“Lyme” photos – Lyme Disease Awareness Month.
With the number of ticks on the rise, so is the number of people infected with atleast one tick-borne illness. May is National Lyme Disease Awareness month – get informed on how to protect you and your loved ones!
Throughout the month of May, I will be featuring a different photo each day that is inspired by “Lyme” and hopefully shed some light on the common myths about ticks and Lyme disease (both for humans and animals). I will also be addressing the other tick-borne diseases known as co-infections and hopefully if nothing else raise your awareness of a debilitating disease.
For many years I can remember hearding about Lyme Disease, but not knowing too much more about it than you can contract it from an infected tick bite. I knew the disease was something to take serious, but outside of that, I didn’t know too much more. Unfortunately six years ago, Lyme disease would become something I would learn to know a little too well.
Did you know a tick that is as small as a poppy seed (nymphal stage) is old enough to infect a human with Lyme disease? Take a moment to think about that next time you are at Dunkin Donuts getting a coffee or at your local bakery or grocery store; when you see the poppy seed bagels sitting on the shelve, imagine if one of those poppy seeds were actually an insect. Would you see it or feel it crawling on your skin?? Most people who have Lyme Disease, never saw the tick or even knew that they were bit. And only 50% or so even develop the bulls-eye rash after they are bit. According to the national Lyme Disease Association(LDA), it’s believed that over 225,000 people are infected each year and that number is growing in an alarming rate.
Lyme Disease does not discriminate against who it infects. You can have the strongest, most fit professional athlete brought to his knees in pain or the most innocent as a new born baby that may not be able to celebrate their first birthday. There is no formula to which the disease attacks; it just does what it does.
Watch this video that NewsChannel 8 from the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., region recently broadcast. It shows some of the smallest of ticks that can cause havoc on your immune system. Plus you can see first hand what the bulls-eye rash looks like:
Chart on how to protect yourself: http://lymedisease.org/pdf/protect_yourself.pdf