3 Tips for Avoiding Tick Bites and Lyme Disease
Aside from the controversy about whether "chronic Lyme disease" exists, the basics are pretty much undisputed: If you get bitten by a tick, the possibility does exist that you may end up developing Lyme disease. Fortunately, it's easily treatable with antibiotics when it's caught quickly. If you get a characteristic bull's-eye rash, a Lyme diagnosis is likely—though not everyone with Lyme gets this rash.
The best way to avoid Lyme disease is to protect yourself from tick bites, advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Here is the agency's advice on how to stay tick free:
• Use DEET or permethrin insect repellent. DEET can be used either on clothing or skin, but permethrin should be applied only to articles of clothing such as pants, socks, and shoes.
• Remove ticks from your clothing, and do "tick checks" after being outside. Look for ticks on your skin and clothing before returning indoors—and remove them promptly. Use fine-tipped tweezers to pull the bugs from your skin. If you spot a tick on your skin and remove it within 24 hours, the chances you'll end up with Lyme disease are slim.
• Consider using pesticides to eliminate ticks near your home. One application of pesticides called acaricides at the end of May or early June can decrease tick populations by 68 to 100 percent, tests show.
Reader Comments
those 3 'tips' give false sense of security
The deer tick is very small, small enough to miss if you normally use reading glasses. However, the immature instars, the juvenile forms of the ticks, also carry the spirokete agent. These immature forms are very small, and even a fairly rigorous inspection with your reading glasses on or with assistance of another person, the immature form of the deer tick could easily be missed. We are talking about something the size of a period or small grain of sand. If you have any hair on your legs or chest, you have very little hope of ever spotting the immature form of a deer tick amid the jungle.
We need a vaccine. The commercial vaccine for humans was not good and was pulled off the market. The one for dogs is still given but it is not reliable. It is an embarrassment that we don't yet have a working vaccine, since the disease is nearly impossible to completely cure in many individuals if not diagnosed at the earliest time.
Associated diseases
Deer ticks can also infect folks with coinfections including Babesiosis, Bartonella, Anaplasmosis, Ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and/or Tularemia. The Lyme Disease Association has a pdf Lyme[R]Primer that explains about Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases. http://www.lymediseaseassociation.org/LymeRPrimer.pdf
Educate yourself about Lyme and associated diseases and become your own advocate.
Get the Data.
http://www.lymecryme.com
http://www.donttickmeoff.info
Arm yourself with the scientific data.......for you, for your loved ones.
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