Matthew Goss's Lyme Disease InformationTypes of Ticks that Carry Disease
funny thing is that I remember getting bitten by ticks. The first ones I
saw on the trail were just outside of Atkins in some grassy fields on May
7th. But I thought that only the little tiny deer ticks would hurt you.
Indeed, every other hiker that saw me pulling them off said "don't
worry, those aren't the kind of ticks that carry Lyme Disease." And
I didn't worry.
Well now I know better. There are at least 8 different kinds of ticks that carry tick-borne diseases. These types include Ixodes scapularis (deer tick), Ixodes pacificus (western black legged tick), Ixodes dammini, Ixodes angustus, Amblyomma americanum (lone star tick), Dermacentor variabilis (American dog tick, sometimes called the wood tick), Rhipicephalus sanguineus latreille (brown dog tick), and Ornithodoros hermsi.
There are lots of web sites on the internet perpetuating the myth that only deer ticks carry Lyme, but if you do enough searching you will also find evidence that many other types of ticks have been proven to carry Lyme and other diseases. I was infected by Dermacentor variabilis (American dog tick, sometimes called the wood tick), which most people will tell you does not carry or transmit Lyme. The ticks that bit me were never attached for more than 2 hours, and they were not deeply embedded. Many people will tell you that a tick has to be attached for 24 to 48 hours to transmit Lyme. I know differently.
Put any one of the above 8 ticks names into a Yahoo or Google search and read some of the scientific studies. Or go here for a listing of tick species and scientific studies on whether or not they can carry and transmit Lyme and/or other diseases.
The links above are just a sampling of what I have found. They all carry disease, and if they bite you there is a chance they can transmit them (it has been suggested that Rocky Mountain Spotted fever can be transmitted just by touching a tick). Don't believe the mantra "it's not a deer tick, don't worry."
Lyme Disease has been documented in 49 US states. Ticks are carried by migratory birds from as far north as Canada and as far south as South America.
And fewer than 50% of those infected with Lyme Disease get the characteristic "red spot" that is supposed to be the signal that you got the disease.
Two weeks after my first tick bite I noticed blood in my urine for about 3 days. In the next town I called a service called "Ask a Nurse" that answers medical questions, and the nice nurse told me that if it went away by the third day not to worry about it. I later learned that this is a symptom of Babesia, a parasitic disease similar to malaria which I will explain later. New studies are showing as many as 66% of those infected with Lyme also have Babesia.
Knowing what I know now, I would advise anyone who gets bitten by a tick, any tick, to begin taking 500mg of Doxycycline a day immediately. Most doctors do not know how to diagnose or treat Lyme Disease as they are going by outdated CDC guidelines that were developed only for surveillance purposes. The CDC now admits that these guidelines are insufficient.
If you get bit by a tick, get yourself to a Lyme Disease doctor who will prescribe these high doses of antibiotics immediately (see Symptoms and Tests). If you don't follow this advice, you may never get rid of Lyme.
I've heard more than one person say they went from doctor to doctor for 3 years or more (some have been through more than 50 doctors) and were told different variations of "its all in your head."
Some people have been on heavy antibiotics for more than five years, with little improvement. Two to three years seems to be the normal span of time that people are treated by an experienced Lyme doctor, and many of these people relapse later and have to go through it all over again.
This is not something that can wait a month or even a couple of weeks. The greatest success in treating these tick-borne diseases comes from catching them early. Once these diseases have spread throughout your body you are talking years of heavy doses of medication, if you can be cured at all.
These are very serious diseases. Many people with Lyme Disease have mistakenly been diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), lupus, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
If you, or anyone you know, believes they may have Lyme Disease, and your doctor diagnoses you with one of the above illnesses, get a second opinion from a doctor who specializes in the treatment of Lyme Disease. You see, there is little or nothing they can do for you if you have MS or Lou Gehrig's disease or chronic fatigue syndrome. Nobody knows what causes these other diseases. Lyme Disease is treatable.
Above all, do not let your doctor treat you with steroids if you believe you may have Lyme. This will suppress your immune system and can cause irreparable damage to your central nervous system.
Lyme attacks your central nervous system, and causes paralysis, hearing loss and blindness in later stages. People are losing points off of their IQ (verified by tests) from the neurological effects of this disease. I was never a math whiz, but I could easily do algebra and geometry, and before I started treatment these things were a challenge.
The Matthew Goss Lyme Disease Information content is no longer being updated by Matthew Goss. A new home on the web for this information is provided by Melissa Kaplan's Anapsid.org Herp Care and CND & Lyme Information. Please report any webpage errors to Melissa Kaplan.
Last Update: 10/22/2004