Associated Press
President Bush’s recently revealed treatment for Lyme disease makes him part of an unfortunate trend: The tick-borne infection is on the rise, with cases more than doubling in the past 15 years.

The good news is that most patients, like Bush, take antibiotics for a few weeks and are cured, especially if they were diagnosed early.

But people who aren’t treated promptly can develop painful arthritis, meningitis and other serious illnesses. If they don’t experience, or notice, Lyme’s hallmark round, red rash, they can struggle to be diagnosed, as other early symptoms are flu-like and vague. (more…)

The Intelligencer - Doylestown, PA
A local state senator hopes new attention to Lyme disease might help get one of his bills passed.

Sen. Stewart Greenleaf has introduced the Lyme Disease Education Prevention and Treatment Act each legislative session for more than 10 years, he said this week. Committee leadership has never called it up for a vote.

“I don’t know why they haven’t moved it. It’s not like it’s a big ticket item,” said the senator, who represents eastern Montgomery County and part of Bucks. “I think we just have to educate them to the importance of this.”

ABC NEWS
Chronic Symptoms, Unproven Treatments Typify Mysterious Tick-Borne Illness

For an estimated 20,000 Americans each year, the symptoms above culminate in a diagnosis of Lyme disease — an inflammatory bacterial illness transmitted by the bite of a deer tick.

Fortunately for the vast majority of Lyme disease sufferers, two to four weeks worth of antibiotic therapy is enough to spur a total recovery from the illness.

But a very small number of patients report a much more serious struggle with the illness.

Brooke Landau, a traffic reporter for the ABC News affiliate KGTV in San Diego, was one of these patients. (more…)