Lyme Disease & Prevention

Going to spend time outdoors this weekend? Learn these Lyme disease prevention strategies to keep you and your loved ones safe from infected ticks, flies, mosquitoes and more.

A press release from The Lyme Disease Coalition

Ticks, mosquitoes, biting flies, fleas, and mites are capable of carrying Borrelia burgdorferi, or as a person on the street terms it, “Lyme disease (Ld)”.

Dr. Paul Meade, of Centers for Disease Control (CDC), at a 2010 Institute of Medicine meeting, stated Lyme disease is an “epidemic”.

“Transmission from ticks appears to be the most common and important method of transmission, perhaps because ticks have a salivary protein called Salp 15, which the Borrelia attaches to and is thought to have immuno suppressive effects. Following transmission, Borrelia can travel through the body quite rapidly, including into the central nervous system,” states researcher Tina Carvallo, from the University of Hawaii, in a recent study.

What are the signs and symptoms of Lyme disease? Remember, there are two stages: early-stage and late-stage.

Early Stage – curable: Symptoms may appear from 4 hours to several weeks after an infected tick, mosquito, biting fly, flea, or mite bite:

• Flu like symptoms – fatigue, muscle and joint pain, headache, fever, chills, swollen glands, sore throat, stiff neck.  Symptoms may move around the body with the only consistency being a lack of consistency. You may have flu-like symptoms one day, and fatigue, or muscle and joint pain a few days later.
• Only 1/3 of infected people may have a rash or a bull’s eye rash. (Take a photo of the rash- to show your doctor- a rash may come and go!)

Late Stage (Chronic Lyme) – incurable: These symptoms may occur weeks, months, and even years after the bite and the symptoms may come and go.  Peak disease is associated with increasing numbers of spirochetes in the tissues while regression follows the antibody response.  It is very cyclic and fluctuates in intensity so that symptoms are present on some days and not on others.

Symptoms include:

• Continued flu-like symptoms with swollen glands, low grade fevers
• Depression, psychiatric disorders
• Sensitivity to lights, sounds, motion, odors, blurred vision, or loss of sight
• Cognitive dysfunction, difficulty organizing or making decisions, memory loss
• Muscle pain, weakness, numbness, tingling, motor dysfunction, and paralysis
• Stiff neck, severe headaches, loss of balance, dizziness, poor coordination, Bell’s Palsy (facial drooping)
• Irregular heartbeat, palpitations, heart block, chest pain, difficulty breathing
• Tremors, seizures, panic attacks, anxiety, sleep disorders, swollen joints
• Possible death without continued treatment

Prevention:

• Parents, do a daily tick check on children and pets, who play in the yard.
• Perform frequent, thorough tick checks – especially the scalp area
• Wear light colored clothes
• Tuck pants into socks or put duct tape around the cuffs
• Put clothes into dryer for 30 minutes to kill ticks – washing clothes will not kill ticks!
• There are products containing DEET for skin – children 2 months old and older, use a 10 percent concentration but do not apply to face or hands – adults use 12-25 percent maximum
• There are products containing Permethrin for clothes—do not use on children—is a very effective product for adults and recommended for hunters. Consider using new DEET free repellents 1-800-219-9765 for 8 hours of effectiveness (ask for Beat It bug spray)

For more information contact:

Lyme Disease United Coalition (Global)

Email:  Lymeinfo@lduc.org

Call:   800-311-7518

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