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Symptoms of Lyme Disease |
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Fever and chills
Fatigue
Headache
Body aches
Joint pain
Bullseye rash
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Risk Factors
The area of the country where you live or visit determines your risk. Deer have overpopulated in many parts of the country, accounting for the spread of ticks and the increase in Lyme disease. Mice also carry ticks. Ticks like moderate temperatures in grassy and wooded locations. In the United States, Lyme disease is mostly in the northeastern, mid-Atlantic and upper north-central regions, along with northwestern California.
The risk for acquiring Lyme disease depends on when in its life cycle it attaches to a host.
A tick has three stages:
When ticks first hatch in the spring, they attach themselves to hosts such as birds and rodents. As larva, they don't carry the bacteria. Usually ticks in the nymph stage cause most cases of Lyme disease because they are tiny, making it harder to see them. Although more adult ticks carry the bacteria, they are larger and more easily noticed when they attach. An infected tick must usually be attached to a person's skin for at least 36 hours to transmit the disease.
More on Lyme How to Prevent Lyme Disease
It's Lyme Disease Time
Lyme Disease
In the Encyclopedia:
Lyme disease
This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.
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