Tick-Transmitted Diseases

The answer is b. Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever are tick transmitted diseases; therefore, picnicking in grassy or wooded areas is the most likely way of getting tick bites. There are thirty major tick-borne diseases worldwide. In the U.S. there are nine major diseases.

Ticks become active when the weather warms up. If you are bitten by an infected tick, there is a danger of contracting a tick-borne disease. In Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, two of the most common, illness begins with a rash followed by symptoms of fatigue, muscle and joint pain and headache. Fever and vomiting can also be symptoms of tick-borne diseases.

If you are going to be hiking or picnicking in a park or wooded area, there are precautions you should take to avoid ticks.

The best way is to wear clothing in which minimum skin is exposed. If you must enter a grassy or wooded area, wear a long-sleeved shirt and light colored pants and tuck the shirt in at the waist and the pants into the socks. Spray repellents on the clothes to keep away ticks from any exposed skin. And if you do find a tick attached to your skin, don’t remove it with your bare hands. Use tweezers or forceps or even a tissue paper to prevent passing of any possible infection.

Resources:

Tick information, and disease precautions and symptoms from the Indiana State Department of Health

Photos of several tick varieties

Learn how to prevent tick bites, and remove ticks if you are bitten

May 31, 2003