Protect Yourself From Deer Ticks

As summer begins, and local children begin to play outdoors every day, it's important to be aware of a tick-borne illness called Lyme disease.

Eighteen cases of Lyme disease were reported in Allegheny County in 2010, according to Guillermo Cole at the Allegheny County Health Department. In 2009, 28 cases were reported, and in 2008, there were 27 cases reported.

No one is immune to the disease, as Becky Emmers, local editor of Upper St. Clair’s Patch, found out when she contracted the disease during the summer before she was to start first grade.

Emmers developed a series of rashes, not the typical bull’s-eye rash that is indicative of Lyme disease that her parents and physicians attributed to allergies. But the rashes did not go away, and other symptoms began developing. After many weeks of flu-like symptoms, Emmers experienced a lot of joint pain.

“One day my legs hurt so bad that it I could not walk, and another morning my neck hurt too much to even lift my head off of my pillow,” Emmers said.

At the time, Lyme disease was not well-known, and it took physicians about six months to make the diagnosis with a blood test.

By that time, the disease was too far advanced to respond to a short-term treatment of antibiotics, so Emmers was prescribed a more advanced treatment. She received intravenous antibiotics through a catheter surgically implanted into her chest. This continued for about a month, and she was absent for about half of first grade, but fortunately, she did not miss much.

“My teachers helped to keep me on track with my school work so I could advance to the second grade with my classmates,” she said.

Emmers and her parents are still not sure how she contracted the disease, but they have some speculations.

“I had recently returned from Girl Scout camp in Wisconsin, and my family and I had also vacationed in Florida that summer,” Emmers said. “Or, I could have contracted it in my own backyard. Who knows? We never saw the bull's eye rash.”

Lyme disease develops when a deer tick attaches to the skin, sucks blood and transmits its material to the person, according to Sharon Jacobs, RN, Infection Prevention Practitioner at St. Clair Hospital and a member of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). If the deer tick happens to be carrying the disease, that person could become infected.

“A tick needs to stay attached to a person for 36 to 48 hours to transmit the disease,” Jacobs explained. “And because many of the younger ticks are only about 2 millimeters in length, it is important to do a tick check when you come in from the outdoors, especially if you have been in a wooded area. It is just as important to check your children and pets.”

If a tick is discovered, it should be removed using tweezers and pulling in an upward motion, according to Jacobs.

“The classic symptom of Lyme disease is a rash called erythema migrans, which resembles a bull’s-eye, at the site of the bite,” Jacobs said. “This rash occurs in up to 80 percent of people who contract the disease. Other symptoms include fatigue, chills, fever, headache, muscle and joint aches, and swollen lymph nodes.”

Jacobs advised taking certain precautions before heading outdoors. “First, apply an insecticide that contains DEET, and be cognizant of the environment of your destination, especially if you will be outdoors. Also, wear long sleeves and long pants, and tuck your pants into your socks to keep your skin covered.”

Jacobs said that if you suspect you have Lyme disease to see your PCP as soon as possible. If a diagnosis of Lyme disease is confirmed, you will likely be administered an antibiotic regimen for a few weeks.

“Pennsylvania has a number of cases because it has the right environment for deer ticks to thrive,” Jacobs explained. “Though cases are reported based on where the person lives, not on where the disease was contracted. So, if someone vacations in New Jersey and contracts the disease there, but lives in Pennsylvania, the case gets counted in Pennsylvania, not New Jersey.”

However, according to Cole, while the numbers of cases vary from year to year, more of the local cases are being acquired locally rather than on trips outside of the area because the deer tick that transmits the disease is now the most commonly found tick on people and pets in our area.

For more information on Lyme disease, visit the Center for Disease Controls website at www.cdc.gov/Lyme or view the APIC Lyme Disease Newsletter at http://apic.informz.net/apic/archives/archive_883919.html.