First Case of Lyme Disease Is Reported in Southland

A Laguna Beach woman has contracted Lyme disease, becoming the first case in Southern California since reporting of the disease began this spring, state and local health officials said Tuesday.

But officials called the case unusual. Although the disease has become widespread on the East Coast and has been reported in coastal areas of Northern California, they said Lyme--which is spread through bites from very small ticks--is not a significant threat in Southern California.

“It’s a relatively low-risk problem” locally, said Dr. Robert Murray, an epidemiologist with the California Department of Health Services.

Physicians have been required to report the disease to state health officials only since March 30. Los Angeles County health officials said there have been no cases reported here this year.

Rick Greenwood, an Orange County health official in charge of communicable disease treatment, said, “It may well be there are some small foci of infection (in Orange County) but, generally speaking, we haven’t seen it.”

In a survey of Lyme disease in California, epidemiologist Murray studied 400 cases from 1983 to 1987, 59% of those in Humboldt and Mendocino counties. Murray said he found only two of those cases in Orange County, six in Los Angeles County and three in San Diego County. Murray said he did not have statistics for 1988 and is now gathering data for 1989.

First identified 14 years ago in Old Lyme, Conn., the disease has swept the Northeast as well as Wisconsin and Minnesota. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, which recorded 526 cases in 1982, tracked more than 5,000 cases in 1988.

Lyme disease is characterized by flu-like illness--fatigue, headache, joint pains--and frequently a rash. Later symptoms, which can appear months after the initial illness, include inflammation of the heart, numbness and muscle weakness, meningitis and arthritis. Antibiotics can successfully treat the disease, although in a few patients permanent joint damage may occur, CDC officials said.

In the Laguna Beach case, a woman in her early 40s--whom officials would not identify--visited her doctor in May complaining of fatigue, headaches and a low-grade fever. She also had a rash below her armpit and might have received a tick bite several weeks earlier, according to Dr. F. P. Meyer, who treated her.

At the woman’s request, Meyer conducted a blood tests to see if her serum contained the spiral-shaped organism that causes Lyme.

“Nobody was more surprised than I was when the test came back positive,” Meyer said. “The health department has been telling us there hasn’t been any in this region.”

He and county officials theorize that the woman may have received a tick bite in her back yard, which borders one of Laguna Beach’s brush-covered canyons. Deer, mice and rabbits, all of which carry the western black-legged tick, inhabit the canyon.

Officials urged residents not to be “alarmists” about Lyme, but suggested that anyone entering a brush-covered area wear long trousers, apply a good insect repellent and check for ticks.