Tick-related ER visits are higher than normal this year. Here’s how you can protect yourself and your family from Lyme disease
How to protect yourself and your family from Lyme disease
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said weekly rates of hospital emergency room visits for tick bites are the highest they have been for this time of year since 2017, prompting federal health officials to urge people to protect themselves from ticks and the serious diseases they transmit, including Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
“Tick season is here and these tiny biters can make you seriously sick,” Alison Hinckley, an epidemiologist and Lyme disease expert with the CDC, said in a press release.
Lyme disease, carried by the black-legged deer tick, is the most common tick-borne disease in the U.S. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, muscle aches and pains and swollen lymph nodes, according to the Mayo Clinic. In some cases, people who are infected develop a circular “bull’s-eye” rash.
Left untreated, Lyme can cause fever, rash, facial paralysis, an irregular heartbeat and arthritis, the CDC said. Around 476,000 people are treated for Lyme each year, according to data from the agency, which is the nation’s leading organization charged with protecting public health.
The black-legged deer tick — which also transmits Powassan virus and babesiosis, among other illnesses — is a true stealth predator, according to Northeastern University professor Constantin Takacs, who studies how Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, proliferates in ticks during the tick’s two-year life cycle.
For starters, adult deer ticks are only the size of a sesame seed and the nymphs that emerge in May and cause most cases of Lyme disease are even tinier, the size of a poppy seed or pencil tip.
Hard to detect visually, black-legged deer ticks have another way to evade detection, said Takacs, an assistant professor of biology. They have developed specialized proteins that work at the bite site to suppress both their victims’ immune system and nerve sensitivity, he said.
“So there’s no pain and there’s no swelling or itchiness,” Takacs said. That makes it easier for the ticks to feed on victims for the 24-plus hours believed necessary to transmit Lyme disease.
The good news is that people can take steps to prevent tick bites when spending time outside, Hinckley said in the press release. “You can wear EPA-registered insect repellent and permethrin-treated clothing, do tick checks and remove attached ticks as quickly as possible,” she said.
Hinckley advised people who develop a rash or fever in the days or weeks after being in areas with ticks to promptly seek medical treatment.
The CDC recommends antibiotic treatment in the early stages of Lyme disease, as well as a single dose of the antibiotic doxycycline for people bitten in areas where ticks have a high incidence of infection with Borrelia burgdorferi, including in several states of the northeastern U.S.
Ticks grasp people and animals passing by from leaf litter on the forest floor and the tips of grasses. Creating a “tick-free zone” by keeping grass mowed and removing leaf litter, brush and weeds from the edges of lawns and checking pets for ticks can help foil ticks attempts to latch onto a host for a blood meal, the CDC says.
Working with ticks in the lab, Takacs knows of a vulnerability they have that people can use to protect themselves. “Ticks hate being really hot,” he said.
Showering immediately after potential encounters can wash them off the body before they have a chance to attach, and putting clothing or gear worn outside in a dryer on high heat for 10 minutes will kill them outright, according to the CDC. If the clothing is damp, add more time, the federal health agency said.
There’s hope on the horizon in the form of an anti-Lyme vaccine from Pfizer that may soon be heading for FDA approval, Takacs said.
“If approved, this may help reduce the risk for Lyme disease, but will not protect against the other tick-borne infections,” he said.
