4 ms·

Clear this up for me...your tip to avoid Lyme disease is to remove any found ticks ASAP, but you say you still get bit 100+ times a year. Is it not true that ge

Clear this up for me...your tip to avoid Lyme disease is to remove any found ticks ASAP, but you say you still get bit 100+ times a year. Is it not true that getting bitten by an infected tick is "game over in the threat model"?

alexhutcheson 7y ago
In most cases, the tick must be attached for 36 to 48 hours or more before the Lyme disease bacterium can be transmitted. https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/transmission/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/transmission/index.html
- Alex3917 7y ago
  That page doesn't cite any sources, so it's not really any more credible than any other random blog. I would consider this to be more credible: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278789/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278789/ More importantly though, Lyme is just one of over a dozen tick-borne illnesses, some of which can be transmitted in as little as 15 minutes.
  - velcrovan 7y ago
    “That page” is from the Center for Disease Control — a division of the US Dept of Health and Human Services. Credibility is subjective, but I would say it is in fact more credible than a random blog.
  - mattkrause 7y ago
    In many cases, the CDC is the source (or at least funds them).
    - Alex3917 7y ago
      OK, but why would you trust the recommendation if you don't know why they're making it?
      - jdbernard 7y ago
        Because rarely do we get accurate descriptions of the why behind most advice. Trusting credible people and institutions is a necessity unless you're planning on doing foundational research for everything in your life.
- husarcik 7y ago
  We're taught this in med school. Along with NOT using flame to remove them and instead using something like tweezers while preserving the tick (for identification).
coffeeling 7y ago
The game over is for encephalitis, since that gets transmitted by saliva. Thankfully encephalitis is much rarer, and can be vaccinated against if you live in a tick-infested area. As the other poster said, borreliosis/Lyme takes much longer to infect you on average, so daily tick checks are an effective borreliosis prevention measure.

alexhutcheson 7y ago

In most cases, the tick must be attached for 36 to 48 hours or more before the Lyme disease bacterium can be transmitted. https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/transmission/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/transmission/index.html

Alex3917 7y ago
That page doesn't cite any sources, so it's not really any more credible than any other random blog. I would consider this to be more credible: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278789/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278789/ More importantly though, Lyme is just one of over a dozen tick-borne illnesses, some of which can be transmitted in as little as 15 minutes.
- velcrovan 7y ago
  “That page” is from the Center for Disease Control — a division of the US Dept of Health and Human Services. Credibility is subjective, but I would say it is in fact more credible than a random blog.
- mattkrause 7y ago
  In many cases, the CDC is the source (or at least funds them).
  - Alex3917 7y ago
    OK, but why would you trust the recommendation if you don't know why they're making it?
    - jdbernard 7y ago
      Because rarely do we get accurate descriptions of the why behind most advice. Trusting credible people and institutions is a necessity unless you're planning on doing foundational research for everything in your life.
husarcik 7y ago
We're taught this in med school. Along with NOT using flame to remove them and instead using something like tweezers while preserving the tick (for identification).

coffeeling 7y ago

The game over is for encephalitis, since that gets transmitted by saliva. Thankfully encephalitis is much rarer, and can be vaccinated against if you live in a tick-infested area. As the other poster said, borreliosis/Lyme takes much longer to infect you on average, so daily tick checks are an effective borreliosis prevention measure.