LYME disease has shot into the limelight – with celebs battling it and experts claiming cases have quadrupled in the past decade.
Scarily, health experts have told The Sun that 9,000 Brits may be living with the potentially deadly infection without even realising it.
Pop star Avril Lavigne got Lyme disease earlier this year. Other big names who have reportedly had it include Ben Stiller, Alec Baldwin, Richard Gere and Ashley Olsen.
There are also incidences of whole families falling victim to the disease — which can cause flu-like symptoms, chronic fatigue, facial paralysis and, in extreme cases, heart failure.
Yolanda Foster, star of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, has it as do her children Bella and Anwar Hadid.
And last month Phones 4U billionaire John Caudwell said he, his ex-wife and their three children have all suffered.
Medics have long believed Lyme disease can only be passed on to humans by the bite of a tick carrying the infection. But John Caudwell, 63, reckons that if whole families can be affected, it must also pass from human to human.
Edwina Williams agrees — she got it five years after her son Joe, now 17, was diagnosed.
Mum-of-three Edwina, 46, from Holsworthy, Devon, says: “On Joe’s final day of primary school, in July 2009, he suddenly became very ill, all achey and fluey.
“Over the next few days he didn’t get any better, so I took him to our local hospital where they said it could be swine flu.
“They gave him some medicine and sent us home. But Joe’s condition got worse, and within a few weeks he developed facial palsy. The left side of his face drooped and he couldn’t shut his left eye.
“He had sharp pains in his head and chest, and he started collapsing randomly.”
Edwina, an office administrator, took Joe back to her GP who referred him to A&E. Again they were told it could be swine flu.
Joe was quarantined for monitoring but then sent home. Edwina says: “He didn’t have swine flu but something was obviously very wrong. He still had all the same extreme symptoms, with no sign of improvement.”
Three weeks later the results of Joe’s blood tests showed he had Lyme disease.
Edwina says: “We’d never seen a rash or a bite and we didn’t know anyone who’d had it, so it was a complete shock.
“We were sent straight to North Devon District Hospital where he was put on a four-week course of antibiotics as an outpatient.
“He also had an ECG to check his heart, and an MRI to check that the Lyme disease hadn’t given him brain damage.
“Mercifully, nothing was picked up and by the end of the antibiotics he seemed to have made a complete recovery.
“I now know just how lucky Joe was to get diagnosed and treated so quickly, otherwise the effects might have been much longer-lasting.
“If he gets rundown or gets a cold, the left side of his face and his left eye droop slightly, and he still gets those sharp head pains. But overall his life is great. He’s very sporty and he’s doing well at sixth-form college.”
When Edwina noticed a rash on her thigh two years ago, she knew exactly what it was.
She says: “I also felt fluey and utterly exhausted. I hadn’t felt a bite and don’t know how I got it, but I just knew.
“My GP and the nurse practitioner agreed and prescribed anti-biotics without any blood tests.
“I finished the three-week course but a week later I developed facial drooping and had sharp head pains, just like Joe.
“A blood test came back negative, but it was so obvious I had Lyme disease.
“I had two more weeks of antibiotics. I gradually started feeling slightly better, but I was still exhausted pretty much all the time, with shortness of breath and heart palpitations.”
Edwina who is married to Dave, 54, a printer, also has two younger children — Sam, 14, and nine-year-old Ruby.
She says: “With the kids to look after, as well as trying to work, I found it so hard to get through each day.
“Dave was a rock throughout all this — without him I don’t know how I would have coped.
“Then just before Christmas, four months after first seeing that rash, I developed a bleed in my eye which miraculously cleared up without treatment.
“The eye specialist told me it could well have been caused by Lyme disease, but again, nothing was certain.”
Then early last year, Edwina began having migraines and other sharp head pains.
She was referred to a neurologist who said she could never have had Lyme disease in the first place because Devonshire ticks don’t carry it.
She says: “Fobbing me off, he prescribed nerve-blocking anti-depressants to ease my migraines, which left me constantly crying and spaced out like a zombie.”
She sought help from the support group Lyme Disease UK who gave “amazing support”.
She adds: “I’m now taking herbal supplements and homeopathic remedies and I’m on a wheat-free diet. I had my first cold in two years this week, which shows my immune system is improving.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever get fully better and I dread to think how many people are suffering with the seemingly endless effects of this dreadful disease.
“I consider me and Joe lucky for having been diagnosed so early.”
Disease facts and figures
CAN you catch Lyme disease in the UK?
Yes. Around 2,000 cases are reported each year. Ticks are especially common in wooded and heath areas.
How do you catch it?
The borrelia bacteria is passed into the human bloodstream by a bite from an infected tick. The disease is not contagious between people.
Can I get bitten by a tick and not catch the disease?
Yes. For you to get the disease, the tick must be infected and must stay on you for roughly 24 hours.
What are the symptoms?
Early signs may include a circular red “bullseye” rash around the bite and flu-like symptoms. If the disease is more advanced, it can eventually lead to heart problems or disturb the nervous system.
How easy is it to diagnose?
Difficult, as symptoms overlap with other conditions and vary between individuals. Some sufferers never produce enough antibodies to give a positive blood test.
What is the treatment?
Usually curable with a lengthy course of antibiotics at an early stage. Outcome may not be so good with late diagnosis.
Why the name?
It is named after a wealthy, marina town in New England, which itself is named after Lyme Regis in Dorset.
Why UK cases are on the rise
AROUND 9,000 Brits could have Lyme disease without even knowing it, according to consultant microbiologist Dr Matthew Dryden.
He says: “Cases of Lyme disease are increasing – maybe because of increased housing in greenfield areas or rising numbers of deer and ticks due to global warming.
“With about 2,000 confirmed cases per year, if the proportion of undiagnosed incidents is as many as 90 per cent, up to 9,000 Britons could be suffering debilitating symptoms with no idea what is causing them and nothing being done to stop the progress of the disease.
It affects everyone differently.
“Some don’t have any symptoms and some, even after successful treatment, have post-infection problems for months.
“A number of private laboratories abroad offer tests for Lyme disease but the value of many of them is not verified.
“As Lyme disease can give rise to symptoms seen in many other serious diseases, it’s vital patients are reviewed properly by a medical practitioner.
“They should not be treated on the basis of a single laboratory test without supporting clinical evidence.”