Have you caught a DISEASE on the AT?

[Nate]

One of my Biology professors is trying to teach me a lesson for being a nature lover. She feels my recient stay in shelters and my all to common solo-hikes has prompted her to give me a essay on the reasons I should fear hiking. What I am trying to do is find out is if any of you guys have ever caught a disease or sickness of any kind from hiking or outdoor related activates. Please respond if any sickness or disease has taken place.

Thanks for the Help...A big chunk of my grade is in your hands!
NATE

[freefall]

One of my Biology professors is trying to teach me a lesson for being a nature lover. She feels my recient stay in shelters and my all to common solo-hikes has prompted her to give me a essay on the reasons I should fear hiking. What I am trying to do is find out is if any of you guys have ever caught a disease or sickness of any kind from hiking or outdoor related activates. Please respond if any sickness or disease has taken place.

Thanks for the Help...A big chunk of my grade is in your hands!
NATE

I caught Springer Fever. An incurable disease whose symptoms are only abated by lots and lots of hiking.

[Heater]

One of my Biology professors is trying to teach me a lesson for being a nature lover. She feels my recient stay in shelters and my all to common solo-hikes has prompted her to give me a essay on the reasons I should fear hiking. What I am trying to do is find out is if any of you guys have ever caught a disease or sickness of any kind from hiking or outdoor related activates. Please respond if any sickness or disease has taken place.

Thanks for the Help...A big chunk of my grade is in your hands!
NATE

I would talk to some of the hikers here and on trailjournals.com that have had real problems going back INTO "civilization" after an extended hike as a part of your study. Sort of turn the whole thing around, so to speak.

But that would be more of a psychological study than biological.

[Chickety]

does poison ivy count?

Knew of a few people who ended up with Lyme disease this past year, but that's about it.

Good luck!

[Pennsylvania Rose]

My hiking partner and I both caught Giardia somewhere south of Erwin.

[Vi+]

Nate,

You advise, “One of my Biology professors is trying to teach me a lesson for being a nature lover. She feels my recient stay in shelters and my all to common solo-hikes has prompted her to give me a essay on the reasons I should fear hiking.”

You may be within your right to ask your > BIOLOGY < professor why she is so afraid of nature. You know her better than I, and it’s your grade.

It’s true, there are diseases with which you are more likely to come in contact living outdoors which are rare in our “civilized” society.

I suspect, however, there are also diseases in our “civilized” society which are rare in our more natural world.

There are diseases in other countries which are rare or nonexistent here. Some of those diseases aren’t even named and have no known cure. We, as U.S. citizens, are free to travel in these countries, become infected, and bring these diseases home with us upon our return.

If your professor WANTS to worry, she can worry. Neither you nor I are going to stop her. She can worry about nature exclusively, if she has a limited imagination, or a whole myriad of other things as well. She may wish to stay home and keep her bed covers over her head.

I've been hiking solo a very long time. I've fallen, but gotten back up. I've gotten wet, but dried off. I've been very cold, VERY cold, but I'm warm now. I've had insect bites while hiking, at home, in cities, and in suburbs. I haven’t gotten sick, nor do I know anyone who has gotten sick from hiking.

We all die. It doesn’t take talent, skill, working out at the gym, or even practice. We all manage it somehow.

Do what you love. If you love nature, and it’s possible, live in nature as much as you can manage.

Don’t put your grade in my hands, I’ll get you failed.

[general]

i fell under the spell of a woman once, which i believe to be incurable.

[Frosty]

Not on the AT, but on the Northville-Placid Trail last August I caught something. Sick as a dog for three days, night sweats for weeks after,l ittle energy for two months. Tested for every imaginable disease, including TB, all negative. Then one day in October I realized I was fine. My doctor thinks it was a "non-mono mono," a mutant variant of mononucleosis. Whatever, I'll never know.

One thing for sure: You just don't appreciate feeling normal until you feel like crap for a couple months!

[drsukie]

I posted a serious illness on this poll....

...While hiking small sections in GA, where I live, I caught Trail Fever. At first I though it was just a small thing, something I could brush off. But it seems to be a viral-type infection -- driving itself deep into the fiber of my being, like chicken pox.

It seems to be incurable, but I have to admit I have done nothing about trying to fix it. I figure the only way to confront it is to -- sell my biz, sell my condo, and hike the whole damn thing...

If I am insane, at least I'll be a happy insane person! Sue

[Pedaling Fool]

My hiking partner and I both caught Giardia somewhere south of Erwin.

... Do you know if you caught it at a spring, river, creek, ect...?

I have heard that you can't "tough it out" - you must see a doctor; was this true in your case?

[The Desperado]

Not me personally, but over the years I've heard of...colds...Giardia...Stomach virus...poison ivy...food poisoning. For just a few things, hope it helps ya.....

[Nokia]

Several hikers including myself got extremely sick near Catawba this year. At least 2 dozen that I know of. Really bad intestinal thing.

[Wonder]

Lyme.....during a day hike of all things...found it really early though

[Singe03]

Well the flu, or some similar bug, and trying to ignore it for a few days is what ultimately sent me home from North Woodstock, but I'd argue that it was a one in a million thing and your in more danger of catching it in the city where you are more exposed to other people. I think if I had made better choices and layed up for a couple of days and rested, I'd have been fine and made Kathadin.

In fact, other than the insect borne stuff and injuries, I'd make the arguement that you are less likely to catch something on the trail than going to work or school.

[wyclif]

I've heard a lot of thru-hikers get Giardia.

So what's the medically-sound way to cure this?

[MOWGLI]

Several hikers including myself got extremely sick near Catawba this year. At least 2 dozen that I know of. Really bad intestinal thing.

Did you drink out of the spigot at the country store near Catawaba?

[Marta]

Giardia can be "toughed out," though it takes a few weeks to get over it and become resistant, and even longer to regain your strength. You will probably lose quite a bit of weight. Our whole family got giardia when we were living in Russia. It's endemic in the water supply in many places there. My husband is the only one who took the treatment, which is quite unpleasant.

[The Hog]

Nate, I picked up a tick disease hiking the Continental Divide Trail in Montana (from a single tick bite). Initially, it was diagnosed as Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever, but that couldn't be confirmed with serology testing. The symptoms included a 103 fever, severe headache, night sweats, loss of appetite, total prostration. I was in agony with the headache, and could barely stand up. In hindsight, it could have been another tick disease like Erhlichiosis, Q fever, or Babesiosis. Many of these tick diseases have a fatality rate of 5-10%, depending on your age and other factors. Personally, I think what I had may have been Erhlichiosis. I was fortunate that I was home when the symptoms kicked in (some tick diseases have incubation periods of 5-14 days). If I had been out in the middle of nowhere (I was alone), it's conceivable that I might not have survived.

A couple of years later, Lynne Whelden and I were hiking the CDT on the MT/ID border and encountered a number of ticks (Lynne found 7 on himself, 1 on me). After Lynne returned home, he came down with a similar tick disease.

The organisms causing these diseases are called rickettsia. They're bacteria without cell walls that hide out inside your cells, thereby avoiding your immune system. An antibiotic that easily penetrates your cell membrane, like doxyclycline, is the only thing I know of that can effectively take out these pernicious organisms.

When you're bitten by a tick, never, ever grab the tick and pull it out. What happens in that case is that when you squeeze the tick's body, you inject the contents of the tick into yourself. That is a potentially terrible error. Instead, gently pinch the ticks mouthparts as closely as possible to your skin (with tweezers if you have them), and gently release the tick. Then save it in a plastic bag or other container for about 14 days. If you have no symptoms by then, chuck it. On the other hand, if symptoms do appear, you can get the tick tested to get a handle on which disease is affecting you.

Knowing about this stuff in no way stops me from hiking. It just makes me a little more cautious and careful about how I react to danger.

[casanoah]

I don't recall what the primary source was but I first read in "Against Civilization" and since in a variety of Anthropological literature that it wasn't until the inception of civilization apx 10,000 years ago that the diseases which plague even came into existance, which Jared Diamond and many other leading biologists and anthropoligists blame on the structuring of society as a "civilized" construct. Cancer, Diabetes, AIDs, just about anything you can imagine short of influenza and the common cold simply don't or rather didn't exist in non-domesticated, gatherer-hunter, tribalist societies.

[weary]

Well, the emergency room in Franklin, NC once diagnosed a swollen big toe as a staff infection. Is that a "disease?" Several later doctors have diagnosed similar conditions as "gout." which isn't catchable, but which I understand sometimes is triggered by too many beers, while dreaming of hiking.