Section:OBS 2N PaGe:38 Edition Date:190804 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 3/8/2019 14:59 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Observer
38 04.08.19 Focus
T
hree years ago, a few
weeks after a family
trip to the New Forest,
I started to feel con-
stantly nauseous and
tired. A small red patch
appeared on my ankle. I turned to the
web for some answers, and Google
turned up trumps: much to my hor-
ror, my symptoms matched some
of those for the tick-borne bacterial
infection Lyme disease.
My GP was doubtful (we lived in
London and I had not noticed any
ticks on me) but agreed to a blood
test. It came back positive so the rest
of my family was tested. My hus-not through misty eyes but through
sights on a rifl e. (I was not alone. A
letter to the Times last week asked:
“If deer are deemed to be a signifi -
cant threat to human health, and an
increase in the cull is thought to be
a reasonable solution, then why are
we even hesitating?”)
But my research revealed deer
to be only part of the problem: the
unpalatable truth is that ticks are
carried by other animals, includ-
ing cats, dogs and birds. The
International Lyme and Associated
Diseases Society states: “A patient’s
residence does not necessarily
refl ect his or her Lyme disease risk.
People travel, pets travel and ticks
travel. “Migratory birds carry ticks
over great distances,” it adds.
You can’t become immune to
Lyme – a lesson that leading media
analyst Claire Enders learned fi rst-
hand. She has had Lyme twice, with
the second bout going undiag-
nosed for a year as her test results
gave a false negative. An eloquent
businesswoman from a medical
Nobel Prize-winning US family, she
became such an authority on the ill-
ness that when she told Jeremy Huntbut Enders argues that, for her and
most others, they are the only cure.
Around 70% of her US family has
had Lyme, and their estate is now
sprayed to kill ticks after employees
died from the disease.
The National Institute for Health
and Care Excellence has identi-
fi ed areas of the UK particularly at
risk of the disease. They include the
New Forest and Scottish Highlands
where businessman Kenny Young
got Lyme from ticks in the bracken.
He was initially very tired but
thought nothing of it until a rash
appeared a few weeks later. “ Luckily,
I knew enough about Lyme to fi g-
ure it out ,” he said. “My doctor was
in London and had never come
across Lyme before. However, when
I explained what had happened, she
was very helpful and prescribed me
the NHS-recommended course of
antibiotics.”
He thinks the rise might be due to
warmer weather but also different
land usage: “In the past, there was
much more bracken burning that
kept it under control.”
Young now checks for ticks and
says: “Hopefully, the big increase in
Lyme across the UK and the US will
encourage greater investment in
fi nding a vaccine.”
Vaccination or better testing could
help stop cases such as that of the
former England rugby player Matt
Dawson , whose misdiagnosis of
Lyme led to him needing heart sur-
gery. The expensive issue the gov-
ernment needs to confront is the
ticks themselves and the bacte-
ria they pass on; more research is
needed into this mysterious and
complex illness.Symptoms include circular red
mark on the skin, multiple red
rashes, fatigue, aching joints,
dizziness/vertigo, fever, night
sweats, diffi culty concentrating,
neck stiff ness/headaches,
numbness or tingling, nausea,
palpitations, shortness of breath,
and mood changes.
What to wear insect repellent,
a hat and long clothing in
woodland; check yourself and
pets for ticks.How to spot Lyme
Last week’s warning
about the growing
danger of Lyme disease
came as no surprise
to Tara Conlan after a
trip to the New Forest
left her infected‘I felt devastated by
the illness, but was
told it was in my
head because the test
was negative’
Claire Enders
My brush with Lyme
How tick bites turned our
family day out to disaster
First person
the NHS website’s Lyme guidance
was inadequate, the then health sec-
retary had it updated.
Yet she had to work hard to con-
vince her doctors she had it again:
“I was asked if I had a ‘Daily Mail ill-
ness’. It was demeaning. I felt dev-
astated by the illness, so to be told it
was in my head because the test was
negative was awful.”
Enders was unable to walk and
suffered nerve damage, but is thank-
fully better after an 18-month cycle
of antibiotics and hydrotherapy.
Language is important in rais-
ing awareness. She describes it as
a “climate-change illness” and says
Lyme should be compared with
tropical diseases, not fl u: “ It’s a
neural illness.”
Specialists say milder winters
have increased the tick popula-
tion, as fewer are being killed off by
freezing weather. Enders points out,
“this country is covered with woods
and crawling with deer. People for-
get that birds get ticks, so do cats,
dogs and other animals”.
She highlights how the US has
dealt with the increase of Lyme –
opening up special clinics where
antibiotics are given out. UK doctors
are more reluctant to prescribe anti-
biotics due to increased resistance,Tara Conlan at her
home in Bentworth,
Hampshire. Below,
an adult deer tick.
Main photograph by
Sonja Horsman/
the Observerband and daughter also had it but,
ironically, my son – on whom I had
spotted a tick – did not. Lyme is like
malaria in that you might get bit-
ten by a mosquito but only some of
them carry the disease.
Warnings issued last week that
Lyme is on the rise – and that the
number of cases may be three
times higher than estimated – are
no surprise to me. When I got it, I
was shocked to fi nd how easily it
could be transmitted, how unrelia-
ble testing for it was, and how awful
the consequences were for those
who didn’t get the right diagnosis
in time.
My symptoms ruined our
Christmas holiday and the anti-
biotics affected my daughter’s health
during school exams. But we were
fortunate. I subsequently learned
that of two others who contracted
Lyme in the New Forest, one – a
child – was affected neurologically.
Given that the hosts for the New
Forest ticks were deer, suffi ce to say,
I no longer felt like crying at the fi lm
Bambi and – unpopular opinion
alert – I began hoping people would
view the deer in Richmond Park
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