Lyme disease affects more than 300,000 people in the United States, costs $1.3 billion to treat each year and is the sixth most common reportable infectious disease in the United States. It is named after Lyme, Conn., where it was first discovered 40 years ago.
Lyme disease, contracted through bites from a black footed deer tick and caused by the Borrelia burgdoferi bacteria, was once thought of as a disease only contracted in the Northeastern region of the United States. However with the spread of housing into once rural areas, the overabundance of deer and white footed mice (another carrier of the deer tick) and climate change Lyme disease has spread throughout the country and throughout the world. We need to be aware that one can contract Lyme in Oregon.
Dr. Tom Messinger, naturopathic physician practicing in SE Portland speacializes in the treatment of Lyme and chronic Lyme disease in his busy SE Portland practice. Prior to becoming an N.D.,he was an RN for 23 years and spent most of his career working in inner city Emergency Rooms.
- KBOO