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Lyme Disease. In 1975 Yale researchers began investigating a highly unusual cluster of arthritis cases among families living in the rural area of Lyme, Conn. Later, doctors at the U.S. submarine base in nearby New London reported several patients with a distinctive skin lesion that in Europe had been associated with tick bites. The seemingly unrelated ailments became linked when the Yale research team found that about a quarter of Lyme arthritis victims had also had the skin lesions a few weeks before their painful joint swellings began. Subsequent investigations revealed that the skin lesions, arthritis and many other ailments, including encephalitis, meningitis, paralysis of the face, arms and legs, and heart abnormalities, could be traced to bites from a species of tick (Ixodes dammini) that infests the area. Just what disease-causing agent the tick transmits is still a puzzle.
The complex of illnesses is not limited to Connecticut. Ixodes dammini is found along the East Coast from Massachusetts to Maryland, as well as in Wisconsin. A related species lives in California and Oregon. Lyme disease has occurred in all these areas.
Infant Botulism. Botulism usually comes from eating improperly canned food contaminated by toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. Four years ago, researchers at the California health department found that babies with no obvious exposure to such canned foods were coming down with the disease. C. botulinum bacteria are ubiquitous. They thrive in the earth and are spread as spores through dust in the air as well as on vegetables, fruits or in honey. Adults regularly ingest the microbes but customarily suffer no harm. The spores remain dormant in the adult intestine. For as yet unknown reasons, the intestines of some babies aged one to six months provide a hospitable environment for the spores, permitting them to germinate and make their deadly toxin. It is a nerve poison that produces an array of symptoms including constipation, lethargy, poor feeding, weak crying and general floppiness. More than 170 cases of infant botulism have been officially reported worldwide since 1976, but the count is probably far too low. Many physicians are still unfamiliar with the illness, and no simple diagnostic test exists. Evidence suggests that infant botulism accounts for at least 5% of the more than 8,000 cases of sudden infant death that occur yearly in the U.S. alone.