Protecting Against Ticks

We’re half way through tick season and it’s an above-average threat level this year. Ticks thrive in warm weather, living in trees, shrubs and leaf piles on the ground. Once a tick is on your clothes, it will move to a warm or moist part of the body, like the armpits, hair, or groin.  Once it’s in a desirable enough spot to feed – it bites!

Hurley Children’s Hospital Director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Dr. Yaseen Rafe’e, has already started seeing patients this year with tick bites. Calls from parents concerned with what to do or how to remove ticks from their child are coming in. Dr. Rafe’e says there is no foolproof way to prevent tick bites, but parents can reduce the risk by following measures set by the CDC.

• Use EPA-registered insect repellent
• Be cautious in wooded or bushy areas, making sure skin is covered with long-sleeve shirts and pants
• After coming back inside, check clothes, gear or pets for ticks
• Tumble-dry clothes on high heat to kill ticks 
• Shower within two hours of coming inside to wash off unattached ticks and do a full body tick check

If a parent has found a tick, this means they are already bitten. Dr. Rafe’e says,

“What matters is how long it has been attached and fed. The longer amount of time the tick is attached, the more the risk.”

Typically kids get infected if the tick has been attached or feeding for more than 72 hours. Experts can assess the duration by checking the engorgement size, while parents can help know the duration if they have been checking their child for ticks daily and know that the tick was not there before.

• If a tick is found on the body, do not crush it with fingers or touch it with bare skin
• Use fine tip tweezers and grab as close to the body as possible
• Pull upward and be careful to not jerk upward or twist, as this can cause the mouth to break off and stay embedded in the skin
• Once the tick is removed, clean the bite and dispose of tick by putting it in alcohol, wrapping it tightly in tape or a plastic bag or flushing it down the toilet

In some areas of the country ticks can carry Lyme disease, an infection transmitted by bites from certain ticks, like Deer ticks. Each year, around 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported. Lyme disease occurs in stages and can be cured once treated, but if it’s not treated early, it can advance into the next stage. Untreated Lyme disease can produce a range of symptoms including fever, rash, facial paralysis and arthritis. Early indications of Lyme disease that occur 3-30 days after a tick bite can produce symptoms such as fever, fatigue, rashes, joint ache and swollen lymph nodes. If you live in an area where Lyme disease is common, it’s best to consider speaking with your healthcare provider.

To schedule an appointment with Hurley Children’s Hospital pediatric infectious disease expert Dr. Yaseen Rafe’e, call 810-262-9773 or go to hurleymc.com.