What you wear matters when it comes to preventing tick bites. “Doing so will reduce the chances of a tick hopping on for a ride,” he says. Stay out of overgrown areas and, when possible, stick to the middle of hiking trails. They like to sit on reeds, twigs, woody stems, and blades of grass and wait for passersby. “Ticks have an incredible ability to hitchhike,” Telford says. Enjoy the natural world-but avoid tall grass and dense brush Here’s how people can protect themselves from ticks and Lyme disease and stay healthy outdoors: 1. Smith, a physician at Maine Medical Center and professor of medicine at the School of Medicine, and Sam Telford III, professor of infectious disease and global health at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, they have assembled a team of multidisciplinary researchers with the aim of eradicating Lyme by 2030. Our best strategy for tackling it is to prevent its occurrence, and the best way to do that is to get rid of it at its source.”Īs co-director of the Tufts Lyme Disease Initiative, Hu is working on doing just that. “Lyme’s manifestations can be perplexing,” says Linden Hu, professor of immunology at Tufts University School of Medicine. In 10 to 20% of cases, patients experience persistent fatigue, joint pain, mental impairment, and other symptoms that can last for months or years. Undiagnosed cases can lead to serious complications, such as arthritis, meningitis, or heart problems. However, Lyme disease diagnosis early on relies on recognition of the rash, as blood tests take several weeks to turn positive. When infected ticks bite humans, the bite delivers bacteria to the skin, which migrate through the skin and sometimes into the bloodstream, causing Lyme.įor most individuals, antibiotics can cure the disease and fend off any complications, especially if started soon after a bite occurs. Ticks carrying the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi pass it on to hosts, such as mice and other animals that get infected, which pass on the infection to new ticks, ensuring its spread. Lyme occurs as part of a complex chain of infections. Ticks are vectors that can carry serious diseases, including Lyme disease, which nearly half a million people in the United States contract each year. If you’ve ever found a tick on yourself or your child, you might have experienced a sense of panic at the sight of the tiny arachnid. Here, experts offer tips for keeping the vectors-and the infections they transmit-away.
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