Lyme Disease
April through September are considered the utmost active season for ticks. Ticks are tiny bloodsucking parasites, and they can transmit various diseases to animals and humans. Ticks tend to live in areas like shrubs, tall grass, and woods. One of the most common disease you can get from a tick bite is Lyme disease.
Lyme disease is one of the hardest diseases to diagnose. Some people get a rash the first time they are bitten by the tick. Most people get symptoms like body aches, fever, headache, and fatigue. Those symptoms are similar to the flu and other diseases. New York State had approximately 8,000 cases of Lyme disease each year according to the state Health Department.
The Hudson Valley has been one of the areas with the highest number of this disease. On April 17, 2018 Poughkeepsie Journal held a forum event about Lyme disease at Marist College campus. The purpose of the event was to provide information and insights and hear what people in the community have to say about the disease. The event featured three people who are extremely familiar with the disease. Dr. Kenneth Liegner, Lyme patient Brian Gaucher and Jamie Buss, who has a 9 year old daughter undergoing Lyme disease.
The representative of intergovernmental and community affairs of Northern Hudson Valley, Matthew Martini, was also in attendance for the event and he said, “our community need to be taught about the advancements of the Lyme disease and what sprays they should use. It would be extremely helpful to have more up to date information and prevention tactics for this disease.” Nevill Smythe was an attendee of the event and he said, “There are many reasons that pushed me to join this forum tonight, and one of them is that my wife recently recovered from Lyme disease. It is a very important topic for me and I wanted to learn more ways I could assist people who suffer from it. There are many conversations about it, but none of them focus on what are the barriers for people not getting enough treatment.”
The speakers at the event made many important remarks about the disease and ways to prevent yourself from it. Dr. Kenneth Liegner said, “I thought medicine knew what it was doing with Lyme disease, but that believe disappointed many people.” They discussed that Hudson Valley has several factors which favor the growth of ticks. Lyme disease is curable and the health professionals and the community are doing their best to figure out ways to prevent it.
