Tick Borne Diseases (Lyme Disease) Borreliosis

[Solar Wood]

We visited a stand at the Outdoor Show that was manned by a lady who was using a wheelchair after being disabled by a tick.

Considering that we don't often strip naked in the woods to check if we have ticks attached, we now think we probably should do. Visit http://www.bada-uk.org for more information to protect yourselves.

[martingarwood]

Lyme disease is becoming much more common and is a serious disease if not caught early and cured with a straightforward course of antibiotics. My own experience came after a holiday in Sweden several years ago. I normally get bitten rotten by mozzies anyway but i had one particular bite that did not stop itching/being inflamed several weeks on. My wife first noticed (while I was sat in the bath) that the site of the bite had a distinct red ring around it, like a bulls eye. My GP tried me on anti-fungal cream and steroids over several more weeks as the ring moved out and out until it had a circumferance of about 10 cms..in the end she made the right diagnosis, her first in Tonbridge and I was quickly treated with antibiotics.... as far as I know I had no long term effects. The disease was probably the result of a deer tick and as deer get more common so the prediction is that the disease will spread in the UK. The inflammed ring is very diagnostic and as in my case the chances are that it will be out of your own view so getting a friend to check you over is no bad thing !....as is getting informed.....

[greyman]

This has become a concern of mine recently too - we have plenty of visiting deer and the ticks do not have to actually be on the deer at the time for one to be 'got' by them. The HSE has recently published the following:

Leptospirosis information (If you have streams or ditches you may have the rats that carry the Wiels disease)

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg84.pdf

Lymes disease (deer farming is one of the leaflets)

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/ais7.pdf

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/iacl102.pdf

[tracy]

There is a good article on Lymes disease here:

http://www.confor.org.uk/Information/Default.aspx?pid=161