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Media Releases
Lyme Disease: Are You Prepared for Tick Season?
Columbia, Mo. (June. 6, 2006) Summertime is tick time, and ticks are known to spread Lyme disease, an infection that can cause painful arthritis, cardiac problems and mental disorders. Before you hit the hiking trail or campground this summer, take these special precautions.
The best protection, suggests Karen Funkenbusch, research associate and rural safety and health specialist at the University of Missouri-Columbia, is to avoid contact with soil, leaf litter and vegetation where ticks abound, check yourself and your four-legged companion during and after the time you are in the wilds, and stay alert for symptoms within a month of your outdoor activity.
How to prevent tick bites?
Keep long hair tied back and tucked under a hat.
Wear protective clothing, such as a long-sleeved shirt, long pants tucked into socks, and shoes that cover the entire foot.
Wear light-colored clothing so that the ticks can be easily spotted.
Avoid walking in high grasses, sitting on logs and leaning on trees or walls.
Use bug spray containing permethrin or deet.
Frequently scan clothes and exposed body parts while outdoors. When the day is done, do a tick check again, especially those warm and hairy parts.
Protect and frequently check pets too. These furry friends are more likely to come in contact with ticks.
How to deal with tick bites?
Remove the tick with tweezers, being careful not to squeeze it.
Immediately apply antiseptic to the bite area.
Save the tick in a sealed container and label the container with the date, tick's description and estimated time attached to skin.
Mark your calendar. If a rash appears at the bite site three to 30 days after the bite, call the doctor immediately.
What symptoms to watch out for?
Although commonly used antibiotics can be an effective cure for Lyme disease caught in the early stages, the disease can be hard to detect and diagnose in the first place. For one thing, the "culprit," a deer tick, is as tiny as a poppy seed, so a third of people with Lyme disease don't even recall the initial bite. On another hand, early symptoms of Lyme disease may mimic other disease, and make it difficult for doctors to diagnose.
If you have been in the woods or high grasses, or if a tick has bitten you, here are some symptoms you need to watch out for within three to 30 days of the incident. See a doctor right away if you experience any of these symptoms, says Funkenbusch, because the cure rate decreases the longer the treatment is delayed.
Bull's-eye rash - A characteristic sign of Lyme disease, this circular, reddish rash spreads outward from the bite, leaving the center clear. Eighty percent of infected people will develop the rash within days to weeks following a bite.
Flu-like symptoms - Fatigue, chills, fever, headache, muscle aches may accompany the rash and recur over several weeks.
Further symptoms - Severe headache, stiff neck, joint pain, even facial paralysis and memory loss may ensue if the disease goes untreated.
First identified in the town of Old Lyme, Conn., Lyme disease has been known for 30 years. Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes - the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease - are usually transmitted to humans from infected deer ticks. Every year, there are more than 16, 000 Lyme disease cases in the United States and most cases occur in the Northeast, upper Midwest, and along the Pacific coast.
The Missouri Arthritis Research Rehabilitation and Training Center (MARRTC) was established in 1971 at the University of Missouri-Columbia Arthritis Center. MARRTC is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (H133B031120) and is the only federally funded arthritis rehabilitation research and training center in the country.
As part of the MU Health Communication Research Center (HCRC), MARRTC's mission is to become a national leader in the areas of disability management and communication, improve the quality of life and promote independent living among people who have arthritis and arthritic conditions. MARRTC's core message is "Disability is everyone's issue."
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