Ticking Me Off

It was 1975 when a woman in Lyme, Connecticut brought an unusual cluster of arthritis cases to the attention of Yale researchers.

By 1979 the ailment was identified as Lyme disease, a condition impacting over 300,000 American lives annually.

Prevention Pointers

Use the following precautions to help avoid the bite altogether.

› Avoid areas where infected ticks live, especially in the summer months, such as moist, humid environments particularly in grassy or wooded areas.

› If visiting areas prone to ticks, wear appropriate clothing. Long pants and sleeves may be a bit hot in the summer, but it could save you the hassle of a tick bite. Light-colored fabrics are useful for spotting ticks fast.

› Consider using a tick repellent spray.

› Check that pets do not bring ticks into the home on their fur.

Prevalent in wooded, grassy areas are what scientists have found to be the root cause of the epidemic that started several decades ago. Infected ticks found in areas such as these can transmit the bacterium known as borrelia to humans.

This bacterium that causes Lyme disease lives in certain animals. The deer tick, a black-legged type of tick that typically spreads Lyme disease, feeds by biting the skin and sucking blood from animals such as mice, birds and deer. In this way, some ticks are infected from the bacterium found in these creature’s bloodstreams. Therefore, when an infected tick bites a human, the human is also at risk for infection.

After a human has been bitten by a tick, it usually takes 24-48 hours for the bacteria in the tick to pass into the bloodstream. The tick will then bury itself into the area surrounding the bite. If you remove the tick soon after being bitten—preferably within a 24-hour period—you are much less likely to contract the disease, even from an infected tick. If the tick is not removed in time, infection may begin to set in, potentially harming the skin, joints, nerves and heart. Most common is a rash, neither painful nor particularly itchy, but mirroring the shape of a bullseye. Flu-like symptoms have been reported as well. It is best to see a doctor immediately after a tick bite. If the situation allows, save the tick to be tested for borrelia. More often than not, a round of antibiotics will usually clear any infection.

Tricks Of The Tick

› To remove a tick attached to your skin, gently grip as close to the point of attachment to the skin as possible using finetoothed tweezers, and pull steadily upward.

› Avoid methods such as burning the tick o or flicking it with a credit card.

› Applying petroleum jelly, polish remover or other substances will stimulate the tick to produce more bacteria on your skin.

› Squeezing the tick or using your fingers as a tool could potentially cause the tick to burrow under the skin. You want this process to go as swiftly as possible. Stick to the tweezers.

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