In the late 1980s, a Missouri physician, Dr. Edwin Masters, started noticing symptoms of what he thought was Lyme disease in his patients.
Because the Lyme bacteria could not be cultured from these patients' lab work, in 1994 the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named the condition STARI (Southern tick-associated rash illness).
Like Lyme, STARI, also known as Masters' disease, is characterized by a bull's-eye rash. But STARI is thought to be transmitted by the Lone Star tick, while Lyme is known to be transmitted by the deer tick.
According to the CDC website, in STARI "the rash may be accompanied by fatigue, fever, headache, muscle and joint pains." The responsible pathogen is unknown, but patients are often treated with antibiotics, although the CDC notes, "it is not known whether antibiotic treatment is necessary or beneficial."
Dr. Gary Wheeler, director of infectious disease at the Arkansas Department of Health, says not much is known about STARI, which may be linked to another type of bacteria from the same species that causes Lyme. There is no test available for STARI, and the condition is present but not tracked in Arkansas.
-- Cheree Franco
ActiveStyle on 01/25/2016