As much as we all enjoy the warmer seasons we have to be careful of tick bites and the diseases that they cause. These include Lyme disease (most common), Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF), Ehrlichiosis, Babesiosis and Anaplasmosis. Reports of Lyme disease and Babesiosis have been gradually increasing in recent years due to improved electronic laboratory reporting, increased testing and real increases in incidence.

Patients don’t often recall a tick bite and usually transmission of the disease occurs only if a tick is attached for longer than 24 hours. For Lyme disease, Babesiosis and Anaplasmosis, the bacterium or parasite causing the disease are carried by blacklegged or deer ticks; the bacterium causing RMSF is carried by the American dog tick, and Ehrlichiosis by the lone star tick.

How are tick-borne diseases diagnosed? Following a bite, the incubation period before symptoms occur ranges from 1-4 weeks. Cold or flu-like symptoms may develop with fever and gland swelling and for Lyme disease, the presence of a rash called erythema migrans alone is sufficient to make the diagnosis.

If left untreated, more severe late symptoms such as arthritis, carditis and neurologic disease may develop and require laboratory confirmation.

You should make every effort to prevent bites. Wear light-colored clothing, long-sleeved shirts and tuck pant legs into your socks before you enter heavily wooded or endemic areas (avoid where possible). Apply repellents that contain DEET. After returning, check your body everywhere (including armpits, scalp and groin) and use fine-tipped tweezers to remove any ticks (sometimes as small as a poppy seed) followed by soap and water. Also, don’t forget to ask your veterinarian about tick prevention products for your pets and remove leaf litter and debris around your home.

How is Lyme disease treated? Certain guidelines apply for treating the disease with doxycycline, if testing confirms infection. Your provider may also recommend using doxycycline prophylactically if antibiotics can be started within 72 hours of the time a tick is removed following travel to a Lyme-endemic area. As the saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” especially with tick-borne disease, so let’s make this a safe summer for us all.