When Tick Control Fails: How Do You Treat Lyme Disease?

The best way to treat Lyme disease has always been to avoid it in the first place; by preventing tick bites and exposure to the borrelia burgdorferi bacterium. But if you are bitten by a tick, what should you expect in terms of treatment options?

 

The treatment you’ll receive for Lyme disease depends on what stage the disease is at; and generally breaks down into three possible scenarios:

• Freshly-bitten: If you have just been bitten by a tick, you have a lot of questions you need to find an answer to. Did the tick carry Lyme disease? Did it pass the infection onto you? What treatment should you receive? Most of these questions can easily be answered if you still have the tick that bit you. Remove it from your skin with tweezers (being careful not to increase your risk of infection with Lyme disease by squeezing it too tightly.) Then give the tick to your doctor. They will test it for the presence of the borrelia burgdorferi bacterium and offer antibiotic treatment if they feel it is necessary.
• Early infection: If you discovered you were infected with Lyme disease later in the process – after the tick that bit you dropped off – treatment is more standard. A doctor will examine your symptoms, like the signature bullseye rash and fever, and then give you a ten-day antibiotic treatment with a medicine like amoxicillin. Some doctors will not give treatment until infection has been confirmed. This can be alarming because in as many as 30% of Lyme disease cases blood tests give a false negative (meaning you carry the disease, but the test suggests you don’t.)
• Late Infection: Late stage infection is the worst situation to be in; and is a condition that potentially affects more and more Americans each year. Months or even years of infection with the borrelia burgdorferi bacterium can lead to permanent joint damage and neurological injury; and the disease is increasingly resistant to treatment. At this stage, weeks of antibiotic treatment are necessary; often administered via IV to be more effective. Even after treatment, many patients report ongoing symptoms that are increasingly classified as “chronic Lyme disease.”

The increasing awareness of Lyme disease has led many patients to fall victim to so-called “Lyme literate” doctors who have been accused of using questionable medical procedures to diagnose and treat patients they say have “chronic Lyme disease”.

If you experience ongoing Lyme symptoms, fully research the condition before paying for treatment from any physician who markets themselves as Lyme disease doctors. Many offer excellent treatment options and an enhanced understanding of the condition. Others can exploit customers.

At whatever stage of Lyme disease infection you’re in, one thing remains clear – prevention is better than cure. This is why you should be sure to invest in tick control programs in your garden and backyard; to protect your family and pets from Lyme disease and prevent tick bites.

The best way to do this is by talking to a tick control specialist, like the experts at Aspenn Environmental Services. They’ll recommend tick control techniques to help create a tick-safe zone in your garden; and perform tick spray treatments and a yard spray for ticks to eliminate ticks and their nymphs.

With Lyme disease posing a serious health problem for more or more Americans, it’s never been more important to protect yourself from tick bites and the virulent infection they potentially carry.