May is Lyme disease awareness month. Prevention is the first line of defense, but awareness of symptoms is also important. Timely treatment can both cure these symptoms and prevent progression to the later, more serious form of the Lyme disease - Chronic Neurological Lyme Disease,
Trust me - you don't want to have Chronic Lyme Disease.
What can I do to prevent Lyme disease?:
- Dress defensively.
- Use insect repellents.
- Do your best to tick-proof your yard.
- Check yourself, your children and your pets for ticks.
- Remove a tick as soon as possible with tweezers.
- Go to your doctor if you think you were bitten by a deer tick.
- Check out this link for a tick identification chart: http://www.tickencounter.org/tick_identification
- If you are unsure about the type of tick, you can email a picture or send the tick for testing to: http://www.tickencounter.org/tick_identification/is_it_a_tick
Lyme Facts:
- Lyme disease is transmitted by the bite of a tick, and the disease is prevalent across the United States and throughout the world.
- Lyme disease is best treated in the early stages. Early treatment consists of oral antibiotics. Persistent or chronic Lyme disease is treated with intravenous antibiotics.
- The tick should be removed with a fine pointed tweezers, grasping it from the side where it meets the skin, and gently pulling in the opposite direction from which it embedded.
- The disease is caused by a spiral-shaped bacteria (spirochete) called Borrelia Burgdorferi. The Lyme spirochete can cause infection of multiple organs and produce a wide range of symptoms.
- Fewer than 50% of patients with Lyme disease recall any rash. Don’t assume you can’t have Lyme disease is you don’t have a rash.
- Testing for Babesia, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia and Bartonella (other tick-transmitted organisms) should be performed. The presence of co-infection with these organisms points to probable infection with the Lyme spirochete as well. If these coinfections are left untreated, their continued presence increases morbidity and prevents successful treatment of Lyme disease.
- There are no tests to provide that the organism is eradicated or that the patient is cured.
xo
Lisa
