Do ticks in America not carry encephalitis (like they do in central/eastern Europe)?Because that’s way more dangerous than Lyme disease. I find it weird that it isn’t mentioned at all, nor the vaccination against it.
Oh that’s great. Fantastic. Can someone please feel the need to bring one of these into the country for observation or whatever people bring ticks for?
That’s one thing this country needs desperately right now… Some big problem or some sort. We’ve apparently ran out of problems and are actively looking for them as we speak.
I’m kidding, but it certainly seems to be a thing that people should be aware of.
That being said I think the scary thing about Lyme disease is the symptoms aren’t crazy strong at the beginning, and easy to misattribute if you miss the tick. But if you don’t treat it early it can really fuck you up.
I got bit by a tick years ago when I was 16, right above my belt buckle. Had a generalized rash, and my doctor said it was because of an allergic reaction to my belt buckle and prescribed me steroid cream. Basically had to demand a Lyme test just in case and tested positive.
Although I think my perspective is a bit skewed, having grown up in a tick hotspot here in Germany. Everyone is aware of ticks here, pretty sure it’s taught in elementary school. And the encephalitis vaccine is pretty much standard, too.
I mean… Medicine is super hard. You have to remember, when it comes to biology, we’re still figuring it how everything works and there’s way less that we actually understand than what we don’t understand.
I try to think of it like this, doctors aren’t like engineers, because engineers actually have all the specs for the materials or systems they’re working with. They can run the numbers and tell you what will happen when the system is altered in x way. Doctors are more like hackers, they have to reverse engineer a complex system that they never got a spec sheet or user manual for. They can’t read much of the internal diagnostics and the hardware itself wasn’t built with any sensible order or design philosophy. Frankly, it’s a terrible system to have to support and maintain and they don’t really have the tools or information to do it.
All that said, doctors do an impressive job. And seriously though, this hardware suuuucks…
I would think that if a patient comes in with a rash beneath their belt buckle, the first thought isn’t Lyme disease, it’s nickel allergy.
If they were told about the tick bite, maybe a shitty doctor. But nickel allergies are crazy common. Something like 4-5% of men and 15-16% of women. And I suspect, personally, that the number for men is higher but most men don’t wear jewelry and might assume belt buckles can just cause rashes without realizing it’s a nickel allergy.
Then there’s me, asking the lady selling pendants at the ren fair if they’re nickel free, and then sighing when she says, “No nickel at all, they’re stainless steel!”
“That doesn’t mean anything. Plenty of stainless steel has nickel.”
“It’s surgical grade steel!”
“Right. Sure. That can, and probably does, still include nickel unless it’s one of the more expensive 400 series alloys and not the more common 316 stainless. Ask me why I know this.”
The vaccine they were testing was derailed when participants reported behaviours that resemble anti-vax talking points now. It killed the human testing in the final stages at a huge commercial loss.
But if you go to the vet and get a vax for a big dog and it accidentally gets into your arm and not Rover’s paw, that’s the same thing. They repurposed the ‘failed’ vax for use in pets.
There is no vaccine for Lyme that’s available to the public. Hopefully there will be one soon though. My wife and I have been volunteering for a Lyme vaccine trial for the past two years.
It’s probably a good general advice to ask your doctor for “local” vaccinations whenever you move.
The encephalitis vaccine is very common here in southern Germany, but usually skipped in the north where ticks are quite uncommon (which is reasonable, since it’s pretty aggressive, being sick for a day or two after the jab is not unlikely).
Do ticks in America not carry encephalitis (like they do in central/eastern Europe)?Because that’s way more dangerous than Lyme disease. I find it weird that it isn’t mentioned at all, nor the vaccination against it.
Those ticks carry a load of shit. Like one infection that makes you allergic to eating meat.
Currently, ticks do not carry encephalitis in the US.
Oh that’s great. Fantastic. Can someone please feel the need to bring one of these into the country for observation or whatever people bring ticks for?
That’s one thing this country needs desperately right now… Some big problem or some sort. We’ve apparently ran out of problems and are actively looking for them as we speak.
I would go to the CDC to check but that’s been deleted. We’ve solved it by removing the webpage
https://www.cdc.gov/tick-borne-encephalitis/index.html
I’m kidding, but it certainly seems to be a thing that people should be aware of.
That being said I think the scary thing about Lyme disease is the symptoms aren’t crazy strong at the beginning, and easy to misattribute if you miss the tick. But if you don’t treat it early it can really fuck you up.
I got bit by a tick years ago when I was 16, right above my belt buckle. Had a generalized rash, and my doctor said it was because of an allergic reaction to my belt buckle and prescribed me steroid cream. Basically had to demand a Lyme test just in case and tested positive.
Dang, what a shitty doctor.
Although I think my perspective is a bit skewed, having grown up in a tick hotspot here in Germany. Everyone is aware of ticks here, pretty sure it’s taught in elementary school. And the encephalitis vaccine is pretty much standard, too.
I mean… Medicine is super hard. You have to remember, when it comes to biology, we’re still figuring it how everything works and there’s way less that we actually understand than what we don’t understand.
I try to think of it like this, doctors aren’t like engineers, because engineers actually have all the specs for the materials or systems they’re working with. They can run the numbers and tell you what will happen when the system is altered in x way. Doctors are more like hackers, they have to reverse engineer a complex system that they never got a spec sheet or user manual for. They can’t read much of the internal diagnostics and the hardware itself wasn’t built with any sensible order or design philosophy. Frankly, it’s a terrible system to have to support and maintain and they don’t really have the tools or information to do it.
All that said, doctors do an impressive job. And seriously though, this hardware suuuucks…
I would think that if a patient comes in with a rash beneath their belt buckle, the first thought isn’t Lyme disease, it’s nickel allergy.
If they were told about the tick bite, maybe a shitty doctor. But nickel allergies are crazy common. Something like 4-5% of men and 15-16% of women. And I suspect, personally, that the number for men is higher but most men don’t wear jewelry and might assume belt buckles can just cause rashes without realizing it’s a nickel allergy.
Then there’s me, asking the lady selling pendants at the ren fair if they’re nickel free, and then sighing when she says, “No nickel at all, they’re stainless steel!”
“That doesn’t mean anything. Plenty of stainless steel has nickel.”
“It’s surgical grade steel!”
“Right. Sure. That can, and probably does, still include nickel unless it’s one of the more expensive 400 series alloys and not the more common 316 stainless. Ask me why I know this.”
Get the vaccines if you can.
The vaccine they were testing was derailed when participants reported behaviours that resemble anti-vax talking points now. It killed the human testing in the final stages at a huge commercial loss.
But if you go to the vet and get a vax for a big dog and it accidentally gets into your arm and not Rover’s paw, that’s the same thing. They repurposed the ‘failed’ vax for use in pets.
Or so I heard. Go confirm.
There is no vaccine for Lyme that’s available to the public. Hopefully there will be one soon though. My wife and I have been volunteering for a Lyme vaccine trial for the past two years.
It’s probably a good general advice to ask your doctor for “local” vaccinations whenever you move.
The encephalitis vaccine is very common here in southern Germany, but usually skipped in the north where ticks are quite uncommon (which is reasonable, since it’s pretty aggressive, being sick for a day or two after the jab is not unlikely).