Lyme disease season is here. LD is an infectious disease transmitted by the bite of an infected Ixodes scapularis, black legged (deer) tick. The black legged tick can be found in wooded areas and thick brushes. Lyme disease can sometimes be severely debilitating, but is rarely, if ever, fatal. Although the disease is found mainly in the Northeast, several cases have been confirmed in Georgia.

To protect yourself, family and friends from Lyme disease you should have knowledge of where these ticks are found and avoid such areas when possible. When in an area populated with ticks, the use of protective clothing, repellents and routine tick checks of the body are vital, primary preventive measures. Protective clothing includes wearing a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, and high socks. Ensure everyone tucks shirts into pants and pant cuffs into your socks. Additionally, light colored fabrics make it easier to detect ticks that are crawling on clothing. Use a repellent containing permethrin on your clothing and a repellent containing DEET (N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide) on your exposed skin. These items can be found at your local drugstore. Routinely check skin and clothing for ticks while outdoors in tick habitat, and do a careful check of your whole body once you come indoors. Also, use the buddy system to help identify ticks in hard to spot areas. Routine and buddy checks are extremely critical as this maybe the only means of identifying that you have been bitten.

If you or a dependent are bitten, remove attached ticks as soon as they are found. Use tweezers to firmly grasp the tick’s mouthparts up against the skin, and pull back firmly and steadily. Be patient – the tick’s central mouthpart is covered with sharp barbs. Do not pull back sharply, as this may tear the mouthparts from the body, leaving them embedded in the skin. If the mouthparts do break off, don’t panic – the mouthparts alone cannot transmit disease because the infective body of the tick is no longer attached. However, to prevent secondary infection, remove the mouthparts as you would a splinter. Never squeeze the body of the tick; you could force more infective fluid into the skin. After removal, wash the wound site, and apply an antiseptic. Preserve the tick by placing it in a clean, dry jar, or other well-sealed container, and keeping it in your freezer. Label the container with information such as the date of removal, the location of the bite, and the area of possible tick contact.

Lyme disease often begins with a characteristic bulls eye shaped rash and is observed in about 80% of LD patients. The rash usually appears within 3-30 days of a tick bite and gradually expands over a period of several days, reaching up to 12 inches across. According to the Center for Disease Control, if untreated, the infection may spread over other body parts and produce an array of discrete symptoms. The loss of facial muscle tone; severe headaches and neck stiffness due to meningitis; shooting pains that may interfere with sleep; heart palpitations and dizziness due to changes in heartbeat; and pain that moves from joint to joint are included in these symptoms. Should you develop disease symptoms, take the tick with you to the Preventive Medicine Department of Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center for analysis and identification to assist the physician with your diagnosis and treatment.

More information can be found at www.cdc.gov, or contact the Department of Preventive Medicine, Environmental Health Services at (706) 787-3547.