LYME DISEASE IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST “Let me start by saying that having been bitten by a tick before, I took my recent tick bite far too casually, so I decided to post this as a warning to take all tick bites seriously. On April 22, I hiked Mt. Defiance. On my way home, I felt something under my armpit, so I pulled up my sleeve to discover a tick. I pulled over at Multnomah Falls and with the tweezers on my pocket knife I was able to remove it. Did not think too much about it; after all, Lyme disease in the Pacific Northwest is very rare, less than a dozen cases a year, and I removed him early so I was not worried. Two days later I flew to Maui and developed some of the following symptoms—headache, not over the top but definitely felt like my head was full; a bit of neck stiffness; throat was not sore but dry at night. Hey I was in Hawaii so I figured I had a few too many pints and the sun, so again did not think too much about it. A few Advil took care of the headache so I figured it was no big deal. In addition, the wound looked fine—no evidence of the classic sign of a bullseye, just a small red spot where the tick bit me. After multiple days of a persistent headache, I became concerned that I contracted Lyme disease. The persistent headache concerned me as I NEVER get headaches. I’m 58 and can count the number of times I have gotten a headache on one hand. My internet medical degree told me that something was going on so I consulted with my doctor. Lyme disease is very treatable in the early stages so out of an abundance of caution I got a prescription for amoxicillin. The amoxicillin did the job! It took about two days till it kicked in, but my persistent headache disappeared and I am back to 100 percent. Which leads me to believe that it was Lyme disease. Lesson learned! Next time I will keep the tick so it can be tested and not be so nonchalant about a tick bite. Take it seriously—even though the odds were against it being Lyme, if it was, the consequences of untreated Lyme disease could have been horrid.” –Rico Micallef, Mazama Climb and BCEP leader
by Brian Goldman
R
ico did the right thing by playing it safe and seeing a doctor. This article is an overview of Lyme disease—what it is; symptoms; prevention; treatment; prevalence.
What is Lyme Disease? Lyme disease was first identified in the 1970s in a small town called Lyme, Connecticut. It is a multisystem inflammatory zoonotic disease caused by a spirochete bacterium from the Borrelia genus. A majority of the cases in the U.S. are caused by the Borrelia burgdorferi strain, which is spread by the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis) and the western black-legged tick (Ixodes Above:”Ticks on Finger” by fairfaxcounty is licensed with CC BY-ND 2.0.
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pacificus); these are both commonly known as the deer tick. The archetypal bullseye rash, erythema migrans (EM), was first described over 130 years ago. The black-legged ticks feed on hosts (usually deer but also mice, squirrels, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and humans) at each of the four stages of life. The highest risk of human infection is not the adult stage (easy to see and pull off the tick) but at the nymph and larval stage. During the eight-legged nymph stage, the tick is a tiny black dot, nearly impossible to see. This nymph has more time to transmit the Borrelia bacteria to an unsuspecting host. Usually, the tick must be attached 24–48 hours to transmit Lyme, but because the nymphs are so tiny they often go unnoticed. According to some researchers, the rise in Lyme disease cases is related to an increase in mice populations due to warmer temperatures allowing for longer feeding times for the ticks. This
