(simple upbeat melody)
So, this time of the year in the spring
and summer every year, ticks come out.
And the most common question we get
in the spring and summer relates
to tick bites and rashes.
So, it's very important to know what to do
when you're bitten by a tick
and the crucial thing is to get the tick off of you.
We wanna get the tick removed as soon as possible
because the longer the tick stays attached
the more likely it is to transmit
the Borrelia bacteria that cause Lyme disease.
We often get asked what to do after a tick bite.
And this question has really two aspects:
one is should I take antibiotics to prevent
Lyme disease after a tick bite?
That's called prophylaxis.
That's the administration of a single dose
of antibiotics at the time you pull a tick off
and that is an option that can
be discussed with your physician.
That option for prophylaxis with a single dose
of antibiotic after a tick bite is different though
than treating Lyme disease.
The question about treating Lyme disease
really comes after the tick bite.
Usually a week or two later
when people may develop either a skin rash
at the site of the tick bite or
a summer flu-like illness.
These are the first signs of acute Lyme disease.
The typical rash people have probably heard of
is often called the bull's-eye rash of Lyme disease.
And in fact that is true, sometimes the rash
looks exactly like a bull's-eye like you would
see on the side of a Target department store.
I would emphasize, however
that's a minority of Lyme disease rashes.
The majority actually look uniformly red.
They don't have that ring within a ring
target appearance, they're just red.
They're usually two to three inches or larger
and they're often mistaken for spider bites
or even sometimes bruises.
But they are very distinct.
They're very circumscribed.
In other words: they're rounder, oval, with a sharp edge.
They're not usually very painful.
They're mildly itchy, but the key thing is
they get bigger over time.
They usually get bigger than two or three inches
and they're not spider bites.
If a lesion like that in the spring or summer
in a Lyme endemic area is
highly suspicious for Lyme disease.
And I'll emphasize again, it doesn't have to have
that target, ring within a ring appearance
to be Lyme disease.
So you may ask, does everyone get a rash
with Lyme disease?
The answer is no, some people clearly get
symptoms of a flu, a summer flu-like illness
without the rash or they may get those
symptoms before the rash appears.
These symptoms are like the flu, except
remember the flu is in the winter
and Lyme disease is in the spring and summer.
So the flu-like symptoms with Lyme disease
are achiness, headache,
fever, chills, profound fatigue.
Just like an influenza infection in the winter,
but what's different is Lyme disease doesn't
cause a lot of respiratory symptoms.
So, you tend not to get a runny nose
or prominent cough with Lyme disease.
It's just that unexplained fever and chills
that really has no other obvious source
and that can precede the rash or sometimes
that's the only sign of acute Lyme disease.
Those are the indications to call your physician.
That's early Lyme disease and that's the
most treatable stage when we wanna make
the diagnosis, we wanna get the therapy started.
So any kind of round, red-skinned lesion
or unexplained fevers in the spring and summer
is an indication to give your physician a call
and check it out.
