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In other news, with spring starting earlier and warmer weather lingering deeper into the

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fall, the tick season is expanding. Wisconsin is already a hot spot for ticks in the U.S.,

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second in the nation, after some locations on the east coast, and with the deer tick prevalent

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across the state, cases of Lyme disease are also on the rise. Spiking already this month ahead of

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last year, and 2024 marked a record of nearly 2,500 Lyme disease cases in Wisconsin. Could

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that be surpassed this year? Researchers at Gunderson Medical Foundation are staying on top of the

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disease. Dr. Eric Saban leads the research there, and he joins us now. Thanks for being here, Dr.

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Happy to do it. How alarming is it that the tick population is growing in with it, cases of Lyme

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disease? Well, I think that it's not going away, and I think that as a disease in our region, I

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think we should get pretty comfortable with the idea that it's a threat that will probably become

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more common over time, especially when you figure in changes to weather and how often people are

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outside doing outdoor recreation. Seems like a thing that's going to be with us going into the

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future. And so, what should people do about that? I know that you have said that, you know,

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prevention is better than a cure, so what's the best prevention here?

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Generally speaking, be aware that if you're going outside and you're going to be in a place

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where ticks might be real simple things. Wearing long sleeves, long pants, tucking your pants into

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your socks, wearing bright clothing so you can identify ticks when they get attached to you and

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remove them before they have a chance to attach to your body, and getting in the habit of making

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sure that you look for ticks that might be attached to your skin after you have been out in the woods

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or out in a place that there might be a lot of ticks. We know that if you remove these things

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from you before they've had a chance to attach to a lot of the transmission risk of Lyme diseases

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very, very low or negligible. So we recommend people be very vigilant to that sort of thing

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before they once they come back in from a recreational outing. If you do contract Lyme

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diseases, is there a cure for it? There are exceptional treatments. We've been using antibiotics

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for a very, very long time. Yes, people can be cured, but it's a pretty serious illness and a lot

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of folks and certainly has no limits on its ability to produce misery in those who get it. But yes,

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we can usually treat people very effectively, especially if we catch the disease early.

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So what are some of the kind of worst symptoms of it?

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The ones that patients have told me are the most disturbing are the ones that involve the joints,

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and I've had patients that have very significant problems with their mobility and very significant

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joint pain going into months, sometimes almost a year. And for people who are otherwise

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real active or at a real active phase in their life, it can significantly disrupt their quality

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of life to a major degree. So does it matter if it is diagnosed and treated early versus later?

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The way that the disease operates is that it produces inflammatory reactions in the human body

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that have a tendency to progress, change, and worsen over the course of time if the infection

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is not treated. Generally speaking, it's better if you take care of it sooner rather than later.

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Lots of the cases don't get recognized until weeks or even months of the

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lapse than at that point the symptoms have oftentimes been much more dramatic. But generally speaking,

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it's a good idea to try to get antibiotic treatment for people very soon. And you have

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a tendency not to then progress into the real serious joints or cardiac or neurological complications

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after that. How would you know that you had it early? Well, there are certainly tests that

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we can use. A lot of things in medicine depend on clinical context. And so that starts with

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somebody seeking care and bringing up the idea that they may have been outside or may have had

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tick bites or may have been exposed to ticks. And then it relies on the part of the health care

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provider to recognize that it's in our area. And it has a pretty diverse array of presentations.

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So you combine, you know, the right place at the right time kind of risk back to profile with

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the person presenting with the right features of the illness. And at that instance, you know,

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you take action and give people treatment. A lot of times you can prevent things from getting

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much worse. So has research developed good tests to diagnose Lyme disease?

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I'm biased. I think that the testing can work and can be effective in some circumstances,

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but it has a lot of limits by virtue of how it works. Most of the present testing is based on

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immunological reactions through a process we call serology. And there are pros and cons to that.

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Those tests have advantages and that they can show us immunological reactivity and recognition,

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but they also can be very difficult to interpret. They don't behave so to speak the way that a lot

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of other serological tests do because it's a strange disease. And we don't really have tests

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that I think are colloquial as well understood as something like a pregnancy test. You know,

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pregnancy test doesn't leave much doubt about what the result means. The problem with Lyme

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disease testing in current uses is that it's just simply not that straightforward in a lot of cases.

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It can be ambiguous. And so in that instance, if the results are ambiguous, should a patient

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ask to be treated anyway? I would suggest that any patient have an individual discussion with

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their provider and make some decision-making on what makes sense for the risk benefit,

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pros and cons scenario. You should always be forthright with your doctors about what

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you think is going on and healthcare practitioners should be attentive and mindful of what patients

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might have experienced. In medical school, they told me you can't diagnose what you don't think

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of. And a lot of times things that are not being considered are diagnoses that can get missed or

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delayed. So in this region, on the part of patients know that it's out there and on the part of

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practitioners know that it's a thing that people can walk into the office with. And if the circumstances

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makes sense and favor treatment, go ahead and do it. Give it a try. I know that your lab helped

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develop the first Lyme disease vaccine for dogs. How far are we from a vaccine for humans?

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There have been vaccines for humans. The original Lyme rex vaccine was offered for a while and

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then taken off the market. There have been other attempts at developing similar vaccines. There

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are pros and cons to the different vaccine strategies being used, both in animals and in humans. Our

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hope and our work is trying to find a effective, protective vaccination that can be used in humans

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that would function in more or less the same sort of way as a vaccine that a person might get

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one time or even perhaps once a season and then provide protection going into the whole rest of

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that year or that season. Some progress has been made on that. Lots of dead ends. It's a hard area

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of work. Well, thank you for doing that work. Dr. Saban, thanks for joining us. I appreciate it.

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Thank you very much.

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Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Good luck with that garlic muster.

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Yeah, it's a mask. They told me to get goats and goats or goats wreck things. Pigs are easier

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to fence than I think. How many pigs do you have? We have four now, probably piglets in the next

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two weeks. You know, we might have as many as another eight or 10. It really depends. They're

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small pigs. They're hair pigs called coonies. Cooney coon pigs. They're delicious. They're actually

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not raised.