In 2014, there were 79 cases of Lyme disease in Berks County, a rate of 6 out of every 100,000 people, according to the Pennsylvania health department. [About 414,000 people live in Berks. Don’t ask me how state epidemiologists crunch their numbers.]
In its typical level-headed style, the Reading Eagle explained the risk in July:
“But of late, Pennsylvania has become unfortunately synonymous with something else: Lyme disease.”
On the other hand, Berks residents suffer nearly 4,400 cases of chlamydia a year, a rate of nearly 355 per 100,000.
Chlamydia is a common sexually transmitted disease that can infect men and women, according to the taxpayer-funded federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can cause serious, permanent damage to a woman's reproductive system, making it difficult or impossible for her to get pregnant later on. Chlamydia can also cause a potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy.
But the Reading Eagle editors would never think such an uncomfortable topic as an STD is suitable to explore, even though better awareness of this and other genuine health issues would improve the quality of life in Berks County.
Horrible as Lyme is, I’m more scared of salmonella, which struck 205 Berks Countians, though not much more scared, because that’s just about 16 of out every 100,000 of us.
Want to be scared? The cancer rate in Berks is 442 per 100,000. Still, I’ll take those odds, and worry instead, wallowing among invisible ticks, about how to keep the rabbits off my clematis.
No comments:
Post a Comment