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Lyme Disease in Los Angeles

Lyme Disease in Los Angeles. Lyme Disease. An infectious disease transmitted by ticks Caused by a spirochete Characterized by EM arthritis neurologic and cardiac symptoms. Diagnostic Issues with CA Focus. In CA, 70% do not recall tick bite 97% of vector borne disease

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Lyme Disease in Los Angeles

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  1. Lyme Disease in Los Angeles

  2. Lyme Disease • An infectious disease transmitted by ticks • Caused by a spirochete • Characterized by EMarthritisneurologicand cardiac symptoms

  3. Diagnostic Issues with CA Focus • In CA, 70% do not recall tick bite • 97% of vector borne disease • Only 56.8% have EM • 41% exposed outside county of residence • 22% exposed outside of state

  4. Nymphal ticks transmit most LD • Smaller than a poppy seed • Three blood meals • Bite is painless • In CA nymphal ticks have the highest rateof infection • Humans incidental and end host

  5. Lyme: Clinical diagnosis due to flawed testing

  6. How do we determine risk? • Will the ecosystem support Lyme infected ticks? • Are there ticks that can carry Lyme in the area? • Are there ticks that do carry Lyme? • Are people exposed to these ticks?

  7. How does Lyme disease risk spread? • Tick Transports

  8. Awareness drives everything!

  9. Lyme disease is throughout CA • Many doctors unaware that Lyme • disease is in CA • Most of the public are unaware that • Lyme disease exists in CA • Public is unaware that ticks are • dangerous • Do not take proper precautions • Do not do tick checks • Do not remove ticks properly • Do not know that rash means they should go to the doctor

  10. W. LA Vector Control District Model website Information on ticks, prevention& coinfections. Regular flagging activity. Use the best labsin the state to test ticks Placer County Sonoma County

  11. Number of cases in California • In one small rural community in Mendocino County 37% of the residents had definite or probable Lyme disease, while 24 % were seropositive. • In 2001, estimates of the annual incidence of Lyme disease in California ranged from 920 (10 times the number of officially reported cases) to 1,500 cases (based on estimated lab reports) to 2,640 (based on physician estimates.

  12. LA County Wilderness Areas • LA County: 13 million people (If state, the 9th most populated) • 30% of land = state parks, national parks and agriculture • Urban areas next to wilderness areas (Hollywood Bowl, Rose Bowl, the Greek Theatre) • Black-legged ticks found throughout • Hollywood Bowl (Hollywood Hills), Griffith Park, Angles National Forest, Santa Monica Mountains, Los Padres National Forest, San Gabriel Mountains, Santa Monica Mountains, Whittier Hills, La Puente Hills, Palos Verdes

  13. Griffith Park • Abundance of ticks • Largest urban wilderness in United States • 10 million visitors a year • Humans, horses, and dogs use trails

  14. Los Angeles 6th out of 59 counties in Lyme cases from 1994-2003

  15. Local parks with infected ticks • Malibu (Tapia State Park,1998; Charmlee 2000) • Pacific Palisades (Will Rogers State Park 2000) • Topanga (Topanga State Park 2000) • Palos Verdes (Bluff Cove 2000) • Backbone trail connecting Will Rogers and Topanga State Park an unidentified Bb strain • Crestview Hills Park (north of Brentwood)

  16. Incidence in LA ≠ Disconnect

  17. Coinfections:Can be more common than Lyme? 1. Lane RS, et al. 1992. Risk factors for Lyme disease in a small rural community in northern California. Am J Epidemiol 136:1358-1368. 2. Fritz et al. 1997, Seroepidemiology of Emerging Tickborne Infectious Diseases in a Northern California Community. J Inf Dis 175:1432-9, 1997. 3. C. C. Chang et al. Molecular Evidence of Bartonella spp. in Questing Adult Ixodes pacificus Ticks in CaliforniaJ. of Clin. Microbiology, April 2001, 39(4): 1221-1226.

  18. What can be done? • Alert public to Lyme risks, symptoms & precautions • Newsletter to physicians • in LA • Only ~68% with EM • EM alone diagnostic • Clinical diagnosis • Surveillance definition not for diagnosis • Make sure all physicians and labs aware of new mandatory lab reporting • lab results • Physician form verifying CDC criteria • Compile data already being collected & add question to form re clinical diagnosis that does not meet CDC surveillance definition

  19. California Lyme Disease Association • Vision Statement • Every person who contracts Lyme receives a prompt diagnosis and ideal treatment to prevent the development of persistent Lyme disease. • Every person with persistent Lyme disease receives readily accessible and sufficient medical treatment to preserve health by either curing or controlling the disease to improve the individual’s current quality of life, prevent the progression of disease, or extend life span. • Every physician in the state receives adequate education regarding tick-borne diseases and is able to accurately diagnose and treat tick-borne diseases.

  20. Lyme disease is now lab reportable ….Lyme disease has been made laboratory reportable, which means that a positive laboratory test for Lyme disease must be forwarded to the local health department, which will then follow up with the physician ordering the test to evaluate if the patient fits the surveillance case definition. Reportable Disease List to be Updated New Legislation Allows for Timely Changes Department of Health Services, Division of Communicable Diseases, Medical Board of California, Action Alert Report, July 2005. 94:8.

  21. LA Has 5 Vector Control District—Only one is doing its job • The Greater LA District prevents and controls three vectors: mosquitoes, black flies, and midges. Covers Los Feliz area. • The Antelope Valley Mosquito & Vector Control District concentrates on mosquitoes and Africanized Honey Bees only. • San Gabrial Valley: Vectors of concern in the San Gabriel Valley include mosquitoes, black flies, midges, rodents, …Africanized honey bees and other stinging insects. May test ticks? Website has no public information on ticks. • Long Beach Health Dept – LBHDVCP No mention of ticks

  22. 2000 Vector Report for West LA “These positive results represents an unusually high infection rates of Lyme spirochete in southern California ticks, occupying a wide area from Pacific Palisades to the west of Malibu close to Ventura county and as far south as Palos Verdes.”

  23. New relapsing fever type strains found in California • Bissett identified a new strain in California similar to reported European strains with antigenic variation similar to that seen in the Borrelia spp. that causes relapsing fever.Bissett, ML and W. Hill, Characterization of Borrelia burgdorferi Strains Isolated from Ixodes pacificus Ticks in California. J Clin. Microbiology, Dec. 1987, 25 (12): 2296-2301.http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=269474&blobtype=pdf • Novel relapsing fever group spirochete also detected in Ixodes pacificus ticks in CA. Detected in Sonoma, Placer, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Riverside,?? . Quintana, U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion & Prevention Medicine West.

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