When statewide reports indicated a dozen or fewer cases per year of Lyme disease in Allegheny County in recent years, county health officials grew concerned the number represented a gross under-estimation.
Plenty of anecdotal evidence indicated Lyme disease was present here in a big way, and the hunch was correct.
After collecting medical records and verifying diagnoses of Lyme disease with physicians, and in some cases, patients, Kristen Mertz, an epidemiologist with the Allegheny County Health Department, confirmed 822 cases of Lyme disease countywide in 2014, with no reason to suspect the infection rate will decline this year.
“Lyme disease is here,” said Karen Hacker, Allegheny County health director, during a news conference Wednesday with Pennsylvania Department of Health Secretary Karen Murphy, to alert people about the elevated local threat. “Lyme disease is widespread and ubiquitous and is something you must be very mindful of.”
Two groups in Allegheny County with the highest infection rates include children 5 to 9 years old and adults 50 to 65 years old, Dr. Mertz said, without explanation for its effect on the older adults.
Dr. Murphy, meanwhile, reported about 7,000 cases of Lyme disease statewide last year. For the past five years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, Pennsylvania has led the nation in total Lyme cases.
Adding concern, a University of Pittsburgh Johnstown study published earlier this year found that 34 percent of all deer ticks collected in four southwestern Pennsylvanian counties tested positive for the bacteria, reflecting the elevated risk level people face from a single tick bite.
In addition, an April study by the State Department of Environmental Protection and Indiana University of Pennsylvania had found black-legged (deer) ticks carrying the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, which causes Lyme disease, to be present in all 67 counties statewide.
Bill Todaro, county health department entomologist, said young ticks, or nymphs, are tiny but carry the bacteria and can pass it to the host once they bore into the skin to feed on blood. The infection, however, can require the nymph or adult tick to remain in place for 24 to 36 hours. But nymphs, which become adults in September, can’t be easily detected until they bloat with blood, adding to the difficulty in preventing Lyme infections, he said.
One telltale symptom of Lyme is a red rash resembling a target, which occurs in up to 80 percent of infections. Bloodwork eventually will show a specific immune response to Lyme disease. Antibiotic treatment at an early stage of infection usually does the trick. But if Lyme is not caught early, chronic conditions including arthritis and even neurological and heart problems, can occur, with controversy among health officials over the best way to treat chronic symptoms.
Pets can provide early warning signs of infectious ticks in the area. Mr. Todaro said dogs with Lyme disease can go lame in one leg, resulting in limping.
For that reason, prevention and early treatment is key, Dr. Hacker said. Prevention includes clothing that leave no flesh exposed, pesticides containing DEET and a full-body inspection after being outdoors in the yard or parks.
“Now we know that the ticks are throughout the city and county, including county parks,” Dr. Hacker said.
David Templeton: dtempleton@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1578
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First Published: June 10, 2015, 3:53 p.m.
Updated: June 11, 2015, 2:36 a.m.
