nudists less likely to get bitten by ticks?!

LymeNet Newsletter
Volume 1 - Number 02 - 2/05/93


DATE: January 27, 1993
Note: Thanks to Ralph Yozzo for submitting this item.

CHICAGO (UPI) -- Deer ticks, which transmit Lyme disease, seem to
prefer biting people wearing clothes, a Connecticut doctor reported
Tuesday.
In a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr.
Henry Feder Jr. of the University of Connecticut Health Center in
Farmington, Conn., said he found that among more than 300 people at a
nudist camp, the only deer tick bites were reported by persons who were
wearing clothes.
What was surprising was that deer tick bites were very unusual
occurrences at the camp,'' Feder said. `This was not because nudists
could not identify deer tick bites, as many of the nudists reported deer
tick bites that occurred at their permanent homes.''
Experts generally recommend that people wear long-sleeve shirts and
long pants in deer tick areas to deter bites. However, Feder said the
deer ticks actually apparently prefer to get underneath clothing, such
as under long pants not tucked into socks.
Only one case of Lyme disease-associated symptoms had been identified
by doctors treating the nudists, Feder said, even though the camp was in
the deer tick's ideal environment.
One explanation is that although deer are present, deer ticks are
not yet established. A second explanation is that deer ticks do not like
nudists, as ticks prefer to do their biting under cover,'' he said.
A more formal study was being planned, he said.
Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness that initially often causes a
rash and flu-like symptoms such as fever, fatigue and aches. These
symptoms may be followed weeks or months later by neurologic, heart or
joint abnormalities. The disease was first recognized in 1975 in Lyme,
Conn., but has been identified in at least 43 states and in other
countries.
.

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