Womens_HealthAustralia-February_2017

TICK ATTACK?

Mozzies get all the attention,

but another blood-sucking critter

you need to look out for is the

tick. You can come into contact

with these little jerks any time

you’re outdoors. And they’re

crafty creatures, says tick specialist

Thomas Mather – they can sense

and move towards vibrations (say,

your feet crunching on leaves on a

bushwalk) and carbon dioxide (the

stuff you exhale). They are typically

most active at dawn and dusk, and

many species love humidity. Which

means those foggy mornings and

summer evenings are prime times

to get bitten, and piles of damp

leaves or grass are tick havens.

Since they’re usually difficult to see

(at just 1–4mm), you may not know

you’ve been bitten by a tick until

you notice the symptoms (more

on that to come). Check your body

after spending time in grassy or

bush areas, as they tend to favour

warm, moist (sorry) areas of the

body such as the hair at the back

of the head and neck, groin,

armpits and back of the knees.

The trad safe removal method

is to grasp it with pointy tweezers

and slowly pull it straight out, trying

to avoid squeezing its body, says

WH expert and integrative medicine

doctor Karen Coates. “A more

effective way is to freeze the tick

with the over-the-counter wart

killer first, then remove the frozen

body with tweezers.”

The health effects

Most tick bites are harmless – at

worst you’d feel some redness

and itchiness around the bite.

But people can experience allergic

TICKED OFF

By Tara Ali

reactions and even pick up tick-

borne diseases. If you’re one of

the unlucky ones, a single tick bite

can really change your life, says

Mather. Be alert for the symptoms

using Dr Coates’ guidelines as

shown in the table below.

Guard yourself

Prevention is your best form of

attack. If you’re going into possible

tick zones, dress in long sleeves

and cover your legs with long

pants tucked into your socks

(wolf-whistle). You can buy clothing

with built-in tick repellent –

ExOfficio and Pestrol do ranges.

Also apply insect repellent

containing diethyl-meta-toluamide

(DEET) or picaridin to your skin.

Or apply permethrin – which repels

insects and kills ticks – directly

to your clothes, sleeping bags

and tents (but not the skin).

When returning from a bushwalk,

put your clothes in a hot dryer for

10 minutes to kill any ticks that

are still on them. That’ll learn ’em.

SYMPTOMS HOW TO TREAT IT

Lyme or a

Lyme-like

disease

Tick bite

anaphylaxis

Breathing difficulties and/

or mild itching and swelling

to widespread swelling

and pain.

These severe symptoms

require an urgent injection

of adrenaline (ask your doc

for more info) and call triple

zero for an ambulance.

Tick typhus/

Spotted

fever

Fever, headache, flu-like

symptoms, tenderness

of lymph nodes, light

intolerance, unsteady gait

and a rash. At the site of the

bite there may be redness

and swelling and a thick

black scab. Ew!

Your doc can diagnose these

conditions via blood tests

and prescribe a course of

antibiotics to treat them.

Tick

paralysis

Unsteadiness, lethargy,

visual disturbances,

breathing difficulties, and

weakness of the arms, legs

or parts of the face that

worsens over a few days.

This requires immediate

emergency care at hospital.

It’s very rarely seen in adults

• children, dogs and cats are
  much more susceptible.

Whether Lyme disease can

be contracted in Oz is still

up for debate, but many

report having it, and you

can get it O/S. Plus, it’s

believed some Aussie ticks

can harbour a Lyme-like

disease. Signs include a

fever, fatigue, headaches,

muscle and joint pain, sore

lymph nodes and a bullseye-

like rash around the bite.

A doc will provide antibiotics,

which must be taken ASAP.

Occasionally, people don’t

respond to them and may

develop ‘chronic Lyme’ which

can mimic arthritis and MS.

Unfortunately, it is often

harder to get proper diagnosis

and treatment for Australian

Lyme-like disease due to lack

of technology and the stigma

surrounding the disease.

Tick bites aren’t just irritating – protect yourself

from some surprisingly nasty health effects

4 4

ADDITIONAL

WORDS:

MEGHAN

RABBITT.

PHOTOGRAPHY:

GETTY

IMAGES.

ILLUSTRATION:

JAMES

TAYLOR

M