To the Editor:
I just read the article entitled “Lyme disease prevention highlighted.” The trouble with this article is that there is a glaring omission, namely a failure to note that ticks carry more than just Lyme disease and that sadly a tick bite can be a multi-pathogenic event.
For a decade, our Pike County Tick Borne Disease Task Force Committee has been trying to get the message out that Lyme disease is only ONE of the many pathogens carried in tick bite.
If a person tests negative for Lyme pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi, it does not mean that they are free from infection from other tick borne pathogens transmitted in a tick bite. This is why the Pike County Tick Task Force uses the term “Tick Borne Pathogens” rather than the term Lyme disease.
During the past decade, we have seen cases of tick bite victims that were infected simultaneously with several different pathogens from one tick bite.
These different pathogens could require different therapeutic regimens given over different treatment periods.
The tick borne pathogen Babesia for example is a parasite carried by a tick and requires an antiparasitic agent rather than an antibiotic.
Ladies and gentlemen, always remember that Lyme Disease is not a synonym for all pathogens carried by a tick.
Robert A. Ollar
Pike County Tick Borne Diseases Task Force Committee
Milford