Last week, a six-year-old girl from North Carolina named Emilee Russell died as a result of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. She was bitten by a tick and then got sick over Memorial Day weekend while visiting family. Emilee died on June 12, just two-and-a-half weeks after she was bitten.
As a follow-up to my Summer Safety post about ISR, I was already planning to write about Lyme Disease. After hearing the story about Emilee, it was obvious that this is a hot topic that needs more awareness.
I grew up in rural North Carolina and spent many summer days exploring the woods around our house. My parents routinely checked me for ticks and found many crawling on my body, they even found one attached to my scalp. After a phone call to my pediatrician, my parents followed his instructions and removed the tick. All was well, but it was scary. Now I live on the Southside of Jacksonville and my kids often play outside, but are never really in a wooded area. Occasionally while washing their hair, I remember that scary night long ago and look for ticks on my girls, but it’s not something I think about it every night.
A new friend recently reminded that these tiny ticks and their bites can be very dangerous to my family. I met Melissa Bell at my daughter’s preschool.
In 2011, her then 11-year-old son suddenly began suffering from a variety of predominantly neurological symptoms, including severe headaches, vertigo, insomnia, fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, balance problems, hypersensitivity to sight/sound/touch, and joint pain, forcing him to discontinue his various sports and causing him to struggle at school for the first time. Melissa and her husband took their son to many different specialists seeking answers to no avail. Notwithstanding repeated requests for Lyme Disease testing, they were told that it “could not” be Lyme because they did not recall a tick bite and the family had not recently travelled to an endemic area.
Almost a year later, their son’s condition dramatically deteriorated. He was unable to attend school due to repeated loss of consciousness, memory lapses, and exacerbation of his other symptoms. During one of his many hospitalizations, Melissa and her husband were finally able to convince one of the many doctors to order a Lyme Disease test.
Although his initial test did not meet CDC reporting standards, considering that he had species-specific bands on the test, immune deficiencies, and 40+ symptoms that were consistent with Lyme Disease, they opted to begin treatment. Several months after starting treatment, their son had seven positive bands on his Lyme Disease Western blot, many of which were species-specific, confirming the diagnosis. Their son also tested positive for four other infections, which is common with Lyme Disease.
Lyme Disease is transmitted by certain species of black-legged ticks, as well as the lone star tick commonly found in southern states. Because a tick bite is painless, many people do not realize they have been bitten.
Although some sources indicate that a tick must be attached for at least 24 hours (or a longer time period) to transmit disease, in clinical practice, Lyme Disease has been confirmed after a much shorter timeframe (as little as 6 hours).
Left untreated, Lyme Disease can mimic ailments such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), fibromyalgia, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and even autism (particularly atypical cases).
Why is all this especially important to Jacksonville moms? At the highest risk of acquiring this debilitating disease are our children, ages 5-14. According to research, children are bitten by ticks more frequently around the head and neck, making them more vulnerable to brain and central nervous system infections. Dr. Kerry Clark, a University of North Florida professor of epidemiology and environmental health, has found ticks infected with Lyme Disease all over Jacksonville. Ticks are not only found in wooded areas, but also in yards, soccer fields and parks.
Some simple preventative measures include:
- When doing outside activities, you should treat your children’s clothing, shoes, and any gear that could end up on the ground with permethrin.
- Make sure children wear tick repellent on exposed skin. You can buy insect repellents with synthetic chemicals such as IR3535, Picaridin, and DEET. Alternatively, if you prefer using organics, you can try essential oils like Lemon Eucalyptus Oil and Cedar Oil.
- If your children have been in wooded or grassy areas, put their clothes in the dryer on high heat for 20 to 30 minutes. The dry heat will effectively kill any ticks that may be on them.
- Conduct daily body checks for ticks following outside activities, as well as at night before they go to bed. If you do find a tick on you or your child, you must follow steps to properly remove the tick and strongly consider treating with antibiotics to prevent a disseminated, harder to treat, infection.
For more information about Lyme Disease please visit:
Northeast Florida Lyme Association
My brother has Lyme Disease / he lives in Old Lyme CT and I was surprised to find out there are Lyme ticks in FL. Good article, everyone needs to be aware.
WOW! I grew up in Jacksonville down the street from the St. John’s River. As kids, we played in the woods all the time. We would swing on vines, which were so much fun and enjoyed making campfires while cooking hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire, playing hide and seek etc. To the best of my knowledge, I did not even know about the existence of ticks let alone that they were killers. We’ve come a long way since and I wonder what has made such a huge difference in our environment to cause this ‘sleeping giant’ to rear it’s ugly head to the extent that it has now.
Thanks so much to Melissa for sharing her story! Great information!
Lone star ticks DO NOT transmit lyme disease. You can verify this on the CDC’s website, as well as many other sources.
Dr. Kerry Clark has in fact established that the Lone Star tick transmits Lyme Disease. Unfortunately, the CDC has elected to define the disease very narrowly (single strain, single tick, limited geographic area) leading countless to needlessly suffer due to misinformation.
http://www.unf.edu/publicrelations/media_relations/press/2013/UNF_Professor_Discovers_Two_Lyme_Bacterial_Species_Can_Infect_Humans.aspx
I took an Epidemiology class with Dr. Clark. He is so knowledgeable about this subject- and it’s good to raise awareness!