Early Warning

A medical pioneer in Suffolk County in identifying, treating and also speaking out about the gravity of Lyme disease and its spread died this month.

Bernard Berger, a dermatologist who passed away at age 85, wrote early journal articles in the 1980s on the identification of Lyme disease and its treatment with antibiotics. And he was highly critical of the lack of urgency that the Suffolk County Department of Health Services had toward the disease.

“I absolutely believe we’re approaching an epidemic,” Berger was quoted as telling The New York Times in 1987, in an article it published headlined: “Tick-Borne Disease Infects Suffolk.” Said Berger: “There are certain areas like Montauk, Shelter Island and North Haven where it’s not unusual to have at least one member of the family contract Lyme disease.”

Berger was a “go-to” medical person when I wrote early on about Lyme disease.

As to the insufficient interest in Lyme disease by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, in this column in 1987, I noted that the New York State Department of Health had just described Lyme disease as “endemic” in Suffolk County and said the county was the worst area for Lyme disease in the state.

I related that the Suffolk County health commissioner, Dr. David Harris, asserted that Lyme disease must take “its place besides other diseases in the county,” and holding that it was “treatable.”

That’s 35 years ago — and in retrospect, it should be acknowledged that Harris, and, under him, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, was vigorous then in efforts at dealing with AIDS. AIDS was striking the New York area — and Suffolk County — hard in the early 1980s. And, unlike many areas of the nation where, amid the homophobia of the time, strong action wasn’t taken, the Suffolk Health Department was moving robustly, even though the miraculous “cocktail” drugs for AIDS were yet to become available.

But, no question, on Lyme disease, strong action by the Suffolk agency was lacking. Indeed, Suffolk County Legislator John Foley of Blue Point, long chairman of the legislature’s Health Committee, felt compelled to put forth a resolution directing the Department of Health Services to develop an action plan, because, as Foley said, its actions had not “been strong enough.”

Meanwhile, Berger, out of his office in Southampton, was treating hundreds upon hundreds of Lyme disease victims, conducting research and speaking out.

He retired in 2018, noting that when “I opened my practice in 1971, with my pregnant wife serving as secretary and nurse, I was the only dermatologist on the South Fork,” and that he planned to remain active in sports. He was a passionate athlete who competed in triathlons and running events, loved tennis and sculling.

He was diagnosed that year with Amyloidoisis, a disease that causes failure of organs such as the heart and kidneys. He died at home in East Hampton surrounded by his family and friends. Berger and his wife of 52 years, Phyllis, had three children.

Berger also had an extensive military career. This included serving in the U.S. Army as a captain, with service at an Army hospital. Discharged in 1968, he went back to the military in 1975, joining the Air Force, and was chief of hospital services at a U.S. base in Japan. He continued in the U.S. Army Reserve, retiring with the rank of colonel.

Will the kind of miracle drugs developed for AIDS ever come about for Lyme disease? There’s work going on now on a vaccine to provide immunization based on mRNA, also used in the vaccines advanced for COVID-19. It is being developed by Valneva, a vaccine company in France, along with New York-headquartered Pfizer, a name so familiar to us these days for its COVID vaccine.

In a press release on April 26 — only days before Berger’s death on May 7 — Valneva and Pfizer said it’s “the only Lyme disease vaccine candidate currently in clinical development.”

As to Lyme disease itself, the companies stated: “While the true incidence of Lyme disease is unknown, it is estimated to annually affect approximately 476,000 people in the United States and 130,000 people in Europe. Early symptoms … are often overlooked.

“Left untreated, the disease can disseminate and cause more serious complications affecting the joints, the heart or the nervous system. The medical need for vaccination against Lyme disease is steadily increasing as the geographic footprint of the disease widens.”

Dr. Berger warned us decades ago about that widening.