Take precautions to prevent Lyme disease
From: JWissmille (jwissmille_at_aol.com)
Date: 09/17/04
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Date: 17 Sep 2004 01:25:33 GMT
http://www2.townonline.com/ipswich/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=80814
Take precautions to prevent Lyme disease
Thursday, September 9, 2004
Be on the lookout
You and your family live in an area with a high incidence of Tick Borne
Diseases, including Lyme disease, a potentially serious affliction caused by
spiral-shaped bacteria transmitted by infected deer ticks, tiny spider-like
creatures that live in woodland and grassy areas.
Named for Old Lyme, Conn., the location where it was discovered in
1975, Lyme can significantly undermine the quality of your life if left
untreated. The highest risk from these ticks is from April to October when
they are smallest and most active, but they are active whenever the
temperature is above 40 degrees.
One of the early signs of Lyme disease may be a bull's-eye red rash.
Later signs may include fluish symptoms such as muscle aches, fever,
tiredness and joint pain. More serious complications include a whole host of
symptoms, especially involving the joints, nervous system and heart. Where
there is a combination of severe fatigue, muscle aches/stiffness, and
neurological or arthritic symptomatology, a diagnosis of Lyme disease should
be considered.
Lyme disease, especially in its early stages, can be treated with
antibiotics. If you suspect that you have Lyme disease, do not delay
consulting with your doctor.
Take precautions
Take the following precautions, especially when walking in a wooded
area:
a.. Wear light-colored clothing, making ticks easier to spot.
a.. Avoid common tick habitats such as tall grass, bushes, brush and woods.
a.. Keep to the center of pathways. Do not rest on fallen logs or sit on the
forest floor.
a.. Wear long trousers and long-sleeved shirts; tuck your trousers into
socks.
a.. Use a tick repellent.
a.. Before going indoors, brush off your clothing.
a.. Once indoors, check your whole body carefully for ticks, removing and
crushing unattached ticks, and following the procedure below if you find
ticks attached to you.
Note: most people do not feel a tick biting, nor do they sense the
drawing of blood by the tick over the next 2 to 4 days of attachment.
Know how to remove a tick
If you find a tick imbedded in your skin, take the following measures:
a.. Remove the tick promptly. Ticks removed within 24 hours are less likely
to infect you.
a.. Use a tick removal device (tickedoff.com) or tweezers to remove the
tick. Grasp the tick's head, including its mouth parts, and tug gently and
repeatedly until the tick withdraws its barbed mouth from your skin.
Remember that the bacteria are in the tick's saliva, so do not squeeze its
body, suffocate it with Vaseline, or burn its bottom with a match, which can
cause it to spit or spew.
a.. Preserve the tick in a jar of alcohol, noting the date and location of
the bite and where you think you picked up the tick.
a.. Wipe the area of attachment with antiseptic and wash your hands and
tweezers with antibacterial soap.
Diagnosing Lyme disease
If you develop a striking red bull's-eye red rash (typically within 4-6
weeks of a bite) photograph the rash and keep a record of the date on which
it first appeared. Have a doctor examine the rash, mentioning your concern
that it may be an erythema migrans rash. (If your doctor suspects that you
have a Lyme rash, he/she will typically prescribe a course of oral
antibiotics, which, if taken faithfully, should take care of the infection.)
If you develop a "summer flu" (whether or not you recall a rash),
consisting of aching muscles and/or joints, swollen glands, headaches,
exhaustion, fever, neck stiffness or cold sweats, consult with a medical
doctor and request a Lyme test, preferably the "Western Blot," as the
frontline blood test (ELISA) has been widely questioned.
All Lyme tests are difficult to interpret and far from foolproof.
Consequently, the CDC insists that Lyme disease is a clinical, rather than a
laboratory, diagnosis.
If you have Lyme disease and it is undetected and left untreated, you
may develop strange arthritic, neurological and/or cardiological symptoms
over the following months and years, which could prove difficult to
diagnose.
Hundreds of health problems have been caused by, misdiagnosed as or
mimicked by Lyme disease, including facial palsy, Alzheimer's disease,
anxiety, ADD, ADHD, Bell's Palsy, bipolar disorder, brain tumor, Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome, depression, epilepsy, respiratory distress syndrome, fetal
death, fever, fibromyalgia, hearing loss, heart block, hepatitis, lupus,
memory impairment, meningeal lymphoma, meningitis, migraines, mono, Multiple
Sclerosis, Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, restless legs syndrome, Rheumatic Fever,
rheumatoid arthritis, seizure disorders, stroke, sudden infant death
syndrome, thyroiditis, Tourette's syndrome, urticaria and vertigo.
Nevertheless, even in late disseminated Lyme disease, intravenous antibiotic
therapy has a high success rate.
- Information provided by Colin Nicholl
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