Lyme disease is carried by the tiny black-legged tick and can be deadly if undiagnosed
Lisa Ali Learning, seen here at Queensland Beach Provincial Park, N.S., with her sons Darien, left, and Lucas, runs a small business selling tick kits following her two sons' serious cases of Lyme disease, May 23, 2020.As Canadians rush outdoors after weeks in lockdown, researchers and public-health officials warn of a less novel, but ever-increasing infectious villain waiting for them in the woods: the black-legged ticks.
The doctors involved with the cases say that they are trying to raise awareness both of the need for prevention by the public and vigilance for physicians, especially those in rural emergency departments. If you spend time in nature where the presence of ticks is high – which includes the entire province of Nova Scotia, swathes of Manitoba, much of Vancouver Island, as well as areas in and around cities such as Ottawa and Toronto – conduct a tick check each night. Unlike mosquitoes, ticks often don’t sting when they latch on to a host. They can be as small as a grain of sand, so easily overlooked.
This depends, however, on doctors identifying cases quickly, which can be complicated because people may not remember being bitten, and the symptoms of Lyme often resemble those of other illnesses. What’s more, only about half of the people bitten by a tick get the classic bulls-eye rash, Dr. Baranchuk said. In the case of his female patient, her rash appeared as a reddish blotch and was first treated as cellulitus, a common skin infection.
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