Photo of the Day #255: It pays to heed signs like these

Hey, Brian!

I ran across a very comforting article over at the Denialism blog a little while ago...

http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2008/05/fake_diseases_part_deuxchroni…

The author pretty much says that there are no long-term effects from Lyme disease. I think he speaks with authority and makes sense and his words drained most of my tick paranoia.

Most of it. I still hate those creepy little guys... One of the few organisms I haven't been able to warm up to.

Sean; Some of the things described in that post could be attributed to "quackery" (as they say), but from what I understand there still can be symptoms/effects of lyme disease after you've been bitten, especially if you don't know you have it until a late state. I guess it depends on what you mean by "long term effects." I know a few people who have had feverish flare ups, although maybe they were bitten again and just didn't know it since there isn't always a rash. It's difficult to tell and I'd rather not get it at all (and haven't as yet)!

Tick-borne Lyme disease itself is not very dangerous. However it can be complicated by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick-borne_meningoencephalitis which is NOT a nice disease. Fortunately, it has not yet spread to the USA.

I used to live in an area (Russia, Udmurt Republic) with the world-highest rate of tick-borne encephalitis infections. Now that was scary even though I was vaccinated against it.

I certainly would pay attention to such a sign. One of my good friends has long-term Lyme disease, and my wife had Lyme two summers ago. And my sister a few years before that.