The Brewster Lyme Disease Support Group, along with Denise Zevitas of the Brewster Ladies’ Library reference department, has been monitoring confirmed areas of Lyme disease in Brewster for more than a year.
In July 2008 the VNA took over the task of counting confirmed Lyme disease cases on Cape Cod. The town of Brewster in 2007 had a confirmed count of 77. The health officer in Brewster, Nancy Ellis Ice, signed off on this number.
The state lab in Boston has reduced this number to 23. In so doing, the credibility of Cape Cod Healthcare and the VNA is on the line. Brewster worked hard to get an accurate count of confirmed Lyme disease cases. So did its physicians. The VNA has cast this aside. How 77 cases becomes 23 is alarming.
The Lyme Disease Support Group in Brewster is challenging this development. We have alerted state Rep. Cleon Turner and U.S. Rep. William Delahunt. We ask the VNA to verify its assertion along with the state lab in Boston.
This defies credibility. Let’s get an honest count. This disease is taking a terrible toll.
Source: Cape Cod Times