Lyme Disease Prevention

If you live in or will be traveling to known tick areas where there have been many cases of Lyme disease it is important to know how to prevent transmission of the disease. Ticks attaching itself to the body transmit Lyme disease. Because of this it is very important to use tick avoidance techniques. Cover as much of your skin as possible using long clothing. DEET containing insect repellant should be used on any exposed skin.

People should check each other, children, and pets to make sure that there are no ticks on them. If a tick has been found on the body it should be removed gently using tweezers and saved if needed for further indentification. It is important to only use tweezers when removing ticks. Some common methods of tick removal can actually increase the chance of infecting oneself with Lyme disease. Some of these methods are: squeezing the tick off the body, ripping the tick off the body, burning the tick off the body, and drowning it in Vaseline. Again it is very important to only remove ticks using tweezers. When returning home bathing, and washing the hair and clothing may also help prevent the bite and transmission of Lyme disease.

Vaccines for Lyme disease were on the market until February 25, 2002. The manufacturer announced the vaccine LYMErix will no longer be available. Further studies and testing of Lyme disease vaccinations are necessary but currently the most ideal prevention are the methods in this article.

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