My Friend Leslie in the News

Lyme disease keeps climbing
BY JEREMY OLSON
Pioneer Press

Public health officials Tuesday warned people in Minnesota and Wisconsin to be mindful of deer ticks in the coming months because each of the states had record cases of Lyme disease last year and conditions are favorable for a continuing trend.

Last year was the first in Minnesota's history in which more than 1,000 people were diagnosed with the disease, the state Health Department reported Tuesday. Wisconsin posted a record number last year, too, with more than 1,100 new cases.

Health officials worry that people have become apathetic to the disease and aren't using proper caution. However, some people with the disease complain of faulty tests and uninformed medical professionals.

Annual case numbers have been rising for the past decade, although they dropped sharply in 2003. It appears that dry weather hampered the tick populations in Minnesota and Wisconsin that year.

Leslie Johnson's message of prevention comes from experience. The 30-year-old from St. Louis Park has been on disability leave from her job since March while taking antibiotics intravenously for advanced Lyme disease.

Before treatment, she experienced heart palpitations and a bizarre mix of symptoms that included joint pain and tingling in her fingertips. She criticized some of the existing testing methods, and some doctors' lack of awareness, for allowing the disease to go undiagnosed for years. She believes she might have been infected as a child.

It appears that she passed the disease during pregnancy to her son, a 2-year-old who suffered a variety of health problems and took antibiotics after he was diagnosed. That could have been prevented if she had taken antibiotics while pregnant, and it is one reason Johnson is forming a support group and hoping to encourage better detection and treatment of the disease.

"I'm going to focus any energy I have, beyond my family," she said, "to help other people with it."