Ticks and Lymes disease

limulus

Well-Known Member
All the information below is taken from the BADA UK website

About Ticks


TOP TEN TICK FACTS
• Ticks are most abundant from April to October (although bites can occur
year round) and are most prevalent in rural locations such as forests,
woods and grassland, but can be active in urban parklands and gardens.
• Ticks are arachnids which are closely related to spiders and can be as
small as a poppy seed.
• Ticks bite animals and humans to feed on blood they need to stay alive.
• Tick saliva contains an anaesthetic which means you don’t feel the bite.
• Some ticks can live up to a year without a meal.
• Ticks don’t fly or jump. Instead, they drop from low vegetation or climb on
as an animal or person brushes by the plants they are resting on.
• Ticks like warm places on the body like the groin, armpits and scalp. The
back of the knee, waist and buttocks are also favourite blood-sucking
spots.
• A female tick can lay up to 3,000 eggs at a time.
• There are over 20 tick species in the UK and over 800 worldwide.
• Ticks can carry and transmit more than one disease simultaneously.

About Lyme disease


• Lyme disease is transmitted via the bite of an infected tick and can lead to
serious complications including damage to the nervous system, joints,
heart and other tissues.
• Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in the UK and the
Northern Hemisphere.
• Lyme disease areas of the UK highlighted by the Health Protection Agency
(HPA) are: Exmoor, the New Forest, the South Downs, parts of Wiltshire
and Berkshire, Thetford Forest, the Lake District, the Yorkshire Moors and
the Scottish Highlands. However, the HPA also state ' Although these are
high risk areas for Lyme borreliosis, any area where Ixodid ticks are
present should be regarded as a potential risk area.'
• Lyme disease can affect multiple body systems and produce a range of
symptoms. Not all patients with Lyme disease will have all symptoms, and
many of the symptoms are not specific to Lyme disease. The usual
incubation period from infection to the onset of symptoms is a few days to
a few weeks but can be much longer.
• Generally, the first sign of infection is a circular rash. This rash usually
appears within 3 to 30 days of infection. The rash often has a
characteristic "bull's-eye" appearance, with a central red spot surrounded
by clear skin that is ringed by an expanding red rash. However, not
everyone one presents with the rash, or it can be hidden under hair or in
an inaccessible place. Rashes can also vary from the classic "bull's-eye".
• Along with the rash, a person may experience flu-like symptoms such as
swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, headache, and muscle aches. Left
untreated, symptoms of the initial illness may go away on their own. But
in some people, the infection can spread to other parts of the body.
• England & Wales: Figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA)
'Enhanced Voluntary Surveillance Scheme' show a year-on-year increase
in cases of Lyme disease, with a marked increase from 292 in 2003 to
867* in 2009 (the latest figures). However the HPA estimate up to 3,000
cases every year.
• Scotland: Figures from the Health Protection Scotland, where the disease
is a notifiable condition, have shown a dramatic rise in infection rates from
28 confirmed cases in 2001 to 605* cases in 2009 (the latest figures).
However, staff at Scotland's Lyme disease testing service believe that the
known number of proven cases should be multiplied by ten "to take
account of wrongly-diagnosed cases, tests giving false results, sufferers
who weren’t tested, people who are infected but not showing symptoms,
failures to notify and infected individuals who don’t consult a doctor".
• Ireland: Borreliosis is not a notifiable condition, nor is there an enhanced
voluntary surveillance scheme. In 2007, 71 specimens, referred to the UK
Health Protection Agency’s Lyme Borreliosis Unit from Irish hospital
laboratories, were confirmed positive for Lyme borreliosis. However, the
Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), Ireland, considers that the
incidence may be much higher.
BADA-UK Registered charity No. 1113329, England and Wales,
Registered charity No. SC038414 Scotland.
Web site: Home page: BADA-UK Email: badauk@imagenuk.com
• There's no sure-fire way to avoid getting Lyme disease. But you
can minimise your risk by being 'Tick Aware'. If you work outdoors or
spend time walking, gardening, fishing, hunting, or camping, take
precautions such as using an insect repellent, wearing trousers tucked into
socks (or wearing gaiters) and long-sleeved clothing to cover all areas of
exposed skin, regularly inspecting for ticks and carefully removing any
found.
• Pets are also vulnerable to Lyme disease and tick-control products can be
prescribed by your vet.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US state:
'Both false-positive (the test results read positive, but the patient is not
infected with Lyme disease-causing bacteria) and false-negative test
results (the results read negative, but the patient is infected with Lyme
disease-causing bacteria) may occur.' †
• The disease is named after the village of Old Lyme, Connecticut in the
USA, where a number of cases were identified in 1975.
* Provisional data
† Reference - CDC Lyme disease: A Public Information Guide.

BADA-UK Registered charity No. 1113329, England and Wales,
Registered charity No. SC038414 Scotland.
Web site: Home page: BADA-UK Email: badauk@imagenuk.com


THE most effective way to remove ticks safely is to use an O'Tom tick removal tool as shown in the video below:




There are other methods available such as the 'tickout' tweezers and the 'tick lasso'.
They should be used in a similar fashion to an O'Tom, i.e. with a twisting motion when removing the tick.
 
I hate these damn things. I have pulled 2 off myself in 24 hours. I am like a sheep I just hover them up....

Taken the plunge today and ordered some Rovince clothing. Hopefully it will work.
 
I bought a 'tick card' in a camping shop for about four quid. It just stays in my wallet. I use it all the time!! Awful little critters.
 
Good effort for posting that one mate, id been meaning to put a post like that one up since last weekend. Ive just come back from the west coast of Scotland where I was staying with some friends, I had to use an O TOM tick remover to take 12 ticks off me whilst I was in Scotland. I hate ticks, they are evil :evil:.
Ive got two friends, one German, one Danish, who both have Lyme's disease, owing to their deer stalking, and its extremely limited their enjoyment of life. Lyme's disease is a terrible thing and its spreading in the UK, but awareness of the utmost importance of early detection and treatment is not.
In short, if you don't get treated with some Doxycycline within the first few weeks your in rather deep s### as it becomes virtually impossible to get rid of. I had a rough time with it myself a couple of years back following a tick bite that had the bulls eye hallmark of a Lyme's infected tick bite and had to suffer the most ignorant of NHS Drs. Sadly the NHS seems to have a crapy policy of treatment ie a : 'treat the patent with the wrong stuff, once its too late, because we cant afford to do it propperly' kind of thing.
My Danish friend went to see 4 different UK NHS DRs when he was bitten about ten years back and they all just told him it was fine and did not treat him despite his requests. He eventually went home to Denmark to be tested 2 years later as the symptoms had come back had and found that he did indeed have it and has suffered the consequences ever since and will do for the rest of his life.
In the end I went and saw the specialist who treats my German friend in Hamburg and got tested properly. Thankfully all tests were clear but the German Dr said to me that even with his very specialized experience of over 40 years he would not have ignored the bite I had and considered it shocking and stupid for me to have been left without blood tests to prove that all was fine. He also said that at an international conference on Lymes which he had recently attended there was a general understanding amongst his peers that the NHS is still in the dark ages where it comes to the testing and treatment of Lymes disease owing to ignorance and the wrong blood tests being used .

If your ever in need of reliable info on Lymes then go to the website of the: Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Kind regards, Olaf
 
Back
Top