Healthy Options 5/1/19: Update on Ticks, Lyme, and other tick-borne illness

Key Discussion Points:
a) What is “persistent Lyme”?
b) What are the issues with blood tests which can make them ineffective for diagnosing Lyme disease?
c) What are other tick species and tick illnesses that we are seeing in Maine, and what are their symptoms?
d) How can we protect ourselves against tick bites, and the possibility of contracting illness in the first place?
e) What is the best way to remove an embedded tick? What about testing the tick to see if it carries disease? What then?
f) What are some strategies for treating tick illness and how effective are they?

Guest:

Dr. Beatrice M. Szantyr, internist and pediatrician; medical advisor for MaineLyme, a non-profit dedicated to decreasing Lyme & related tick diseases in Maine; and member of the State of Maine’s CDC Vector-borne Disease Work Group, the Maine Medical Association, and the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS).

 

 

Other Healthy Options shows on ticks and tick-borne disease (with links to websites of interest, FMI), can be found here