First, the weather in many parts of the country is expected to be ideal for tick breeding, according to Pests.org. Forecasts for above-average rainfall in the Northeast and the Southwest have raised Lyme disease threat levels, the organization says. In the Midwest, predictions for higher-than-normal rainfall and air temperatures will also likely increase tick populations. Although not all ticks carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, an overall increase in the number of ticks means a greater risk you’ll encounter one that is infected, says Pests.org. Complicating matters further is COVID-19. After being stuck at home for months during COVID-19 lockdown, people are eager to get outside and perhaps less mindful of the threat posed by ticks, says Michael Zimring, MD, the director of the Center for Wilderness and Travel Medicine at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore. Plus, while Lyme disease is a bacterial infection spread through the bites of black-legged ticks (also called deer ticks), it has many of the same symptoms as coronavirus infection, including fever and fatigue, according to LymeDisease.org — similarities that have the potential to interfere with accurate diagnoses. In a normal summer, roughly 30,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year in the United States, but the disease may affect up to 10 times that number because many don’t know they have it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). RELATED: How to Know When It’s a Tick Bite and What to Do About It
Lyme Disease Territory
Lyme disease season has already gotten off to a fast start. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention started seeing Lyme disease cases in early May, after reporting a record number of more than 2,000 in 2019. Maine is usually a hotbed for Lyme disease. The deer ticks that carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease (Borellia burgdorferi or, less commonly, Borellia mayonii) are particularly common in states in the New England and mid-Atlantic regions — from Maine to Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont — as well as in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States, the CDC says. But higher temperatures and humidity driven by climate change are enlarging tick territory, according to Zimring. “So, if you’ve lived in an area without Lyme disease until now, that could change,” he says. RELATED: What Bit Me? Spot These 12 Bug Bites
Lyme Disease Prevention
Deer ticks’ coloring is similar to deer — hence the name — and they feed on the blood of white-tailed deer. They tend to hide in areas with long grass and shrubs, particularly in wooded areas where white-tailed deer can be found. To prevent a bite from an infected tick, wear light-colored clothing so you can spot ticks before they latch on to your skin, and wear long pants and tuck your pant legs into your socks to limit the amount of exposed skin, LymeDisease.org advises. “If you’re in the woods, stay in the middle of paths and away from high grasses,” says Zimring. When you come inside, check yourself for ticks, especially your legs and arms, groin, and armpits, as these arachnids like areas with “hair and moisture,” Zimring says. RELATED: Could You Have Lyme Disease and Not Know It?
Lyme Disease Symptoms
If you’re bitten by a tick, the most well-known symptom of Lyme disease is a bull’s-eye-shaped rash in the area of the skin surrounding the bite. But not everyone with Lyme disease will develop a rash, and some may have a rash that looks slightly different, says Zimring. Early symptoms of the condition resemble those of the flu — or, as mentioned, COVID-19 — and, according to the CDC, may include:
FeverChills or sweatsBody achesMuscle and joint painFatigueNausea
To diagnose Lyme disease, your doctor will consider your symptoms and the likelihood that you’ve been exposed to infected ticks, and may also order blood tests to check for Lyme disease antibodies made by the body in response to infection. Antibodies can take several weeks to develop. If you’re tested right away after getting a tick bite, the results may not show that you have Lyme disease, even if you have it, so you may need to retested, according to Zimring. “Your doctor may not wait for the test results if you have all the classic symptoms of Lyme disease,” he says. “It’s best to start treatment as soon as possible.” In terms of the tick bite itself, “about all you can do is treat it symptomatically,” Zimring notes. Remove the tick and apply a cold compress if you experience pain in the area around the bite, he advises. “If the tick is carrying the Lyme bacteria, it usually takes 24 to 48 hours after a tick bite for Lyme disease to take hold and the early symptoms to appear,” Zimring says. Once they do, you should seek medical attention. RELATED: 10 Essential Facts About Lyme Disease
Lyme Disease Treatments
Currently, there’s no cure for Lyme disease, but there are treatments. In most cases, Lyme disease can be resolved with a two- to three-week course of antibiotics, usually doxycycline (which also has anti-inflammatory properties) or amoxicillin, Zimring notes. But antibiotics don’t work for up to 20 percent of people with the tick-borne illness, and they are left with lingering symptoms, including muscle pain, fatigue, and cognitive impairment — sometimes for years, he says. That’s why researchers are evaluating new treatments for Lyme disease that promise to cure it. One new treatment currently in clinical trials is the drug disulfiram, according to LymeDisease.org, which has been shown to be effective at killing B. burgdorferi. Disulfiram was originally designed as a treatment for alcohol use disorder. Researchers at Stanford University in California have also been exploring whether an antibiotic used for skin infections, azlocillin, might be effective for people who aren’t helped by the usual course of Lyme disease antibiotics. They’ve found that this drug can kill the bacteria in mice. Clinical trials with human subjects are forthcoming. Scientists are also exploring complementary and alternative medicine for Lyme. A study published in the February 2020 issue of the journal Frontiers in Medicine found that seven natural herbal extracts — notably Cryptolepis sanguinolenta and Polygonum cuspidatum (Japanese knotweed) — at relatively low concentrations (1 percent) had “good activity” against cultures of B. burgdorferi in in test tubes. Always talk to your doctor about any herbs or supplements you are taking or are considering using, and remember that antibiotics are currently the only known effective treatment for Lyme disease, according to the National Institutes of Health. RELATED: How the New ‘Super Ticks’ Can Make You Sick
