It’s literally a small thing that can prevent the spread of Lyme disease. Do a tick check.
“It’s the single most effective thing that people can do,” said Brenda Armstrong, manager of the healthy environments program at Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit. “A tick has to be attached for over 24 hours to transmit the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.
“So if you can find that tick right away and get it off there’s no risk of exposure," she added.
Armstrong said with the current warm weather, people enjoying the outdoors don’t always want to wear long pants and long sleeves, so the tick check is necessary.
“We are really shifting our message around to … check for ticks,” she said. “Do a quick, but thorough tick check when you’ve been active outdoors. Or have a shower. That’s probably the easiest way to do it.”
Lyme disease can be a serious but preventable illness, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. It’s a tick-borne disease transmitted to humans, and pets, through a bite of an infected black-legged tick. Lyme disease does not spread from person-to-person.
Armstrong said the tick population is climbing in this part of Ontario, and there’s a familiar culprit.
“We believe that’s being driven by the change in climate,” she said. “As our climate warms, tick habitat is just extending farther north every year. So being cautious about tick exposure is so important.”
Early symptoms of Lyme disease usually begin within three to 30 days after being bitten by an infected tick. Most people experience flu-like symptoms in the early stages, but some will not experience symptoms until several weeks after a bite.
Symptoms of Lyme disease can include one or more of skin rash, fever, chills, fatigue, headache, stiff neck, muscle ache, joint pain, swollen lymph nodes, spasms, numbness or tingling and facial paralysis. But more severe symptoms including recurring arthritis, neurological problems and heart disorders can occur if it’s left untreated.
Most cases of Lyme disease, however, can be successfully treated during the early stages — when the first set of symptoms appear. It’s important to seek medical attention if you develop symptoms within 30 days of a suspected tick bite.
Based on the health-care provider's assessment, an antibiotic may be prescribed. If treated early with appropriate antibiotics, people can expect to make a full recovery. But if the initial infection is not treated, the infection can become difficult to treat.
“We have more ticks in our area, we know that, so the risk is there and it’s a new risk and I don’t think people do understand,” Armstrong said. “That’s the shift that we're really feeling is important for people in Simcoe-Muskoka, really to understand right now" to check for ticks.
Ticks cannot jump or fly, but when a person or animal brushes by vegetation — grass or shrubs along a forest trail — that the tick is resting upon, the tick climbs onto the person or animal in search of a place to bite and feed on exposed skin.
Ticks survive on blood, inserting their mouthpart into the skin of a person or an animal to feed. They are small and bites are usually painless, which means without checking, you might not know that you have been bitten.
Black-legged ticks are small, ranging in size from a poppy seed to a pea, one to five millimetres long. A tick's size depends on its life stage (larva, nymph, adult), whether it has fed recently and how long it has fed.
For more information, visit simcoemuskokahealth.org.
