What are the Odds of Contracting Lyme Disease while Visiting Block Island?

[Morphous01]

Originally Posted by 1979

I've heard that Lyme Disease is an epidemic in Block Island.

I don't know but if I were you I would look into this guy and the book he has written about Plum island called "Lab 257".




YouTube - VVH-TV News Special Report on PLUM ISLAND

[Hollytree]

Nice try with the conspiracy theory but Lyme disease pre-dates Hitler!

http://www.lyme.org/otherdis/ld_history.html

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by Hollytree

Huh?

It's a joke. A spinoff from Brian Fantana's line in Anchorman about using "Sex Panther" brand cologne...

"60% of the time it works everytime."

I guess it didn't work, but it was a nonsensical response to what I felt was a strange and borderline nonsensical question.

[1979]

The population of Block Island is only about 800-1000 people. If there are 177 cases for a given year, even if 25% of them are on Block Island, that would be high. Consider the large urban population in RI as well; Providence, Central Falls, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Cranston, don't have much wilderness, and that is where the majority of the population lives. The statistic that Block Island is a hot spot for Lyme Disease is nothing new, and the island does have a large deer population as well.

[nomore07]

DVBID: Risk Map | CDC Lyme Disease

[POhdNcrzy]

Originally Posted by Hollytree

Pod,

I don't know how you arrived at your statistics but the RI Dept of Health has only 177 reported cases of Lyme disease for 2007- the last stats I can find.

What's the math on one million people in the state and 177 more or less cases? I get 1 chance in 5600 more or less if that's right. The DH doesn't indicate how many were contracted on Block Island specifically.

But don't get me wrong. I'm not minimizing the threat of Lyme and believe everyone should be very careful not to get it- I certainly try not to- generally avoiding going into woods or high grass w/o adequate bug protection.

I do believe the docs are required to report it- is it underreported? Don't know but maybe someone else knows the exact rule on that.

Reported Cases of Selected Diseases, 2002-2006

Holly, I'm not sure what's going on here but your link seems to show grossly erroneous statistics. Of course, I sure can't blame you for posting them up or taking them at face value.

Here is another source: http://rimed.org/pdf/mhri/m08julmhri.pdf

Look for the article about counting new cases of LD in RI in the "columns" section ('round about pg 225 or so if memory serves).

Seems to be about 1,000 new cases per year in RI.

I do know that LD is believed to have been widely underreported in RI (and elsewhere) for years, and RI actually passed legislation (in the past 5 yrs+-)(and so did Connecticut) to remedy this defect in the LD reporting or counting by med authorities.

As you may have guessed, I contracted LD this summer. I cleared up totally after just 3 days on the doxycycline (100mg 2x per day for 2 wks)(after being horribly, horribly sick with a laundry list of symptoms). I was sick for just 5 days and then I found the classic "Bullseye Rash" on the underside of my upper arm and immediately headed to the ER. I am completely 100% recovered and cured. (Thank goodness!!)

I asked my LD doctor (in Middletown) and he said he treats "tons of cases"!

My Mom had it. My friend on Block Island had it (and his friend there had it really bad). A family friend down the street had it. Etc etc.

I'm not so freaked out about cuddling pets as I was when I wrote the posts above.

GUYS, REMEMBER, 75% OF LYME CASES ARE LATE MAY, JUNE AND JULY ONLY! (Ticks need massive humidity to thrive.) (Well, they came to the right place for that!)

[POhdNcrzy]

Originally Posted by Hollytree

Nice try with the conspiracy theory but Lyme disease pre-dates Hitler!

http://www.lyme.org/otherdis/ld_history.html

Correct. Pretty safe to say that Lyme Disease in humans wasn't the result of secret experiments at Plum Island.

The Plum Island story is true, however, and you have to wonder what went on there as far as tick experiments with Lyme Disease.

Very interesting how the Lone Star Tick (formerly endemic strictly to Texas and identiable by a bright yellow star on it's back) now can be found in New England thanks to Plum Island experiments with hard tick species.