Growing up in the New York City area, the fear of ticks was drummed into me. The tiny little buggers could hitchhike home with us tucked in the waistband of our jeans, or silently hide in our hair, only to be discovered after they had consumed their fill of human blood.
I’m not kidding when I tell you how fearful the media made us feel. Lyme disease, named after a town in Connecticut, took the a lot of the fun out of camping, romping through the woods, and laying on the grass contemplating the stars… at least for me. If I had been a Bug Marshall, I would have simply outlawed the very existence of ticks.
Bug Marshall Win?
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has taken steps to at least address the issue of treating the victims of these tiny terrors. Recent legislation has been passed to force insurance companies to support prolonged antibiotic treatment for those who suffer from Lyme disease.
The only problem is that some of the medical community is not entirely convinced that this is an appropriate method, and may, in fact, cause more harm than good. Sometimes, Lyme isn’t diagnosed for years, while the bite-ee has gone on to develop a various assortment of debilitating complaints, including joint pain, arthritis-like symptoms, and depressive disorders. Unlike Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, another tick-borne illness, a round of antibiotics won’t do the trick.
The recent legislation is a win for a lot of Lyme sufferers and Lyme practitioners… but a knee-jerk reaction to others in the medical community.
I wish we could appoint some real-life “Bug Marshalls” and send all ticks into outer space. If that were possible, I would have already taken care of the problem.
