40 THE QUEENS COURIER • HEALTH • SEPTEMBER 7, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
health
Protect yourself from the dangers of Lyme disease
With Lyme disease a constant in the
news, and predictions of an uptick in ticks
this summer and fall, are you destined to
become a tick statistic?
Not necessarily, says Dr. Teresa Amato,
director of emergency medicine at Long
Island Jewish Forest Hills.
Last year, there were 946 cases of Lyme
disease in New York City, including 128 in
Queens, according to the New York City
Health Department.
Symptoms for Lyme disease such as
fever, neck stiff ness, joint pain and fatigue
can be very mild to severe. A bull’s-eye
rash — a solid dot with a red circle around
it — which can develop at a tick-bite site,
is a tell-tale sign of Lyme disease transmission.
“People come to the ED with angst when
they have a tick bite. Th ey’re so worried
that they’re going to get Lyme disease,”
explained Dr. Amato. “It is prevalent, but
the ticks that carry it are the deer ticks, the
little tiny ones that you oft en don’t see. So
when you see the bigger ticks, those are
usually the ones that aren’t carrying Lyme
disease.”
If you’re going to be in a wooded area
or high grasses near the beach where ticks
usually are, make sure to:
• Wear light-colored clothing to allow you
to spot ticks that crawl on your clothing.
• Wear long-sleeved shirts and tuck your
pant legs into your socks so that ticks
can’t crawl inside of your pant legs.
• Check your body and clothing for any
ticks aft erward. Ticks tend to migrate to
the warmest parts of the body such as the
groin, armpits and the base of your scalp.
• Shower to help remove non-attached
ticks. Showering has been shown to
reduce the risk of getting Lyme disease.
“If a patient comes into the ED and says
they’ve bit and been in area that’s endemic
for ticks we oft en will give one dose of the
antibiotic doxycycline,” said Dr. Amato.
Given within 72 hours of a tick bite,
doxycycline is an eff ective prophylaxis for
the disease. For children under age eight,
the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention recommend that no prophylaxis
be given.
“If they come in with the actual bullseye
rash, then we presume it’s Lyme disease
and start them with antibiotics, do a
titer test for Lyme and have them follow
up with their primary care doctor,” Amato
concluded.