Wear long-sleeved, light-colored clothing, with tightly woven fabric when going outdoors.Ticks like grassy, brushy and wooded areas, so take extra precautions when spending time in these spaces. Understand where to find ticks in your community and your own yard.Until then, follow these tips to protect yourself and your family. While there is no vaccine currently available for Lyme disease, clinical trials are under way to develop one. The best way to avoid Lyme disease is to prevent the tick bites that cause it. If your symptoms progress despite treatment, do not hesitate to contact your healthcare provider. In addition to your doctor’s guidance, you can take the following steps on your own to help yourself recover from Lyme disease. There are a variety of effective treatments available for Lyme Disease, so it is important to seek medical attention from a qualified healthcare provider to find the best option for you. If you have a more severe case of Lyme disease, your doctor may prescribe intravenous antibiotics, administered via injections. This will ensure all the bacteria are killed. Be sure to finish your medication as prescribed, even if your symptoms go away. If you do have Lyme disease, you doctor will typically treat it with antibiotics. If Lyme disease is suspected, they will perform blood tests to officially diagnose the condition. If you think you might have Lyme disease, your healthcare provider will evaluate your symptoms, look at physical findings and learn more about any potential exposure to ticks. Lyme disease can be difficult to diagnose, given that many of the symptoms can be associated with other common conditions. If you begin to experience any symptoms of Lyme disease, contact your healthcare provider to be evaluated as soon as possible. After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol or gentle soap and warm water.If you cannot remove the mouth easily with tweezers, leave it alone and let the skin heal. If this happens, remove the mouth-parts with tweezers. Don’t twist or jerk the tick this can cause the mouth-parts to break off and remain in the skin. Pull upward with steady, even pressure.Use clean, fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin’s surface as possible.If you find a tick attached to your or someone else’s skin, immediately remove it by following these steps from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you’ve been exposed to a tick and are experiencing any of these symptoms, it is important to see a doctor as soon as possible. Other symptoms common with Lyme disease include: This rash will typically appear within one to two weeks after the tick bite. These bites can be easy to miss, however, because ticks often bite in dark body folds, like the groin, armpit, behind the ears or on the scalp. Lyme disease is most associated with the characteristic bullseye-shaped red rash that appears after being bitten by an infected tick. Early diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease are critical to preventing these complications. If left untreated, Lyme disease can spread to your heart and nervous system, causing potentially life-threatening neurologic and cardiac problems. It’s the most common infection passed to humans and other animals by blood-feeding bugs, like mosquitos, ticks and fleas. Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that can be transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected tick. Here’s what families need to know to treat Lyme disease quickly and to prevent infection in the first place. But if the tick that bites you happens to be carrying Lyme disease, the side effects can be devastating – and, in rare cases, even cause death – when left untreated.Īs a family medicine physician in Tallahassee, I’ve cared for many patients who present to my office with what are or appear to be tick bites, some of whom have contracted Lyme disease. Most tick bites are relatively harmless when caught early. While spring and summer mark peak tick season, the arachnids thrive in warm, wet conditions, so they can be found in Florida year-round. Deer ticks, also known as black-legged ticks, are particularly infamous, as they’re known to spread Lyme disease, a potentially devastating condition when passed on to humans and other animals. If you spend a lot of time outdoors, as many of us North Floridians do, you’re probably familiar with ticks – tiny, blood-sucking bugs that can carry diseases.
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