Seriousness of Lyme disease is 'greatly underestimated'

By Hannah Fletcher, For Lee Agri-Media
Wednesday, May 25, 2005 12:59 PM CDT

Kathy Cuddeback has always led an active outdoor life but that active life has been impaired by a disease resulting from her love of the outdoors.

Cuddeback was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 1993. Doctors suspect she contracted the disease in 1977 from a tick bite she got while working in Tennessee and Kentucky as a naturalist.

She and her husband, Larry, have been farming their 366-acre farm in Washington County in southeast Iowa since 1980. They run small cow/calf and goat operations, a Christmas tree nursery and a dried-flower business, but her roles on the farm and as a naturalist have been cut short.

Cuddeback no longer works as a part-time naturalist for Washington County, a job she had for 13 years. She helps Larry on the farm when needed - if her health permits. Every day is painful.

"The seriousness of this disease is greatly underestimated," said Cuddeback, president of the Iowa Lyme Disease Association and board member for Emerging Infections in the Central States.

She has been working to spread the word about ticks and Lyme disease's potential in Iowa.

As spring brings warm, wet weather, tick season takes off. Farmers and others working or enjoying the outdoors, need to beware.

"Anybody who is having outside contact, particularly in woody or grassy areas, should beware of ticks," said Kelley Donham, University of Iowa occupational health specialist.

He believes farmers, because they often use equipment or are in crop fields when they are outdoors, are less likely to encounter the black-legged ticks.

Cuddeback says farmers should be on the lookout for ticks during activities such as checking fences, walking in pastures or working with livestock.

Wayne Rowley, an Iowa State University entomologist, has been documenting the occurrence of black-legged tick populations in Iowa from ticks people send in from across the state.

Last year, of the 550 ticks sent to the ISU lab, 198, or 36 percent, were black-legged ticks. Of the black-legged ticks, 22 tested positive for the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, Rowley says.

In the Midwest, Iowa has a smaller population of black-legged ticks and fewer Lyme disease cases than neighboring Minnesota and Wisconsin, Donham says.

"Most people (with Lyme disease) have spent time or have lived somewhere else and have come back here," Donham said.

Minnesota and Wisconsin account for 95 percent of all recorded Lyme disease cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Diagnosis is difficult because tests are only 60 percent reliable indicators of the disease.

Kevin Teale, Iowa Department of Public Health communication director, admits, "The test isn't fool-proof, and we are working on that."

In any case, experts recommend removing ticks as soon as possible by grasping the tick closest to where it is attached using a tweezers and pulling it out gently. Do not twist because this could cause the part of the tick to remain embedded in the skin.

Ticks should be put in a zip-lock bag and sent to: Lyme Disease Project, Department of Entomology, 440 Science II, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-3222.