Lyme disease, we don't know how long it takes to move [to an advanced stage],'' Tenzer said.
``It could take weeks, months and even years. . . . It's very unusual that Lyme disease would get to the advanced stage . . . but obviously not impossible by any means.''
Sexton will require several months of antibiotic treatments.
But citing doctor-patient confidentiality, Swami refused to elaborate on the details of the treatment when contacted by telephone Saturday.
FSU hopes the NCAA will grant Sexton a medical hardship this fall, leaving him with two years of eligibility beginning in 2006.
© 2006 The National Lyme Disease Memorial Park Project
