What you need to know about ticks and Lyme disease

Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi and spread to people through tick bites. In the United States, many infections occur in regions including the eastern states, northern midwestern states, and the West Coast.

For Lyme disease to exist in an area, both ticks and animals who have been infected with the bacteria must be in the environment.

For the tick to be able to transmit the Lyme-disease bacteria, it must be attached to the skin for 36 to 48 hours. Many people get infected by immature ticks called nymphs.

They are tiny, difficult to see, and most prevalent in the spring and summer. Adult ticks are larger, more likely to be seen and removed, and more common in the fall.

Ticks can attach to any part of the human body. They prefer areas such as the groin, armpits, and scalp. This does not mean they won’t bite and stick onto any other part of the skin.

To prevent tick bites, the use of insect repellents containing DEET, picaridin, IR3535, or oil of lemon eucalyptus may help. Treating clothing with 0.5-percent permethrin can help also.

After spending the day outdoors, take a shower as soon as possible, check for ticks in areas like the groin, hair, armpits, and knees and put clothes in the dryer on high heat for 10 minutes in order to kill the ticks.

If you find a tick on the skin, you must take steps to carefully remove the tick to prevent becoming infected. You should firmly grasp the tick, using tweezers, and steadily pull the tick off of your skin. Lastly, you should clean the area with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.

Late Lyme disease can be prevented with the help of an early diagnosis and antibiotics. Lyme disease is rarely life-threatening; however, the disease can become more severe if treatment is delayed.

Some symptoms of Lyme disease include: erythema migrans (skin rash), fatigue, chills and fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, and swollen lymph nodes.

Erythema migrans is a reddish or purple colored rash. It usually appears three to 14 days after the bite. The rash occurs at the site of the bite and is shaped round or oval. The rash can spread over a couple of days and feel warm.

Some infected people do not develop a rash, but instead have flu-like symptoms.

Late Lyme disease may not appear until weeks or months after an infected tick bite. Some symptoms include: arthritis (especially in knees), nervous system symptoms (numbness, pain, nerve paralysis, meningitis), memory or concentration problems, sleep disturbances, and very rarely irregular heart rhythms.

Diagnosis includes measuring the antibodies in the body that are made to fight against Lyme disease bacteria. It can take many weeks after the infection has occurred for the body to make a sufficient amount of antibodies.

This means that it is possible for a Lyme disease test to come back negative in the first couple of weeks. After the infection is gone, the body continues to make antibodies for months to years. This makes it hard to use a blood test to determine a new as opposed to an old infection.

Usually those who are treated with antibiotics for early Lyme disease recover quickly and completely. The most common antibiotics for Lyme disease are: doxycycline, amoxicillin, or cefuroxime axetil.

Those patients who have persistent or recurrent symptoms may take another course of antibiotics. A vaccine for Lyme disease is not currently available.

Information for this column was taken from literature produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, printed in a brochure and also available online: “Lyme Disease: What You Need to Know.”

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Community Caregivers Inc. is a not-for-profit organization that provides non-medical services, including transportation and caregiver support at no charge to residents of Guilderland, Bethlehem, Altamont, New Scotland, Berne, Knox, and the city of Albany through a strong volunteer pool of dedicated individuals with a desire to assist their neighbors.

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Editor’s note: Mary Alsunna is a University at Albany student who is currently volunteering with Community Caregivers. She will be writing columns on topics of interest for seniors during the Fall 2019 semester.