Lyme Disease

Southeastern Pennsylvania residents account for the majority of cases of Lyme disease reported in the commonwealth. Within the Philadelphia region, the largest number of reported cases has been in Chester County, with Bucks County second. This is not surprising because these two are the fastest-growing counties in the region, and Lyme disease often occurs in places where open space is undergoing development. Montgomery County and Delaware County residents come next, and are close to each other in numbers.

Sue Kamerdze did not know what disease was ravaging her body. Nobody did. Then, on a November night in 1990, the unthinkable happened. "One minute, I was in the kitchen, frying eggs, and, all of a sudden, the house sounds just stopped - the frying, the kids, the TV," Kamerdze, now 43, said. "I went to the living room to tell my husband. He was yelling to me - but I couldn't hear. " In an instant, she had gone deaf. That was a seminal event in Kamerdze's 12-year battle with a poorly diagnosed case of Lyme disease that has required repeated hospitalization, has been marked by vision loss, swollen joints, and raw facial lesions, and still cripples her and her family.

For Jerry and Myrna Fox it has always been pleasant to live on a street bordering woodsy Pennypack Park in the Northeast. There's a miniature wilderness just beyond their back yard on Macon Street. They see deer daily. And there are loads of song birds, raccoons, squirrels - and ticks. About two weeks ago Myrna Fox entered the park to feed a stray cat and its kittens. Later she noticed "spots" on her arms and shoulders that started to move. They were tiny deer ticks. She went to Nazareth Hospital, where nurses picked off 23 ticks and put her on antibiotics as a precaution.

Why did the hen cross the road? To poop in George Weidman's yard, apparently. The Upper Southampton man's complaints about the foul habits of his neighbors' guinea hens helped persuade township supervisors in March to ban the birds. But the ordinance banning them has ruffled the feathers of the birds' owners and a few other residents who see the tick-eating hens as a defense against Lyme disease. Weidman said that if the birds didn't insist on flying across a yard and a side street to his house, he wouldn't mind the eight guinea hens that his neighbors, Chris and Kathy Mendla, keep on their 2.5-acre tract.

About a month after a camping trip in 1989, the Yeager family started suffering from a persistent ailment. Various doctors diagnosed it as anything from milk allergies to stress to multiple sclerosis. But, Angela Yeager of Falls Township, suspected Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted through the saliva of infected ticks. Yeager took her family to scores of skeptical doctors who rejected her self-diagnosis even though Yeager, her two daughters and her husband all exhibited classic Lyme disease symptoms: stiff necks, joint pain, visual problems, swollen glands and unrelenting, overwhelming fatigue.

In white jumpsuits from head to toe, the odd threesome made a daylight landing at Valley Forge National Park. First, they sampled the air by spinning a black tube. Next, they collected specimens from grassy stretches. Then they returned to their glass-and-marble headquarters. War of the Worlds, Part II? Nah. These creatures hailed from Norristown. Part of the Montgomery County Health Department's team of environmental health specialists, they spent two days last week searching for a freckle- sized, blood-sucking mite whose bite transmits debilitating Lyme disease.

Does Chester County have a deer problem? Consider these stats. And a story. Stats. Chester County was second only to Cameron County in the northern part of the state in reported cases of Lyme disease from 2001 through 2005, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The disease is spread by deer ticks. Story. Driving for two miles one evening late last month along an edge of Highland Orchards in West Bradford Township near Downingtown, where he is production manager, Stuart Constable says he counted 50 deer among the trees and bushes that he tries to protect.

From the sounds of neighborhood chitchat, there isn't a person who hasn't had a brush with Lyme disease or known someone who has. Relatively unheard-of just a few years ago, the disease has emerged to menace hikers, picnickers and others in the great outdoors. But is all the talk about this tick-borne disease blown out of proportion? In Lyme Disease: The Cause, the Cure, the Controversy (Johns Hopkins University Press, $15.95 paper), Dr. Alan G. Barbour offers a balanced look at this ailment, explaining how Lyme disease is spread, who is at risk, what the symptoms are, and how antibiotics can be best used for treatment.

Donna Hoch had everything going for her: a beautiful home, a loving family and a flourishing career. Then, in 1987, she was struck down - literally - by Lyme disease and was cast adrift on what she describes as "a sea of pain. " Her symptoms included severe head and facial pain, memory loss, partial paralysis, insomnia and extreme lethargy. Hoch, of Churchville, who had been nearing the top rung of a career ladder leading to school principal, became completely house-bound.

Donna Hoch had everything going for her: a beautiful home, a loving family and a flourishing career. Then, in 1987, she was struck down - literally - by Lyme disease and was cast adrift on what she describes as "a sea of pain. " Her symptoms included severe head and facial pain, memory loss, partial paralysis, insomnia and extreme lethargy. Hoch, of Churchville, who had been nearing the top rung of a career ladder leading to school principal, became completely house-bound. Eventually, she felt even her identity slip away.