Hi Hobjob,
I have Lyme disease and co-infections as a result of a tick bite in the UK and so I believe that fore-warned is fore-armed. If I can prevent only one person from falling victim to the illness ticks can transmit then my comments will have been worth it. I certainly don't want to be alarmist. Not all tick bites carry infection but I believe that if we treated ALL ticks as potential infection carriers and developed a healthy respect for the diseases they can transmit then we would be doing ourselves a favour.
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1. Wearing gloves for removing ticks - probably is the counsel of perfection, but risk of infection via intact skin must be remote - but not proven to be nil I suspect.
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The recommendation of wearing gloves for tick removal is due to the fact that infection can enter through a small break in the skin, on a finger say, or in the case of intact skin can still be transmitted via mucous membranes (for instance if you removed a tick with your finger and then stuck the same finger up your nose....lol).
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2. Keeps saying go to your GP.
Waste of time in absence of signs of skin rash, symptoms of Lyme disease, or local infection with redness and pus (in UK in 06) as I have said before, as current advice is not to treat on basis of bite alone.
3. "Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis (HGE) has emerged as an important
human health concern since 1990 .......... Ehrlichiosis can also be fatal."
"Babesiosis is another common infection transmitted by a tick bite"
Errrr ................ whilst it may be important if you get it, as a GP I have never heard of these in UK, so a bit over stated methinks, and thus a bit alarmist. If it was an important human health concern it would be subject to information from the chief medical officer and a common topic in the medical weekly papers.
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The BADA site's message is that the best defense is knowledge, and they are merely covering all eventualities. I'm sure they do not wish to be alarmist either, and the main aim of the site focuses on prevention.
I just feel that it's far better to know your enemy.