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Summer Outdoors Season Is Also Lyme Disease Awareness Time

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May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month. This region is among the hotbeds for cases of the tick-borne illness. 

Lyme Disease is spread through the bite of the Deer tick. The tick must take a blood meal at each stage of their lives before maturing to the next. When biting humans, a disease is transferred.

Dawn Klink of Oneida County Public Health outlines the symptoms..

"..The symptoms vary a lot, but you can get fever, headache, fatigue, stiff neck, pain in your muscles and joints. It can cause problems if you don't have it diagnosed and treated you can end up with a lot more problems. Nerve paralysis, pain, memory problems. Some people get Bell's Palsy from it..."

Dawn Klink says prevention is the key. She says cut back grasses and brush away from your residence. On your person, you can use a bug spray with DEET. Make sure you wear long sleeves and long pants outdoors and tuck your pants into your shoes. She says pets are carriers of ticks so they need to be checked just like humans.

Klink says if you aren't feeling well, you should make an appointment with a physician...

"..If you have the rash, the circular bulls-eye rash that's known with Lyme Disease(physicians) will treat you, they won't even test for it, because it's so endemic in our area. They will treat you with an antibiotic for 10-21 days..."

More information is available at lyme disease.org

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