Sen. Michele Brooks is pictured during a Senate Health and Human Services Committee meeting.

One of Warren County’s state senators wants to see the state do more to protect residents against Lyme disease.

Sen. Michele Brooks, R-Crawford/Erie/Mercer/Warren, recently introduced Senate Bill 1188 to provide better access to testing and treatments for Lyme disease and related tick-borne illnesses and to require health care policies to provide coverage.

“It has come to my attention that the most comprehensive testing for Lyme disease is not always being done in Pennsylvania, or not always being covered by health insurers,” Brooks wrote in her legislative memorandum.

“To rectify this, I will be introducing legislation to improve testing and insurance coverage for Lyme disease testing.”

She said Pennsylvania leads the nation in Lyme disease cases. In 2018, 10,208 Lyme disease cases were reported in Pennsylvania, but she said the Centers for Disease Control estimate under-reporting by a factor of 10, projecting occurrence rates, more accurately, in the hundreds of thousands. From 2000 to 2018, there have been 106,718 confirmed Lyme disease cases in Pennsylvania, though CDC officials say the actual quantity of Lyme disease cases may be far greater, possibly more than a million. She said one in four cases happens in children with children between the ages of 5 and 9 at higher risk.

Brooks proposes requiring attending physicians to consult and report to a statewide database when making a clinical diagnosis regarding Lyme disease to make sure all cases are counted. She also proposes a yearly public education campaign for health care professionals by the state Health Department and distribution of literature about Lyme disease and tick-borne illnesses.

Senate Bill 1188 would also require health insurance policies and government programs to include diagnostic testing for Lyme disease or tick-borne illnesses if a doctor orders the testing as well as medications to treat Lyme disease.

“Early diagnosis is crucial to preventing the persistent symptoms of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases,” Brooks wrote. “Left untreated or improperly treated, Lyme disease can lead to debilitating symptoms, which include fevers, rash, facial paralysis, arthritis, swollen lymph nodes, muscle and joint aches, severe headaches, irregular heartbeat, memory loss and nerve pain. But, if treated within the first 30 days, 10% or less of patients will progress to late stage. If more than 30 days pass without treatment, 60% of patients progress to late stage. By improving testing, it is hoped that cases of Lyme can be treated early, before symptoms worsen in severity. This disease is curable, and if we are more aggressive in diagnosing Lyme earlier through more thorough and comprehensive testing it will give people the ability to overcome this disease and not be debilitated for the rest of their life. This will be a more proactive approach to helping people fight this disease, and ultimately less costly for the health care system in the long term.”