5 ms·

Ever since I moved to the 'first world' I've been scared of this disease. We don't have it where I come from and the long term effects sound straight up terribl

by aixi 5y ago

Ever since I moved to the 'first world' I've been scared of this disease. We don't have it where I come from and the long term effects sound straight up terrible.

zz865 5y ago
Me too, and with Zika and Covid I feel like I've gone back to the dark ages of diseases.
- giantg2 5y ago
  That's the cost of fast international travel without health screenings or true quarantines.
mantas 5y ago
It's super easy to treat if caught early. But that's where the good ends. Vast majority of cases present the infamous circle. But some don't. And if you got the circle in a hard-to-notice spot, it's easy to miss it (it will a month or two into infection) too. First precaution is to check your legs (and possibly torso/hands) for ticks after passing through high grass. And whole body after coming from the woods. The nasty bit is you may bring ticks home, they stay active for a while and they may bite someone else. If you get a rash in a weird spot and you've been out in the woods in the past 48 hours, check it out thoroughly. You may have a tick there. I've had countless ticks hiding in weird places that I found due to weird itchy-rashy feeling. Once you get the tick, remove it in a safe manner asap. Lyme is transferred after the tick is done feeding and about to take off. Which is ~48 hours. Personally Lyme Encephalitis is much scarier. Not as common, but long term effects are much more likely and even worse. On the bright side, there's a vaccine for it.
- burntwater 5y ago
  Mostly good advice, except for the one comment: >Vast majority of cases present the infamous circle. But some don't. I believe it's actually the other way around, only 20-30% of cases show the "typical" bullseye.
  - mantas 5y ago
    IIRC 20-30% is for the picturesque classic bullseye. A small amount of cases have no skin indication at all. And the rest get various other rashes. Maybe circley without gradient, maybe bullseye-ish square, maybe just a random redness. Itchiness may or may not be there too. Personally I had Lyme twice. Neither was 100% bullseye. The first that I let stay for a while before realising what is going on had little bullseye-ish gradient and was a perfect circle. It took some time to develop the gradient. Next time I realised what is going on very early and all I had was a red patch. I don't know if it would have developed the pattern if I didn't take antibiotics literally the next day after little redness appeared at the tick bite location.
- giantg2 5y ago
  And Lyme nephritis.
- d4rkp4ttern 5y ago
  Should we assume we are safe if we go hiking in a place where we never brushed against any plants or grass or twigs? In other words we went through woods but only stayed on wide open trails. I assume ticks don’t “fly” in the air ?
  - inglor_cz 5y ago
    Ticks don't fly and they generally dislike sunlit or dry places. They will mostly lurk in darker, wetter places, up to 3 feet from the ground. So a shady tree patch with overgrown grass at the edge of a swamp or creek is much more likely to be thoroughly infested than other places. Use a repelent, wear some light-colored clothes to spot a crawling tick easily, tuck the (long!) trousers into your hiking shoes and you should be OK.
    - jmnicolas 5y ago
      > Use a repelent AFAIK permethrin is the only available repellent for ticks but please be aware that it provokes blindness in cats.
      - lwn 5y ago
        'Deet' is also available as repellent against ticks, although less effective. Permethrin is (also) extremely toxic to fish and aquatic life.
  - jonstewart 5y ago
    They like to crawl up and can do so from your ankles/feet, so it’s not a safe assumption. I spray my hiking boots and socks with deet. If I am going to get into brush, I wear permethrin-laced hiking pants and I tuck the cuffs into my socks. Then I take a shower after coming in from outside. Deer ticks can be tiny, much smaller than wood/dog ticks so just checking yourself isn’t a great form of protection.
  - darkerside 5y ago
    Ticks jump quite a distance. I wouldn't use that as the sole basis for assuming I was safe.
snemvalts 5y ago
It's nothing compared to the other tick disease: tick borne encephalitis. Thankfully there's a vaccine against that
- thatcat 5y ago
  Though it's not available in the US.
  - littlestymaar 5y ago
    From the Wikipedia article about that disease [1] it seams the disease isn't prevent in the US, so it wouldn't make sense to get vaccinated against it there (like European people who aren't vaccinated against yellow fever by default). [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick-borne_encephalitis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick-borne_encephalitis
    - thatcat 5y ago
      Lyme disease is not the same as tick-borne encephalitis. Lymerix was a vaccine approved by FDA in US in 1998 because lyme is pretty common in Appalachia, but it was taken off the market. Dogs are recommended to receive a lyme vaccine here, but it's not available to people.
  - DennisP 5y ago
    The FDA has licensed a vaccine for tick-borne encephalitis: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/tickborne-encephalitis https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/tickborne-encephalitis The disease appears to be a problem mainly in Europe and Asia, but if you're planning a camping trip in those areas it looks like you can ask a doctor for the vaccine. You also can get the disease from unpasteurized dairy products.
- junon 5y ago
  Is that the one that makes you deathly allergic to beef or something?
  - 5y ago
halfmatthalfcat 5y ago
Just don't go meandering in backwoods. You're not going to get it in any urban environment.

by aixi 5y ago

Ever since I moved to the 'first world' I've been scared of this disease. We don't have it where I come from and the long term effects sound straight up terrible.

zz865 5y ago

Me too, and with Zika and Covid I feel like I've gone back to the dark ages of diseases.

giantg2 5y ago
That's the cost of fast international travel without health screenings or true quarantines.

mantas 5y ago

It's super easy to treat if caught early. But that's where the good ends. Vast majority of cases present the infamous circle. But some don't. And if you got the circle in a hard-to-notice spot, it's easy to miss it (it will a month or two into infection) too. First precaution is to check your legs (and possibly torso/hands) for ticks after passing through high grass. And whole body after coming from the woods. The nasty bit is you may bring ticks home, they stay active for a while and they may bite someone else. If you get a rash in a weird spot and you've been out in the woods in the past 48 hours, check it out thoroughly. You may have a tick there. I've had countless ticks hiding in weird places that I found due to weird itchy-rashy feeling. Once you get the tick, remove it in a safe manner asap. Lyme is transferred after the tick is done feeding and about to take off. Which is ~48 hours. Personally Lyme Encephalitis is much scarier. Not as common, but long term effects are much more likely and even worse. On the bright side, there's a vaccine for it.

burntwater 5y ago
Mostly good advice, except for the one comment: >Vast majority of cases present the infamous circle. But some don't. I believe it's actually the other way around, only 20-30% of cases show the "typical" bullseye.
- mantas 5y ago
  IIRC 20-30% is for the picturesque classic bullseye. A small amount of cases have no skin indication at all. And the rest get various other rashes. Maybe circley without gradient, maybe bullseye-ish square, maybe just a random redness. Itchiness may or may not be there too. Personally I had Lyme twice. Neither was 100% bullseye. The first that I let stay for a while before realising what is going on had little bullseye-ish gradient and was a perfect circle. It took some time to develop the gradient. Next time I realised what is going on very early and all I had was a red patch. I don't know if it would have developed the pattern if I didn't take antibiotics literally the next day after little redness appeared at the tick bite location.
giantg2 5y ago
And Lyme nephritis.
d4rkp4ttern 5y ago
Should we assume we are safe if we go hiking in a place where we never brushed against any plants or grass or twigs? In other words we went through woods but only stayed on wide open trails. I assume ticks don’t “fly” in the air ?
- inglor_cz 5y ago
  Ticks don't fly and they generally dislike sunlit or dry places. They will mostly lurk in darker, wetter places, up to 3 feet from the ground. So a shady tree patch with overgrown grass at the edge of a swamp or creek is much more likely to be thoroughly infested than other places. Use a repelent, wear some light-colored clothes to spot a crawling tick easily, tuck the (long!) trousers into your hiking shoes and you should be OK.
  - jmnicolas 5y ago
    > Use a repelent AFAIK permethrin is the only available repellent for ticks but please be aware that it provokes blindness in cats.
    - lwn 5y ago
      'Deet' is also available as repellent against ticks, although less effective. Permethrin is (also) extremely toxic to fish and aquatic life.
- jonstewart 5y ago
  They like to crawl up and can do so from your ankles/feet, so it’s not a safe assumption. I spray my hiking boots and socks with deet. If I am going to get into brush, I wear permethrin-laced hiking pants and I tuck the cuffs into my socks. Then I take a shower after coming in from outside. Deer ticks can be tiny, much smaller than wood/dog ticks so just checking yourself isn’t a great form of protection.
- darkerside 5y ago
  Ticks jump quite a distance. I wouldn't use that as the sole basis for assuming I was safe.

snemvalts 5y ago

It's nothing compared to the other tick disease: tick borne encephalitis. Thankfully there's a vaccine against that

thatcat 5y ago
Though it's not available in the US.
- littlestymaar 5y ago
  From the Wikipedia article about that disease [1] it seams the disease isn't prevent in the US, so it wouldn't make sense to get vaccinated against it there (like European people who aren't vaccinated against yellow fever by default). [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick-borne_encephalitis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick-borne_encephalitis
  - thatcat 5y ago
    Lyme disease is not the same as tick-borne encephalitis. Lymerix was a vaccine approved by FDA in US in 1998 because lyme is pretty common in Appalachia, but it was taken off the market. Dogs are recommended to receive a lyme vaccine here, but it's not available to people.
- DennisP 5y ago
  The FDA has licensed a vaccine for tick-borne encephalitis: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/tickborne-encephalitis https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/tickborne-encephalitis The disease appears to be a problem mainly in Europe and Asia, but if you're planning a camping trip in those areas it looks like you can ask a doctor for the vaccine. You also can get the disease from unpasteurized dairy products.
junon 5y ago
Is that the one that makes you deathly allergic to beef or something?
- 5y ago

halfmatthalfcat 5y ago

Just don't go meandering in backwoods. You're not going to get it in any urban environment.