Lyme Disease Is on the Rise Again • Hacker News Board

Re: Lyme Disease Is on the Rise Again

#81

Post by wilsonnb » Mon, May 07, 2018, 5:16 PM UTC

stevehawk wrote: post #22

Just FYI - when I lived in Northern Virginia I discovered that in my area the main transmission method of Lyme disease was actually mice. So make sure if you find them in your house that you do something about it. Also be careful when you remove via tweezers. If you squeeze their body you're likely to cause them to regurgitate into you which almost guarantees an infection. I use a tick removal tool (actually used it…

Make sure to not kill any opossums that you see too. Many people see them as pests but they eat a whole lot of ticks and while they can get lyme disease, their immune systems are pretty good at fighting it so it's not that common.

They also pretty much never get rabies, which is just cool.

Re: Lyme Disease Is on the Rise Again

#82

Post by jjeaff » Mon, May 07, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

4restm wrote: post #21

Once a tick has been removed, be sure to place it in a ziplock baggie and store it in the freezer. This way if anything crops up you'd be able to bring the tick in with ya to the doc

If you said this in the south, you would get a good long laugh.

Re: Lyme Disease Is on the Rise Again

#83

Post by marmottus » Mon, May 07, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

Got bitten in 2010 while camping in Czechia, we failed to remove the tick properly and the head stayed in my skin so we had to butcher me a bit more and it left a tiny wound. Two days later I got the famous painful rash that I had no clue about, red circle, swollen and painful. I went to the doctor who immediately told me "you might have Lyme disease", I had never heard of this before but I understood that it required 3 weeks amoxicillin. I did several blood tests and got positive once to the borreliosis then negative after the treatment. So I thought everything was over but a month later I was feeling extremely tired, body and brain wise, I started to freak out that the disease was still there but blood tests were negative. This was during my exams period and as a student I was under high stress and the spot where I got bitten was still a bit swollen. The doctor told me that it was normal but the only way to be sure that the disease is completely gone at this stage (around 2 months after being bitten) is to do a lumbar puncture which I did (kudos to pregnant women who go through this ! I'll never do it again). The test showed negative, there was no way that I could still have the disease so it calmed me down and I accepted that it was just due to stress and hypochondria. Today I'm totally fine, this was my first bite and I hope the last one. This little bug is a pure nightmare.

Re: Lyme Disease Is on the Rise Again

#84

Post by DennisP » Mon, May 07, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

Alex3917 wrote: post #47

DennisP wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but according to the article, "Lyme disease accounts for about 80 percent of the tick-borne illnesses in the U.S." Plenty of people who get Lyme don't get the rash, and don't necessarily even know they were bitten by a tick. Deer ticks are tiny and you have to check yourself thoroughly to see them. An effective vaccine would be very helpful.

> Lyme disease accounts for about 80 percent of the tick-borne illnesses in the U.S. I mean how would we actually know that though if we don't even know what all the tickborne illnesses are, and if there is no test for many of them?

They probably mean the known tickborne illnesses. When illnesses are unknown it's often because they're rare, so it's probably a good estimate.

In any case, Lyme disease is very common and on that basis alone, a vaccine would prevent a lot of suffering, regardless of what other suffering remains in place.

Re: Lyme Disease Is on the Rise Again

#85

Post by wilsonnb » Mon, May 07, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

Tharkun wrote: post #17

I got lyme disease after my first and only (as far as I know) tick bite. A round of antibiotics seems to have killed it, though I am still noticeably more tired than before the infection (anacdata, could just be because I'm getting older and under a lot of stress). I reported where and when the infection took place on a local website which tracks these things. I informed the city council (considering this happened in…

Encouraging a local opossum population, if they live in your area, would help. They eat a lot of ticks. Allegedly they eat 90% of the ticks that they encounter, which can be up to 5000 per opossum in a season.

Re: Lyme Disease Is on the Rise Again

#86

Post by notadoc » Mon, May 07, 2018, 5:21 PM UTC

nonbel wrote: post #67

rb808 wrote: post #27

I've stopped hiking and camping largely because of this. Its just not worth it any more. This page has an uncommon photo of just how small the nymph deer ticks are. https://sectionhiker.com/backpacking-lyme-disease-prevention...

Something is wrong here. How did humanity survive living most of their lives outdoors for so long in the presence of these ticks? Did lyme disease really not exist until 1975? I see there is some kind of "blame everything on lyme disease" movement going on as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease_controversy

Tick populations have surged, mostly because of mice, rodent, and deer overpopulation. And we've killed off huge numbers of natural predators to those carriers.

Anecdotally, 15 years ago I used to maybe find one tick a year after frequent walks/hikes in grasslands or woods. Today I can walk the same trail systems and find 10+ ticks per dog after a single days walk even when they have tick/flea treatment applied. It's a frequent topic of discussion in outdoorsy groups and communities, vet clinics, ranchers, etc.

Re: Lyme Disease Is on the Rise Again

#87

Post by notadoc » Mon, May 07, 2018, 5:23 PM UTC

zip1234 wrote: post #79

maxerickson wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tick populations have expanded greatly in recent years. Things like climate change and wildlife management practices are thought to be a factor. (warmer winters->less ticks die, more deer->more deer ticks)

Need more Wolves!

And bird of prey, fox, coyote, bear, wildcats, mountain lions, human hunters, etc.

The entire ecosystem has been overmanaged to reduce predators, and the consequences are dire.

Re: Lyme Disease Is on the Rise Again

#88

Post by nonbel » Mon, May 07, 2018, 5:29 PM UTC

notadoc wrote: post #86

nonbel wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something is wrong here. How did humanity survive living most of their lives outdoors for so long in the presence of these ticks? Did lyme disease really not exist until 1975? I see there is some kind of "blame everything on lyme disease" movement going on as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease_controversy

Tick populations have surged, mostly because of mice, rodent, and deer overpopulation. And we've killed off huge numbers of natural predators to those carriers. Anecdotally, 15 years ago I used to maybe find one tick a year after frequent walks/hikes in grasslands or woods. Today I can walk the same trail systems and find 10+ ticks per dog after a single days walk even when they have tick/flea treatment applied. It's…

I see. Do you (anecdotaly, in your opinion) rule out that people are more concerned about ticks these days, so they are checking more carefully and/or often?

Re: Lyme Disease Is on the Rise Again

#89

Post by cujo » Mon, May 07, 2018, 5:31 PM UTC

simonsarris wrote: post #66

Ticks were bad last year in NH, but not 5 ticks on a stick bad: https://imgur.com/a/bGdAvLD Photo taken yesterday. I bought some old farmland and it has been a completely insane year so far for ticks. I wish I could do a prescribed burn of the field but it's not well set up for that.

The good news there, is that none of those appear to be deer ticks (lyme carriers). If my amateur eye is correct, those are dog ticks.

Re: Lyme Disease Is on the Rise Again

#90

Post by dailyrorschach » Mon, May 07, 2018, 5:31 PM UTC

jjeaff wrote: post #82

4restm wrote: post #21

Once a tick has been removed, be sure to place it in a ziplock baggie and store it in the freezer. This way if anything crops up you'd be able to bring the tick in with ya to the doc

If you said this in the south, you would get a good long laugh.

I see you in multiple places on this thread with comments like these. So here's something to consider, Lyme Disease is actually not at all that prevalent in the South. https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/maps.html

Where it is prevalent, this is standard good advice, advice that we even taught in the BSA 18 years ago in the NE. Lyme is a really nasty thing to get, and not everyone even realizes they were bit, or is symptomatic at first. My case was when I was 15, worked at a camp, got bit, came out before I could notice, no rash. At some point later that summer came down with flu like symptoms, which went away in a standard flu timeframe.

Two months later I had extreme fatigue, I'm talking couldn't stay awake longer than 6 hours. Luckily a blood test confirmed it, but not before it had spread to my spinal fluid, requiring two hospitalizations, over 30 days of IV antibiotics and additional treatment.

So perhaps what works for you down South doesn't work where this is an issue, and hopefully it won't ever be something you or your neighbors need to worry about the way we do.