disease.com – Disease

Prevent Lyme Disease

Disease treatment varies between each type of disease.  Many disease treatments will involve medication, while other disease treatments may involve therapy or counseling.   For some diseases, however, disease treatment may involve preventative measures.  Some disease treatment will even be more abnormal and peculiar.

One type of disease treatment that is preventive and peculiar is the treatment for Lyme disease.  Lyme disease is a disease caused by the bite of a tick infected with a specific bacterium.  If you are bit by a tick, you have the chance to be infected by Lyme disease.  Understanding the specific disease treatment for Lyme disease is important.  If you are infected with Lyme disease, or suspect yourself of being infected, go to a doctor immediately.  Tell him that you think you have been bit by a tick, and may have contracted Lyme disease as a result.  He will then check for tick bites and a rash.  Should you be diagnosed, he or she will start you on a long trial of antibiotics to cure the disease.

What may be more important than the disease treatment of Lyme disease is its prevention.  Lyme disease can be easily spread through the bite of a tick and it is more common in certain places around the world, but it be easily treated and prevented.   Reducing the amount of ticks on their hosts may be an effective way to prevent Lyme disease.

With many diseases and their disease treatments focusing around medication, prevention of Lyme disease remains unique.  Some of these prevention techniques include the management of host animals, vaccination, and prompt tick removal.

Some tips and information about the prevention of Lyme disease are listed below:

1.  Tick removal

Even though the cause of the disease is the bite of a tick, its is estimated that probability of transmission is near zero when the tick is promptly removed, or removed within 36 hours.  It can be smart to do what you can to avoid being bit by a tick.  Wearing long sleeved shirts or pants can prevent bites; light clothing can help detection before the tick attaches itself.  Outdoor pets can bring ticks into the house, raising the risk of being bit.  If you do see a tick on you, it is recommended that you remove it by pulling straight up, without twisting.

2.  Management of host animals

The white-tailed deer is the most common host animal that ticks need for reproduction.  If the deer population is reduced, it is suggested that the lower number of ticks may result in lower tick-borne diseases.  It is not easy to simply reduce the population of an animal, however.

3.  Vaccination

There was once a vaccine for Lyme disease produced by GlaxoSmithKline.  The vaccine, named LYMErix, was found to give protective immunity in 76% of adults and 100% of children.  It was not very cost efficient, however, and was reported to cause autoimmune side effects.  Despite a lack of evidence to support these claims, LYMErix was pulled from the market in 2002.  There are new vaccines being researched using a different method of vaccination.