Science, Health & Tech
Check yourself for ticks to avoid Lyme Disease
The Pointer
aschl336@uwsp.edu
Hope for a true spring is lingering somewhere within this crude and spontaneous weather. This means the tick season will be here soon. More disgusting and scary than pulling a tick off your body is the chance of Lyme disease being transferred through that tick. Not all ticks carry the Lyme disease pathogen, but it is better to be safe than sorry when encountering a tick.
Dr. Diane Caporale, a professor of molecular biology and genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, has studied the evolution and spread of tick-borne diseases (particularly Lyme Disease) since 1990.
Caporale has been working with her Biology 319: Techniques in Molecular Biology class for the past eight years, identifying the proportion of deer ticks harboring the pathogen from Stockton and Schmeeckle Reserve.
Caporale said that in past years, there have been high infection rates.
"About one in three ticks carry the L[yme] D[isease] agent," said Caporale.
She went on to say that even in Schmeeckle the amount of ticks has grown. Students in her class collected "140 ticks in an hour! And the infection rate was greater than 20 percent,” Caporale has alarmingly found.
“This disease is caused by a spirochete (spiral-shaped) bacterium that is harbored by the blacklegged (deer) tick in this area. If the bacterium is injected into a person (takes 36 to 72 hours of feeding time by the tick), you’ll feel flu-like symptoms, aches and pains in the joints, fever, chills, tiredness," said Caporale. "About 50 percent of the people get a large bull’s eye looking rash at the site of the tick bite. If not treated with antibiotics (typically doxycycline), it can get into your bloodstream and cause permanent damage to your joints, causing arthritis (especially in your knees). It can also cause heart problems. If it enters your nervous system, it can cause loss of short-term memory and numbness in the face,” said Caporale.
To avoid getting bitten, wear pants with socks on the outside to prevent ticks from getting onto your skin. A perethrin spray containing some deet can also be applied to clothes as a tick repellent. It can be bought online.
Also, check yourself at night and the following morning for ticks. “If you find one, then use a tweezers to pull it off. If you know it could have only been on you for 24 hours or less, you should not contract the disease, but check for symptoms anyway. The nymphs are so small, people really don’t feel them or see them by a casual glance. They can look like a freckle, but if you feel a bump, then check more closely,” recommends Caporale.
Lyme disease is treatable if recognized in a timely matter. Besides identifying the bull’s eye rash, the disease causes a person to feel like he or she has the flu. If this occurs, a doctor should be seen immediately.
“Unfortunately, the L.D. test looks for antibodies against the bacterium from your blood, but it may take two to three weeks to produce enough antibodies for the Lyme test. So, many a time false negatives result,” Caporale said. So if symptoms occur after the negative test, visit your doctor again.
Unfortunately, Lyme Disease may be on the rise.
“Research students and I have found particular strains of this bacterium in Schmeeckle for the first time this past year. This means that the ticks are spreading this disease across the state, and I believe infection rates will only continue to rise,” concluded Caporale.
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