RadioRotary interviews New York State Senator Sue Serino on efforts to reduce Lyme Disease in the Hudson Valley and to free physicians to treat chronic Lyme Disease with longer courses of intravenous antibiotics. Lyme Disease is one of several tick-borne illnesses that are widespread in the Hudson Valley. Many believe that when it fails to be cured either by no treatment or inadequate treatment, it becomes chronic Lyme Disease. Chronic Lyme Disease, which is not recognized by the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), may affect those afflicted years after the initial infection. Symptoms can include arthritis, fatigue, mental fogginess, and impaired vision. The black-legged ticks that carry the disease from other mammals, such as deer and white-footed mice, often attach themselves to human hosts in the nymph stage, when they are about the size of a sesame seed. In about a quarter of the infections, a characteristic “bulls-eye” rash forms at the site of the infection.
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