About 8 weeks ago I was bitten by a tick and contrived Lyme Disease and I put my story up on YouTube to try to help others, let's just day it's a crazy ride downhill if you neglect the bacterial infection.
Immune response to the proteins in tick salvia create both a painful skin reaction and kill the tick.
Next, mosquitoes...kissing bugs...leeches.
"Swimmer's Itch" is caused by a small worm-like parasites called schistosomes that die when it tries to enter and live in human skin. Pretty sure this is an immune response too.
Most of the ticks I find attached are dead, as well. That isn't my recollection from when I was a child. However, I don't often experience the persistent welt described in TFA.
I live in a northern country. I spoke to an elderly woman the other day who told me about the first time she saw a tick, back in the 50's, I believe.
A friend of her's showed it to her, and neither had any idea what it was. They ran to a doctor's office.
She explained that there weren't really that many ticks around at the time for them to even enter public awareness. Over a few decades, they started to appear in greater numbers, seemingly traveling northwards.
I live in post-USSR country. Our parents did not care much about ticks either, USSR sprayed fields and forests with DDT which eradicated ticks and related diseases. This practice eventually stopped because DDT apparently was not that safe and now ticks are widely spread in many areas where people did not hear about them before. I never saw ticks in my childhood (I was born in 1987) despite the fact that I spent lots of time outdoors, in villages and so on. But this year tick bite me first time, so that's something new for me as well. I visited hospital and they did some injection, so I guess I'm safe, but I'm planning to get an encephalitis vaccine next year. According to local news, people are getting ill from both encephalitis and Lime disease because of tick bites.
This hyper-connected world brings new challenges every year.
Lyme is so prevalent... So much suffering could have been prevented, if weren't for these lawsuits.
FTA
> That's what happened with the last Lyme vaccine.
> Lymerix was approved and released in 1998 and gone — off the market — in fewer than four years.
> Some believed the vaccine caused early onset arthritis, and that in turn led to a class-action lawsuit.
> Its maker pulled the vaccine, citing poor sales, despite the fact that a 2001 U.S. Food and Drug Administration study found no link between Lymerix and early or late onset arthritis.
A lot of things were apparently poorly handled with Lymerix and it also apparently wasn't a great vaccine. Lyme was also not broadly seen as a big problem at the time.
The good news is that Pfizer has an mRNA Lyme vaccine in clinical trials.
Lyme disease can be treated pretty effectively with penicillin. Maybe instead of blaming the lawyers, we should blame penicillin. :) Sometimes having a safe, low cost treatment prevents the development or adoption of a preventative medicine or vaccine. One can imagine possible parallels to the present.
What if you don’t know you have it until it’s too late?
The bullseye mark only occurs in 70% or so cases. And if you have been bitten in the arm pit or your but crack, you might even miss the telltale rash entirely.
Also two weeks of doxycycline (or any antibiotic for that matter) isn’t fun.
AFAIK Doxycycline is more common for deer ticks. But having to get treatment after a random walk in the woods as can be the case where I live isn’t very practical.
I also wonder what percentage of the population would truly be worried about ticks in the developed world. I have, afaik, have never been bitten by one or had much concern that I might.
Where I'm at, anyone who likes to inhabit the outdoors. All the woods, riverbanks, hiking trails are thick with them. Any kind of natural space with tall grass or trees.
In the tick seasons, I have ticks on me a few times per week. I usually feel them before they bite, though.
My dog gets bitten a lot (has a collar now) but why are you getting bitten?
I was told ticks don't fall from the trees, as I assumed, but linger in the grass and then walk up your legs. Stuffing your trousers into your socks should prevent most of them, no?
I think this depends largely on your location. I live in northwestern Oregon, and whereas there are ticks here, they aren't very prevalent. Despite constantly knocking about in the brush, I have yet to get a tick either.
As a basement-dweller myself, I also got a few ticks from my cat. He collects them in his fur, comes inside to feed, sleep and cuddle, and sometimes a tick decides that I'm yummier than the cat.
Dog-owners do report the same problem, at least if the animal is allowed close contact with humans for more than a few seconds apiece.
They're less common in the US West but they're widespread in the East. (Especially further south but they're spreading.) Many are dog ticks (larger) which are less problematic but not unproblematic. They're far from some barely existent bogeyman. I've had a good dozen or so on me this summer even being careful.
I know there's thousands where I live in Louisiana, as well. "Developed" doesn't matter, just a place where squirrels or whatever are is enough to have ticks too.
I've never had a tick attach to me, but I have squished them climbing up my pants after coming inside, and obviously dogs collect them like pokemon.
very much relies on where you live. For instance if you live near the coast in southern parts of Norway and go for a hike you should allways check for ticks afterwards. I usually just take a shower as soon as I get back home to make sure i get them off before they bite.
It is not uncommon to find multiple ticks on your clothes if you have been walking in tall grass. But they usually take quite a while before they find a spot to bite. So if you take some precautions it is not a big problem.
In Southern Germany, the vaccine against tick-borne encephalitis ("FSME") is one of the standard vaccines that is administered to almost everyone growing up, with booster shots every 10 years or so.
Emphasis should be on tick-bite prevention. I have never had live tick on me and have been literally wallowing on all tick-infested areas of northern hemisphere. They just die. Most probably just drop off, but sometimes there is dead tick only slightly attached. Looks like they die on first drop of blood.
I mean of course that I have never had a tick which managed to suck anything, except once in 1955.
Also I remember being drunk and watching Ixodes Ricinus move along my arm and trying to stick its nose thru skin. Everytime it backed up real fast, like it found something nasty inside. Very much the same thing as American Deer Tick Ixodes scapularis.
the dog lyme vaccine is actually identical to the Lymerix one that was for humans and discontinued in early 2000s. I've heard of people buying the dog vaccines and injecting it themselves. But you have to do it 3 times and booster shot every year before tick season
https://youtu.be/xbPr7DHwSIw (skip to 1:35 to hear about Lyme and not Fermenting grains for chickens.)
In the video I talk about the treatment I followed to recover.