North Carolina and Lyme Disease

These are actual charts from slide shows of the April 13th meeting of the Vector-Borne Work Group Meeting, talking about the growth of Lyme Disease.  Remember, just a few years ago, according to NC Health Department, Lyme didn't exist here.  The whole report also includes co-infections, like spotted fever. Anyone interested in the whole report, please let me know.  The Lyme Disease I found the most interesting.

"A concern was raised and discussion within the group concentrated on finding ways to
ensure that physicians are more aware of the incidence of tick borne illness in
the state as well as the difference between clinical diagnosis and surveillance
criteria. National case definitions are standardized, and applied mostly
uniformly across the country. Ms. Herman‐Giddens brought the groups
attention to the fact that a large part of the frustration is that there are no good
clinical tests for Lyme and many of the other tick‐borne illness.
Dr. Williams notified the group of the decision that state agencies, to protect patient’s
rights to confidentiality will not release county information until after the end of
the year. Of course, health directors will be notified of cases in their counties.
Status of Governor’s Proclamation declaring May Tick and Mosquito Awareness Month: This
item has been approved by the department, but as of the meeting date, there
has been no information on the status of this from the governor’s office.
Jodi Reber presented on the pending updates to the DPH website which will include enhanced
links for Providers and Local Health Departments as well as a section for
providers to reference for laboratory tests and questions. Orange County has a
physicians only portal, and are encouraging other counties to do the same type
of information dissemination. In addition, a variety of educational materials will
be posted for providers and health departments to share with the general public.
The group will be notified, with relevant links, as soon as these have been
posted.
Discussion ensued on the many initiatives and efforts that have been done to increase
awareness of all arboviral and tick‐borne disease awareness. Hopefully the
updates to the website will help provide more information, the proclamation will
help to bring attention to the website and the new information that will be
available soon.
Meagan Vaughn: Focus on tick borne diseases.
Focus is prevention of illness in high‐risk groups, i.e. outdoor workers, landscapers,
forestry, etc. both because of exposure and because of poor adherence to
prevention measures."