May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month
Lyme is the most prevalent vector-borne disease and one of the fastest spreading diseases throughout the United States, and the subjects of diagnosis and treatment of Lyme are politically-charged.
This series of diaries is designed to provide information to the Daily Kos community both for Lyme disease prevention and for those Kossacks living with Lyme. Because the disease is often missed by physicians, these diaries may assist an individual or two in pursuing testing which might otherwise have been missed.
The Lyme Disease Awareness series will be eclectic including personal statements, informational pieces about the science of Lyme, and calls to action for community and political advocacy.
We hope you'll all join us in learning about this rampant disease and the medical/industrial/political morass in which Lyme patients find themselves.
Collect the complete set of diaries at LymeDiseaseAwareness
Today's diary by: 42 LymeDiseaseAwareness
Know the Adversary: Part 1
Lyme Disease Ticks: Waterboard Survivalists
As climate and current land-use changes benefit an increasing tick population, it is becoming all too easy to have an unfortunate encounter with these parasitic creatures and the diseases they may transmit. For centuries, ticks have been a known scourge. Even Aristotle called them disgusting parasitic animals. Plain and simple, ticks are hardy creatures and cesspools of disease.
[Lyme disease is primarily contracted by a bite of a deer tick. While there are less frequent modes of transmission, for the purposes of this 2 part diary, we will deal primarily with learning more about a formidable adversary, the hard-shell tick.]
Just How Dangerous Are They?
The US Government takes ticks and their potential for transmitting disease VERY seriously! Some, diseases, like Lyme and Tuleremia are considered potential bio-warfare material.
In September, LDA (Lyme Disease Association) met with US Army CHPPM (Centers for Health Promotion & Preventive Medicine) at Aberdeen Proving Grounds where they are testing ticks from military bases for Lyme and other tick-borne diseases such as RMSF, Ehrlichiosis, Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, and STARI (Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness) a Lyme-like disease carried by the Lonestar tick. The army has also developed a laptop sized testing device which can be used in the field for PCR testing of ticks so that those bitten can immediately know if the tick carries Lyme disease and can receive treatment if necessary. US Army CHPPM has patented the device and is in discussions with a private company to produce the product.
Since the late 80’s, CHPPM has mapped all the major military installations in the country for tick populations and has created risk assessments for Lyme disease at each installation. Now CHPPM is doing the same for tick infectivity rates. The information can be beamed to satellites and then eventually to handheld receivers to be carried in the field, advising the troops where the population and infectivity rates of ticks are high, so they may maneuver troops around high risk areas. CHPPM has recently used the GIS tick data on its Virginia Ft. A.P. Hill installation which hosts the Boy Scout jamboree to determine where ticks were located so they could map and spray those areas for ticks before the Scouts arrived.
TESTIMONY TO MASSACHUSETTS COMBINED HEALTH COMMITTEE
-- Pat Smith, President, Lyme Disease Association, Inc. 10-12-05
The aforementioned Army Lyme Disease Risk Assessments can be found here.
NASA's Mission to Planet Earth in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been mapping tick habitats by remote sensing for a number of years and has documented:
that the habitat availability for I. scapularis [the black legged deer tick most responsible for Lyme Disease] in the United States is undergoing geographic changes, allowing the development and survival of this tick in zones where 20 years ago the habitat was unsuitable.
Interesting Facts about Ticks
• They are "positively geotropic," they instinctively move opposite of gravity!
• Ticks respond to stimuli: they are attracted to C02, scent and/or body heat.
• Lone Star ticks (Amblyomma americanum) are fast – they have been timed climbing to the top of a 6 ft person in 20 seconds. They are also a very aggressive tick when in pursuit of a meal. Researchers placed a block of dry ice on the ground, and watched as the lone star ticks changed directions and headed quickly toward the CO2 source.
• Anyone can be bitten/infected on any warm day of any month of the year! Unfed adult ticks are active in winter (temp. above 33 degrees) - even with snow on the ground. They have been observed crawling over snow!
• Ticks rarely move above 3 feet from ground level; they can not jump or fly, but have been found in branches of trees, if dislodged from a bird or other host animal.
• A hard-bodied tick can live as long as 3 years without a meal.
• Washing clothes or flushing ticks down the toilet are of no help in getting rid of them.
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In one study a nymphal tick was kept under water at temperatures near freezing for 160 days. It was good as new and anxious as ever to find a meal when it was at last free of the water torture.
• However, ticks are very susceptible to drying out. Place clothes worn outdoors in a hot dryer for a good 45 minutes to an hour. If the tick is tucked into a seam, a short exposure in the dryer won’t kill it.
• Most ticks feed on non-human animals. They prefer mice, birds, deer, shrews, chipmunks, and squirrels. These other animal hosts maintain the disease pathogens for the ticks to acquire, in particular the white-footed mouse. Ticks pick up the infection from them!
• While mice and deer can harbor all strains of the Lyme spirochete, the other vectors only harbor some, not all. While deer carry large numbers of ticks for long distances before they drop off, mice are more plentiful and are the primary culprit in transmitting disease pathogens.
• Dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis) generally do not transmit Lyme Disease. The spirochetes cannot survive the molting between this ticks' life stages. However they can transmit other dangerous diseases like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
So, What Good Are Ticks?
Believe it or not, scientists find ticks fascinating. They secrete an anti-coagulant preventing blood from clotting, as well as an adhesive that keeps them attached to their 'meal'. Ticks inject an anesthetic to prevent their host from feeling their bite. They also release a suppressant to reduce the host’s immune and inflammatory response - And of course all of these chemicals are now patented.
Is it any wonder that so many people never notice a small deer tick or it's bite?