Dec 5, 2007
Redding
Health office has information on Lyme disease
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The following information on Lyme disease has been provided by the town’s health department.
Lyme disease is an illness caused by a spirochete, a corkscrew shaped bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi. The bacteria are spread by the bite of an infected tick (Ixodes scapularis), commonly known as the deer tick. The tick is about the size of a poppy seed (or the period at the end of a sentence) when in its nymphal (immature) stage.
The Redding Health Department has identified Lyme disease as the most commonly reported disease in Redding. The woodsy character of Redding along with its current overpopulation of deer increases the risk of exposure to deer ticks.
Here are the signs, symptoms and treatment of Lyme disease:
• Early Lyme disease symptoms include a ring like rash (bull’s eye) that may surround the area of the bite. The rash slowly enlarges and generally is not itchy.
• Other symptoms include flu like symptoms such as fatigue, headache, fever, chills, and achy muscle and joints (not like a cold with sore throat, cough, and runny nose).
• Later symptoms may include arthritis, neurological problems, and heart problems.
• Lyme disease is usually treated with oral antibiotics for a few weeks in its early stages, which is often effective.
Some may experience symptoms and others may not. Contact your physician if symptoms occur. Early response to symptoms with prompt treatment helps prevent complications.
Precautions include:
• Ticks are picked up on lower extremities — concentrate efforts there.
• Wear light colored clothing. This makes it easier to spot ticks on clothes.
• Wear long pants and long sleeve shirts.
• Tuck pants into socks to prevent ticks from crawling inside.
• Tuck hair under a hat, long hair should be braided.
• Check clothing and skin very carefully (especially thighs, groin, arms, underarms, leg and scalp) after being outdoors.
Repellents to use:
• Uses an EPA-approved tick repellent and wash it off when you come home.
• Permethrin-based repellent such as Permadone or Duranon, which is applied to clothing as opposed to skin and lasts up to two weeks. This product kills ticks.
• Deet, in concentrations between 30%-40%, is applied to skin and repels ticks.
• Talk to your pediatrician about the safest, most effective products for children. Follow product directions.
To check for ticks:
• Brush clothing off outside and check for loose ticks.
• Put clothes in plastic bags until taking them to the laundry. Do not leave clothes on the floor. Ticks can live in the house for a few days depending on humidity.
• Put clothes in a dryer on high heat for 15-20 minutes. Ticks can survive the washing machine, but they cannot tolerate the heat.
• Comb out hair with a fine-tooth comb.
• Use your fingers and feel for ticks, especially in the hair.
• Take a shower or bath and blow dry hair with high heat.
• Check again the next morning — ticks take several hours to feed and may be easier to see or feel as they become engorged with blood.
Steps for tick removal:
• Use a pair of bent, needle nose tweezers. Put it as close to the skin/tick juncture (bite site) and with a gentle, steady pull, remove the tick from the area.
• Do not use bare hands when removing the tick.
• Do not squeeze the tick’s abdomen or you may inject more bacteria into the site.
• Clean the area with alcohol and wash your hands.
• If the removed tick was engorged and possibly attached for more than 36 hours you should contact your physician and have the tick tested by the Redding Health Department.
Tick testing:
• Ticks that have been engorged and removed should be delivered to the health department promptly in a sealed plastic bag to be tested for Lyme disease.
• In approximately three weeks, the health department receives tick test results stating if the tick is infected with Lyme disease. Then the resident is notified.
• If a rash or symptoms develop (see Signs, Symptoms above), do not wait for tick test results. See your physician. Record the date and site from which the tick was removed.
Yard care:
• Modify your property so it is less attractive to animals that are hosts to ticks by eliminating bird feeders, keep stone walls tidy. Stone walls are mouse and chipmunk habitats. Remove Japanese Barberry bushes, which have been shown to be tick habitat.
• Keep lawns mowed.
• Remove leaf litter since adult ticks harbor here over winter.
• Trim shrubs and bushes so ticks cannot brush the legs of people who pass by.
• Pesticides can be used for tick control. Consult a licensed professional to learn about the least toxic, most effective application techniques.
Brochures on Lyme disease, deer management, and ways to discourage deer and ticks from your property are available in the Redding Health Department, 938-2559.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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