By Marlene CimonsSpecial to The Washington Post When Neal Nemhauser, 76, a retired accountant from Portland, Ore., visited a friend in Pennsylvania a few years ago, his friend’s part-time outdoor cat curled in his lap. He didn’t notice that a tiny tick had made its way onto his body through an opening in his shirt.
Several days later, an inflamed bull’s eye rash appeared on his stomach where the arachnid had landed. Two weeks later, he was ill with Lyme disease. (He fully recovered after taking antibiotics.
) “I was sicker than I have ever been,” he said, with chills, fever, night sweats, coughing, appetite loss, headache, extreme fatigue and bloody urine. “I was sleeping for most of the first week and unable to eat. The coughing was painful and scary when I couldn’t take a breath.
Even the energy to get to the bathroom was a major effort.” As temperatures rise and people begin spending more time outdoors, the risk of tick exposure also increases. “This is the time of year,” said Kiersten Kugeler, an epidemiologist who specializes in vector-borne diseases with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It’s important to raise awareness and remind people of the steps they can take to protect themselves.” We asked experts how people can keep themselves and their pets safe from ticks. Here’s what they had to say.
– – – What diseases do ticks carry? The answer depends on where you live. Ticks can be found in every state. However, in the Unit.
