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May 25, 2007 9:12 am US/Eastern
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Once Bitten: Sen. Schumer Treated For Lyme Disease
Health Scare For Veteran Politician When Telltale Sign Of Disease Appears
by Magee Hickey
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Senator Charles Schumer, the veteran politician from Brooklyn, announced that he is being treated for Lyme disease. The senior U.S. senator from New York was on the job when a tick bit him. He was touring dams in upstate New York on May 7.
Schumer says he found the deer tick on himself and then spotted a telltale "bulls-eye" mark of infection on his leg.
The 56-year-old Brooklyn native is now undergoing a three-week treatment with antibiotics and says he hasn't noticed any of the usual signs and symptoms of Lyme disease, such as rashes, fever, body aches, malaise or fatigue.
"Nassau and Suffolk counties are on track for one of the worst Lyme disease seasons ever," Schumer said in July 2006, long before his own tick bite.
That day, he was on Long Island, drumming up support for a bipartisan bill that would allocate $100 million for prevention, treatment and research of the disease.
Little did he know at the time that he would soon acquire first-hand knowledge of the disease.
At this point, Schumer is saying he is being treated to prevent the tick bite from developing into the disease.
"I don't think there is a disease that is as widespread and causes as much harm that gets such little attention from the federal government," Schumer said last year.
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