Is Your Backyard Home to Lyme Disease?

By MEREDITH HAAS/ecoRI News contributor

NORTH KINGSTOWN — Remember rolling around in the yard or running through the woods without the fear of a tick bite causing flu-like symptoms and aching joints?

Lyme disease changed all of that in 1975. It now is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the country, with nearly 400,000 new cases a year, according to Dr. Maria Diuk-Wasser from the Yale School of Public Health.

Diuk-Wasser spoke March 29 during a Rhode Island Historical Survey conference entitled “Trends in Human-Wildlife Interaction.”

Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria transmitted through a tick bite, and is usually accompanied by a rash, fever, headache, fatigue, stiff joints and, if left untreated, can cause serious long-term health issues such as arthritis and heart rhythm irregularity. As we enter prime tick season in late May to early June, what is our actual risk of infection and what are the best ways to protect ourselves?

“There are several determinants of risk that include the number of infected ticks, landscape proxy to forested areas and behaviors, such as tick checking,” said Diuk-Wasser, explaining how the environment and how we interact with it can either decrease or increase the risk of getting Lyme disease.

She presented her findings from a pilot project conducted on Block Island to see what the actual exposure is to Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases such as babesiosis, which can be fatal to those with a weak immune system.

“Many people get sick and don’t know it,” she said. “People don’t know what they have in their backyards.”

Block Island has few trees compared to the rest of the state, so the most common place there to find ticks is in and around shrubs. Risk of exposure is much greater at the shrub edge, however, because that’s where most human activity is, such as gardening or walking the dog.

Heavily fragmented forests due to construction or other land uses that isolate patches of forest were found to increase the risk of contracting Lyme disease, according to Michael McBride, associate veterinarian at Roger Williams Park Zoo.

“This was an unexpected finding,” he said. “I would’ve thought we would see reduced numbers from deer displacement.”

Deer are often thought to be the primary tick carriers, but researchers are finding that fragmented forests reduce larger animals and increase smaller animals such as field mice, which are major tick-carrying culprits.

The best method to protect yourself is to check for ticks if you’ve been outdoors or have pets that go outdoors. “Tick checking significantly reduces risk of exposure,” Diuk-Wasser said.

Additional ways to protect yourself, according to McBride, are to wash your hands after being outside and before eating; observe wildlife from afar; wear proper clothing such as hats and long-sleeved pants and tops; and wear insect repellent.

Comments

[Jodie Donnelly]

Why does this not mention that birds are the widest spread and one of the main carriers of Lyme disease, this is how we and most who have this disease got it, after bird nesting's or being subjucted to large amounts of birds near by, in Australia, the Indian Mynor is the main culprit as they are filthy ground and garbage foraging birds, they are rats with wings and are now rife with the hard and soft ticks, mites and lice and other arthropods that have infected a large part of the Australian population with Lyme disease and co-infections.

Yours sincerely

Jodie Donnelly
An Australian Lyme disease sufferer.

[Rick Laferriere]

An excellent resource for Rhode Islanders on the subject of exposure to ticks and the potential they carry for disease is the Tick Encounter Resource Center at URI. The website is loaded with information on tick identification, prevention, where disease carrying ticks are likely to be found, how to safely remove a tick if you've been bitten and much, much more. http://www.tickencounter.org/

[petey]

It is refreshing to hear someone from Yale, normally a bastion of Lyme-denial, actually admit to the magnitude of this epidemic. Normally the figures cited are about 20,000 cases a year. Dr. Diuck-Wasser admits there are 400,000 cases. Personally, I think 1,000,000 is closer to reality. This epidemic is nothing short of a public health disaster. Most cases go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. People are DYING from this disease. I know four who have died, one was my mother, altho it was never listed on the death certificate. Can you believe there are only THREE DOCTORS in Connecticut that will treat you for chronic Lyme? Doctors won't touch this disease with a ten-foot pole. My own PCP would have just watched me die of this disease if I didn't figure it out myself that I had Lyme. This epidemic will go down in the history books as the biggest medical scandal of all time. Think "Tuskegee Experiment" times a million.

[Jameson]

Lyme sucks, my sister has it and its changed her life. and not for the better. We use Tick Tubes, and have for a few years and think they're great. you just put the cardboard tubes out around the yard in the spring and mice do the work. You don't have to spray, which I like also. I've seen them in some hardware stores. One in Wakefield, I think. We got them from the website www.ticktubes.com