Tick season is upon us and the number of Lyme Disease cases tend to skyrocket between May and August.
Douglas Braff’s been looking at this and spoke with Penn Highlands about some tips for preventing Ticks and Lyme Disease, Douglas?
Yes we’re approaching the peak months for Lyme Disease, in June and July. Many of you will spend time in the great outdoors or your yards, so it’s important to know how to protect yourselves.
The CDC says ticks tend to live in grassy, bushy, or wooded areas and can even be found in people’s yards and on animals.
“Number one is to dress appropriately. You wanna have high socks or pants. You usually wanna use a deet based bug spray when you go out. And then it’s important that, after you go out or if the kids are playing in the backyard,
that everybody checks themselves before they go to bed, for ticks.”
A traditional sign of Lyme Disease is that Bullseye looking rash.
However
“That doesn’t happen all the time with Lyme disease. When you move into later stages, the middle of the road stages, you can certainly have fevers, swollen joints.”
There’s also potential to develop Bells Palsy.
But further along into the disease, neurological disorders become more likely.
“You can develop heart block. It can actually affect the electrical conducting system in your heart, but that tends to be something that’s later on.”
“You know, the good thing about Lyme disease is that it can be treated with antibiotics.”
He says he thinks something people aren’t often aware of, is how to properly remove a tick.
“As long as you remove a tick within 36 hours, that actually does not require any treatment.”
When you do remove ticks, the recommended way is to place tweezers between the head of the tick and your skin and rip it off. Sheehan say to not squeeze the head of the tick, burn it, or use chemicals to remove it.
We’ll be sure to include more details about tick prevention, lyme disease, and testing on our website.
