Immigrants are generally welcomed on Vancouver Island, but a distinctly unwelcome arrival is among the smallest of newcomers: It’s Borrelia burgdorferi, the microorganism that causes Lyme disease.
Once confined mainly to the eastern United States, it has been marching westward for years. And now health authorities believe it is probably present throughout B.C., including on the Island.
Last year, Dr. Gregory Taylor, Canada’s chief public health officer, said new Lyme disease cases increased from 100 in 2009 to 700 in 2015, and suggested the numbers could rise to 10,000 to 20,000 new cases in coming years.
It means those of us who love the outdoors have something else to think about before and after we hit the trails: ticks.
The main culprit is the Western black-legged tick, which picks up the disease from deer and other animals and passes it along to humans when we go hiking.
“It occurs on vegetation in warm, moist areas on Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and along the mainland coast between the United States border and Powell River,” the B.C. government says.
Ticks like to hang out on tall grasses and low shrubs, hopping a ride on anyone who brushes past them. They find a spot such as the pubic region or the scalp and put the bite on the victim. Then they gorge on blood, sometimes for days.
Sometimes, when they drop off, they leave behind the Lyme disease organism, which can cause a lifetime of agony.
Recently, Canadian singer Shania Twain talked about how Lyme disease from an infected tick derailed her career, damaging her vocal cords and requiring extensive therapy to regain her voice.
Caught early, the disease can be treated with antibiotics, but if it’s not, it can cause problems with joints, the nervous system and the heart that go on for years.
What’s to be done? Short of spraying vast tracts of land with insecticide, there is no way to make our forests tick-free. That means we have to watch out for ourselves.
The province recommends wearing high boots or tucking pants into socks. Tuck your shirt into your pants. Avoid short pants. Spray insect repellent on your pants. Don’t lie down in the grass. Avoid game trails and overgrown old roads.
Most of those don’t sound like a lot of fun on a hot summer day.
When you get back from the woods, check yourself and your children carefully. Take a shower. Look for ticks around the collars of your clothes after they have been hanging up.
If you find a tick attached to you, grab it by the head — not the body — with tweezers and pull it off. If possible, put it in a container, save it in the fridge and take it to your doctor if you develop symptoms.
A B.C. government website says the symptoms can include:
“General symptoms of fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, fatigue or weakness of the muscles of the face.
“Skin rash, especially one that looks like a ‘bull’s eye.’ It may or may not be where the bite was.
“In some cases paralysis may occur. The paralysis usually starts in the feet and legs and gradually works its way up to the upper body, arms and head. This paralysis can develop from within a few hours to several days.”
Doctors say that ticks won’t usually transmit Lyme until they have been attached for more than 24 hours. They also say that most tick bites don’t pass on disease. Still, we have to recognize that Lyme has become a permanent resident of B.C.
On the Island, checking for ticks could become a common end to a day in the woods.
