• Hikermick@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    I’m up to 9 so far this year

    Keep in mind that even after checking yourself after being in the out doors they may still be on your clothes or in your hair. Check yourself again the next day. It takes them awhile to burrow in

    • GooberEar@lemmy.wtf
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      28 days ago

      Also, if you have pets that go outside, such as a dog you take for walks, you need to check them even if they are on flea and tick prevention. Ticks are more than glad to hitchhike indoors on pets and then later decide to rehome themselves onto a human.

    • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
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      28 days ago

      Mind you, they’re sometimes happy to burrow in even when they have hair around them. It really takes a friend and a comb to be sure.

  • pezhore@infosec.pub
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    28 days ago

    My 75 year old dad got a tick bite and ignored it for three days of fever over 101, no appetite, and severely weak before finally getting antibiotics.

    He doesn’t believe in global warming.

  • bob_lemon@feddit.org
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    28 days ago

    Do ticks in America not carry encephalitis (like they do in central/eastern Europe)?Because that’s way more dangerous than Lyme disease. I find it weird that it isn’t mentioned at all, nor the vaccination against it.

    • kautau@lemmy.world
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      28 days ago

      I would go to the CDC to check but that’s been deleted. We’ve solved it by removing the webpage

      https://www.cdc.gov/tick-borne-encephalitis/index.html

      I’m kidding, but it certainly seems to be a thing that people should be aware of.

      That being said I think the scary thing about Lyme disease is the symptoms aren’t crazy strong at the beginning, and easy to misattribute if you miss the tick. But if you don’t treat it early it can really fuck you up.

      I got bit by a tick years ago when I was 16, right above my belt buckle. Had a generalized rash, and my doctor said it was because of an allergic reaction to my belt buckle and prescribed me steroid cream. Basically had to demand a Lyme test just in case and tested positive.

      • bob_lemon@feddit.org
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        28 days ago

        Dang, what a shitty doctor.

        Although I think my perspective is a bit skewed, having grown up in a tick hotspot here in Germany. Everyone is aware of ticks here, pretty sure it’s taught in elementary school. And the encephalitis vaccine is pretty much standard, too.

      • bob_lemon@feddit.org
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        28 days ago

        It’s probably a good general advice to ask your doctor for “local” vaccinations whenever you move.

        The encephalitis vaccine is very common here in southern Germany, but usually skipped in the north where ticks are quite uncommon (which is reasonable, since it’s pretty aggressive, being sick for a day or two after the jab is not unlikely).

      • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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        28 days ago

        There is no vaccine for Lyme that’s available to the public. Hopefully there will be one soon though. My wife and I have been volunteering for a Lyme vaccine trial for the past two years.

    • altphoto@lemmy.today
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      28 days ago

      Oh that’s great. Fantastic. Can someone please feel the need to bring one of these into the country for observation or whatever people bring ticks for?

      That’s one thing this country needs desperately right now… Some big problem or some sort. We’ve apparently ran out of problems and are actively looking for them as we speak.

  • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    Isn’t there a theory that Lyme disease was created by the government on an island… And that it’s where all these ticks originally came from?

    I don’t even recall whether it’s theory or historical fact.

    Edit:

    “The US House of Representatives has called for an investigation into whether the spread of Lyme disease had its roots in a Pentagon experiment in weaponising ticks.”

    The review would have to assess the scope of the experiment and “whether any ticks or insects used in such experiment were released outside of any laboratory by accident or experiment design”. -Guardian article

    • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
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      28 days ago

      Its definitely not fact. Its a naturally occurring disease which used to have a more geographically limited distribution.

    • Mobiuthuselah@lemm.ee
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      28 days ago

      In response to your edit, there’s no evidence of that and there’s plenty of evidence that the bacteria existed in North America before humans.

    • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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      28 days ago

      I recognize that Congress has asked for the investigaton, but Congress is also run by low-grade morons.

      https://now.tufts.edu/2019/07/18/lyme-bacterium-predates-us-lab-conspiracy-theorists-say-unleashed-ticks-public

      "It turned out that the bacterium was circulating in wildlife long before Lyme disease became a known illness in humans. Ticks collected in 1945 from the eastern end of Long Island and mice collected in 1894 on Cape Cod were found to be infected with B. burgdorferi.

      This means that B. burgdorferi already existed in wildlife on Long Island—neighbor to Plum Island—for nearly ten years and on Cape Cod for fifty years before the time period in question.  And Ft. Terry, the predecessor to the Plum Island facility, wasn’t even activated by the Army Chemical Corps until 1952, noted Telford."

    • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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      28 days ago

      Theory and historical fact are weird that suggest a scientific approach, which had nothing to do with what you quoted.