Subject:  Paging Dr. Gupta: Lyme Disease

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AMERICAN MORNING

Paging Dr. Gupta: Lyme Disease

Aired August 6, 2003 - 08:44 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE
UPDATED.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: During the summer, health officials routinely warn
about the risk posed by deer tick bites. But lyme disease is still something of
a mystery and often hard to diagnose.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center this morning to tell us how to protect
ourselves.

Hi, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.

Burelea burdoferi (ph) -- that's the name of the bacteria that causes lyme
disease, one of my favorite bacteria from medical school, incidentally, but it
is the most common tick-borne infectious disease in the United States. That's
the name of the bacteria. The good news is that it's rarely, if ever, fatal.
That's an important point to point out right at the top here. But it has been
reported in every state, except Montana, around the country, so it's certainly
a very prevalent thing.

It's a little bit controversial as well, because lyme disease, the number of
cases back in 2001 was around 17,000. In 2002, the number increased to 20,000,
and the numbers may even be higher now.

But the interesting thing is that they think lyme disease is dramatically
underreported by about 10 times, so, in fact, there might be about 200,000
cases of lyme disease floating around.

This year because of all the weather Chad's been talking about, because of the
rain followed by extreme heat, they think that the number of tick bites has
actually gone down, so some important information there. As far as symptoms go,
there are some classic symptoms of lyme disease, although they are somewhat
vague, as well. Take a look at the list of the various symptoms, a bullseye
rash -- we're going to talk about that in a second here -- fever, malaise,
fatigue, that just means being tired, having headaches, muscle aches or joint
aches.

People put a lot of faith in this particular bullseye rash, the bullseye point,
and then the rash that associated with it, but, in fact, according to the CDC,
less than 50 percent, less than half the patients, actually have any sort of
rash at all. You can take a look at some of the pictures there as well.

So that rash -- and sometimes if you have a tick bite it may be smaller than
the size of a period on a typewritten page, so very, very small. Sometimes a
rash won't be there. You've really got to look for those symptoms and be
suspicious if you're someone who's at risk -- someone who's been out in fields,
someone who's subjected to possible tick bites. And then there's all sorts of
treatments available, as well.

COLLINS: What about those treatments? What can be done now?

GUPTA: Well, first of all you have to have the suspicion, again that you, in
fact, have the tick bite and have subsequent lyme disease. If you do and that
ends up being true, there's a {*filter*} test you can actually get first of all to
confirm, in fact, that you have this bacteria, the burelea burdoferi (ph), and
if you have that bacteria, you're going to go ahead and start on antibiotics.
Typically, it gets a little controversial here, because the CDC will recommend
about 10 days of {*filter*}antibiotics. But other organizations focused on lyme
disease say the treatment needs to be much longer in order to prevent the
disease from coming back. It gets a little bit controversial. But again, the
CDC guidelines about 10 days.

And I should mention, as well, Heidi that part of the confusion is lyme disease
really mimics a lot of other diseases. There are a lot of diseases that will
look the same as lyme disease. Take a look at the list here of all those
various diseases, including diseases like MS, ALS, arthritis, chronic fatigue
syndrome, Gulf War Syndrome, that's something we've been talking a lot about,
ADHD even, hypochondrias (ph), fibromyalgia (ph), all those sorts of diseases.
Sometimes lyme disease, if untreated, can cause neurological problems. Those
bacteria actually get into areas of the brain. They can cause problems with
memory, problems with hallucination. So it can be very severe if not treated
long-term -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Wow. And hard to figure out it sounds like if you have it in the first
place.

Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much this morning for talking to us about Burelea
burdoferi (ph).

GUPTA: That's very good.

COLLINS: Thank you.

GUPTA: My favorite bacteria.

COLLINS: All right, we'll talk again soon. Thanks, Sanjay.

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Burelea burdoferi (ph) -- that's the name of the bacteria that causes
lyme
The good news is that it's rarely, if ever, fatal.
SOUNDS LIKE HE IS PARTOTING FROM  STEERE'S ARTICLE IN NEJM JULY 12TH
ISSUE ENTITLED MEDICAL PROGRESS LYME DISEASE.  BY THE WAY THERE HAVE
BEEN CASES IN MONTANA.

And then there's all sorts of

 there's a {*filter*} test you can actually get first of all to
YES YES EVEN THO ONE IS BITTEN ETC.FATIGUED, ARTHRALGIAS , MYALGIAS,
NIGHT SWEATS  THEN YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE TRIBUNAL HEARING & HAVE THE
{*filter*} TEST TO CONFIRM IT & ( & IF AFTER ALL THIS & YOU SHOW NEGATIVE -
YOU DON'T HAVE IT & ARE IMPLIED TO BE A NUT IF YOU PERSIST LATER)   AS
WE KNOW THESE {*filter*} TEST ARE SO ACCURATE IN THEIR LAB & FALSE
NEGATIVES ARE RARE BUT THERE ARE MORE FALSE POSITIVES.
But again, the
YOU CAN SEE WHO'S GUIDELINES HE STICKS WITH FAITHFULLY..
...
 GUPTA: That's very good.
COLLINS: All right, we'll talk again soon. DON'T HURRY.... Thanks,
Sanjay.
MAYBE THAT ph AFTER THE WORD BORRELIA BURGDORFERI MEANS THAT IT IS
MISSPELLED INTENTIONLY TO SHOW THE PROPER PRONOUNCIATION.....ANYWAY I
THINK IT DUMB THE WAY IT'S DONE & SHOULD HAVE THE CORRECT SPELLING
SHOWN ONCE.

I thought that too when I read the article and hoped maybe someone just did a
typo.  

The longer we deal with these idiots that act like authorities on Lyme the less
tolerable we get, Right?  I know I feel that way for sure.