Lyme disease is the most common vector borne illness in
the country.
Often it transmits to humans through tick bites.
Here to tell us some of the best ways to
protect yourself from the disease is Doctor Robert Orlino with
Ballot Health.
Doctor Orlino, thank you for joining us today.
Thank you for inviting me.
Well, we know it's very important to talk about this
for so many reasons,
but it is getting warmer outside and so folks are
going to be going out more and more.
So let's start with the basics.
What is Lyme disease? Lyme disease is a
tick borne disease and typically
it it, it occurs this time of season
and typically it can affect children,
it can affect adults and it's important to be aware
of that.
So you could check yourself.
Let's talk a little bit about what some of the
symptoms are and how it is diagnosed.
OK. As far as symptoms go,
the very first symptom that usually appears is a target
rash,
what we in medical jog and call erythema migrants.
And eventually that gets a little bit bigger.
People become concerned and then will come in to be
evaluated.
In some cases, they actually have a tick that bites
them,
and then they'll come in and say there's a tick
here,
Can you remove it? There are different stages of the
disease.
That's the initial, the latter part can affect the heart,
can affect the nervous system
and the very latent part of the disease can affect
the the joints where they develop arthritis and severe neurological
disorders.
So it's important to get diagnosed and treated early,
early treatment, better outcomes. Speaking of treatment,
what are some of the treatment options?
Typically treatment is mainly antimicrobial therapy,
antibiotics. So we typically do that
and in some cases, depending on how severe the disease
is,
we may have to use intravenous type of antibiotics.
And we know that there are other types of tick
borne illnesses.
Lyme disease is the only one.
So let's talk about some of those.
Well, in different parts of Virginia,
there's Rocky Mountain Spotted fever where you can get a
lot of
Myalgia's fever, usually a rash that starts in the lower
extremity and moves its way up.
There's another entity called Babesia,
which can cause a lot of blood disorders along with
the symptoms that I previously described
or Lichia is another form all tick
born. So a lot of it basically is the presentation
and symptoms.
And let's talk about some safety tips.
Like I mentioned before, it's getting warmer out.
We know folks are going to be out hiking,
camping, doing all those fun things.
So what are some ways that they can protect themselves?
Well, I think once you come out from the outdoors,
particularly if you've been in a wooded area,
it's pretty common to take your clothes off,
take a shower. If you have children,
look to make sure you don't see any evidence of
any ticks.
If you do see ticks,
don't panic. If they're running around,
you could just flake them off that they do not
'cause Lyme disease, But if they're embedded and you're concerned,
then that's the time to
get evaluated. Now, are there any certain spots that people
should be more aware of?
Like are they prone to go maybe to the head
versus the ankle?
Yeah. Most people that walk in the grass
or or in the wooded area,
usually it'll be lower extremities.
Children, you'll find it up higher,
usually in the the head of the face because they
tend to be shorter.
So basically a lot of times they may or may
not realize that they have ticks until they notice
the the tick on them.
Well, great tips and such important information.
Doctor Orlino, thank you so much for joining us here
on 1st at 4:00.