Lyme disease & touring
 

Lyme disease is spreading in the US. Here in North Carolina, we were basically lyme-free until 2 years ago, & now 5 of our counties are affected. Due to climate change & more deer, the US disease incidence rate per 100,000 people has increased 100% in the past 25 years (900% in the UK).

Many Christians, like me, are taking steps to slow down climate change:
*reduce/reuse/recycle
*vote for environmental justice & responsibility
*replace car miles with bicycle miles
*...
However, if humanity wants to avoid the worst effects, including huge lyme disease outbreaks, everybody needs to change their lifestyles & voting.

To minimize my lyme risk while bike camping (esp. in MD, PA & NY), I have shaved off almost all my head hair & body hair. Liberal uses of insect repellent on skin & permethrin on clothes. Having friends check me for ticks every day. Camping only in early spring & late fall. However, I still don't really feel that safe.

Have you camped in areas with much lyme? Been infected? What precautions are you taking?

Wait for it...

Spray your tent and stuff with permethrin, be aware.... and most importantly --> chill.

Nature is WAY LESS dangerous than the cars & trucks out there.

I just dress up like a dog and get a vaccine for Lyme at the vet.

So Lyme spread to North Carolina from Connecticut due to climate change?

Hasn't been a big concern for me personally, but I do make a reasonable effort to look for ticks when hiking and camping. Lived in NJ during the '90s and helped with Girl Scout outings when our daughter was young. We sent ticks we found to the state lab for testing and did get back a number of reports that they were positive for Lyme. Fortunately none of the girls ever developed symptoms.

Haven't encountered nearly as many ticks since moving to California - in fact I haven't found any on myself in over 20 years.

Politics, religion and snarky replies aside.... I have been exposed to to deer ticks(Lyme disease host) for the last 25 years. It is all about reasonable precautions. I don't wear shorts in fields or woods and I check myself everyday if out touring,hiking,hunting or camping. I wear a hat to limit the exposure to my scalp. I use deet based repellents in higher risk areas. I still have gotten a few tick bites but I kept a close watch for symptoms . So far, so good.

Despite the deeply bizarre and surreal OP, Lyme disease is a huge problem, and the tick that is the vector can easily go completely unnoticed. My father-in-law got it somehow, and it went undiagnosed until it had done severe damage to his knees and heart, and I have heard of other instances where it can cause major cognitive damage as well. It is pretty much everywhere in the US at this point.

cf: https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/index.html

Blaming the spread of Lyme southwards on climate change is a bit of a stretch. If anything, warming in the Northern Hemisphere would spread it to the north.

But yes, the areas where Lyme is a problem are spreading outward from the epicenter in CT.

However, it's not time to panic or go crazy with worry. Stay out of high grass, and other places where you can pick up ticks, use insect repellent, and be highly cued in to possible early symptoms.

Maybe the most important thing to do is be sure your doctor knows you were in a Lyme hot spot, especially if you traveled there form places where Lyme isn't common. Then be ready to fight for good testing and treatment, because doctors can be very slow in mounting an assault of the disease. I know of at least one case, where local doctors ignored the possibility of Lyme for over one year in the face of multiple clues, and this was even in a county with Lyme alerts posted all over.

Fortunately not yet prevalent in my area. I live in the woods and get a tick or two a week in the summer. There's really no avoiding them.

Lyme's disease has also spread across southern Canada, including eastern and
central British Columbia. I personally know of a young lady that got bit early last
fall and still is suffering terribly as she very slowly improves even though she has
great medical care. She was bit on the back of her neck by a tiny juvenile tick.
For some unknown reason, we in Canada can't legally buy the Permethrin readily
available in the States even though our Armed Forces use it. When cycling and camping
in areas known to be a problem I use insect repellent and constantly check myself.
The really small ones the size of a pin head are very hard to notice and they are noted
to cause a lot of the problems.

Please refrain from using images of persons who appear to have developmental disabilities to make your snarky point.
Not funny.

What does your religion have to do with climate change, Lyme disease, or bike touring? Why are you even mentioning your religion in a bike touring forum?

Uh...ive always known the meme to be of a grandmother and her niece released the pic that went viral.
If the woman is developmentally disabled, i didnt know and never heard of that.

As for the snark- well really. That post was all over the place, referenced Christianity for no apparent reason, and there were some seriously hardcore decisions made for what is statistically a small issue. It deserved a 'wat'.

Sorry that pic of a woman was offensive.
Here is Beaker in a much less threatening meme.
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...75/025/866.jpg

A few years ago the standard protocol for ticks was a prophylactic dose of doxycycline . It might be a good idea to carry some along with you and take the dose if you find a tick that has been feeding on you. But talk to a doctor knowledgeable about Lyme disease first.

There are other tick borne diseases besides Lyme, so be alert.

Ticks are active at temperatures above 50° F. whatever the season.

Admirable sentiments. Here's some information to help you make a real difference...

Thx for all the great advice, everybody. I'll try to respond more thoughtfully soon, but on the connection between climate change & lyme, see
https://www.vox.com/science-and-heal...global-warming
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicato...s-lyme-disease
Will Climate Change Help Ticks And Mosquitoes Spread Disease : Goats and Soda : NPR
Apologies to the person who thought anything about my OP was insensitive or whatever.

I have seen literally dozens of ticks crawling over the ice at the bottom of a frozen waterfall
by Pavilion Lake in BC. In BC's Interior and Okanagan the worst time seems to be during March
through to Early June which seems to be their most active breeding season.

My wife was bitten and infected prior to the medical and health professionals acknowledging that our county had any Lyme's. It took 8 months to reach a correct diagnosis during which the disease severely injured her knee joints,brought on severe fatigue symptoms (to the point of just being able to get up in the morning, drag through a work day, and then collapse into bed at night), and other issues. I seriously thought she was going to die. A very prolonged treatment plan of name-brand doxycycline restored most of her health. Her knees, though, never recovered.

Be very cognizant of the ticks, deer, and mice that vector the disease.

I think someone is just ticked off...LOL

Sorry to hear about your wife, and hopefully her knees aren't too bad.

However, this is still a problem. Doctors are slow to acknowledge and properly test for and treat Lyme. I know of a few cases here in NYS, that were comparably mismanaged, despite being in areas known for Lyme at the time.

If you suspect a decent possibility of having Lyme, you need to be assertive with your doctor, especially if you travel because your local doctor may not be considering the possibility.

I have lyme and am sure there are things you can do to better your odds but the only bulletproof method is to stay inside. What does voting or Christianity have to do w/lyme?

Were they the deer ticks that carry Lyme? I have found deer ticks on my clothing on a warm winter day even though there was snow on the ground.

As to the OP's idea that global warming has caused lyme disease to move South to NC, I'm puzzled. It makes sense to blame global warming for the northward progress of Lyme from Southern NE to northern NE and Canada, but NC has always been warmer than NE.

Maybe it's the deer.

Doxy
 

Thanks, Ironwood, but my understanding is that, while in some countries Doxycycline is available without a doctors prescription, in the US it is available only with a prescription.


Since it's an antibiotic, I can see why a prescription would be needed. Over-use of ABX leads to medication-resistant strains of bugs.

It is a really hard thing to diagnose. I was tested multiple times and the 1st couple were all different.

FYI to all...there are other ticks out there. Texas tick and some other that hides under your skin.

Just another person trying to get in a dig...