Rashes And TicksMost ticks don't carry Lyme Disease, so a tick bite itself doesn't mean possible infection. The person who does get a tick bite, though, and does develop that bull's-eye rash, should be alerted to the possibility of Lyme Disease. The development of any of the aforementioned symptoms should prompt a visit to an internist and a suggestion to him or her of the possibility of Lyme Disease. Encounters with ticks are hard to avoid, because only a brush against a branch or even sitting down on a lawn can give a tick a chance to hop on board. People who plan to spend significant time in the woods, such as squirrel hunters who creep and sit around a lot, can take precautions to prevent a real invasion. A highly effective method of controlling ticks that spread Lyme disease has been developed at the Harvard School of Public Health. They said it can eradicate ticks from treated areas, dramatically lowering the risk of spreading the potentially debilitating disease. The control method uses pesticide-treated cotton balls that are placed in cardboard tubes and scattered about tick-infested fields. Mice gather tufts of the cotton to line their nests. When they do, the pesticide rubs onto their fur. The larval stages of the ticks that carry the spirochete prefer to feed on mice. The pesticide rubs onto them and kills them before they can mature into the adult stage that bites deer and humans. Field tests show the incidence of deer ticks drops to zero or nearly zero within a year or two after the start of treatment. The blood test for Lyme disease antibodies, considered the best indicator of the tick-borne illness, does not provide positive proof that patients are free of the disease, researchers at the State University at Stony Brook are reporting today. Dr. Raymond J. Dattwyler, the clinical immunologist who heads Stony Brook's Lyme disease clinic, said his research group has found that some patients fail to develop enough antibodies - even in the later stages of the disease - for the test to indicate they are carrying it. The research is detailed in today's New England Journal of Medicine. Dattwyler said in an interview that these cases represent less than 5 percent of the more than 200 patients referred to Stony Brook each year. However, it was important to recognize that the antibody blood test is not absolutely reliable because some patients, thought to be cured, may still harbor clinically active Lyme disease, but in small enough strength that it is missed in the blood test, he said. |