Columnists
Tick talk
Summer is in full swing. The grass is thick and lush, the woods are full of songbirds, the beaches— well, the beaches around here have lost some of their lustre and a good amount of space thanks to a particularly wet spring, but that’s not to say they aren’t worth a visit. Starting next week, school is out and kids will, or at least should, be taking full advantage of the weather. If they do as kids should, they will get into mud, roll in grass, dip through bushes and just generally come home filthy.
This is a good thing, for the most part. Parents might groan at muddy, ruined shoes and clothing, but those active kids get important exercise, are exposed to the antigens that current research suggests mitigates the risk of allergy and infections and activates parts of their brains that will (figuratively) atrophy at a classroom desk.
Along with all these healthful benefits, there is the benefit of allowing kids to have fun and explore their environments. But there are also tiny little dangers. And they’re multiplying.
Ticks are tiny little creatures, about the size of a sesame seed. The tiny parasitic arachnids are common around the world. They have a lot in common with mosquitoes—they feed on blood, have existed around the world for about 100 million years and are generally seen as a minor nuisance. But like mosquitoes, ticks also have the potential to pass infections from one host to another.
Around here, hard-bodied ticks are plentiful. They wait, two of their eight arms outstretched, for some thin-skinned creature to brush by. Their strong, tiny mouthparts will burrow a hole in that thin skin so small most people don’t even notice, and tuck in for a meal that can last up to a week.
The deer tick, or black-legged tick, is one that has spread so thoroughly into our region that our public health department has stopped bothering to count and collect samples from Prince Edward County, conceding that variety of tick, and the bacteria many among its numbers carry, is endemic. Public Health has also noted a climbing rate of incidents of Borrelia Burgdorferi (commonly referred to as Lyme disease) in the area.
There are warnings, in local media like this, in libraries and other municipal buildings, in hospitals and at the doctor’s office, about ticks and how to avoid them, how to remove them, what to look for if you suspect Lyme disease. The problem is well recognized.
And yet the disease itself—with vague symptoms often misdiagnosed as other less treatable maladies, especially if a tick is not spotted and removed before it passes on its germs—is poorly understood. Public Health makes no recommendations to doctors for an entrenched case, only to treat with antibiotics for recent and suspected cases. By the time the worst of the symptoms appear, most doctors are at a loss for treatment options. Patients are left searching elsewhere. One member of our community reports spending thousands of dollars every year seeking treatment in the US.
It’s a bizarre situation. Many rare diseases are not studied well enough to offer cures. But if our healthcare system is admitting this is no longer rare, if it’s something parents have to worry about every time their kids head out to play this summer, how can there be so little understanding about what to do?
Comments (0)