Protect Yourself Against Lyme Disease

The Northwestern Health Unit wants to remind the public to protect themselves from Lyme disease.
It can be transmitted to humans and animals when an infected deer tick is attached to the skin for 24-hours.
Symptoms of Lyme disease include a bull’s eye rash, fatigue, chills, headache, muscle and joint pain and swollen lymph nodes.
If left untreated, it can cause symptoms months down the road which can become chronic and affect the body.
Public Health Inspector Kurt Casey recommends picking up a Tick Kit from any one of the health unit offices.
It includes a container, tweezers, alcohol swabs and an information pamphlet on how to ID the ticks.
Casey also recommends that folks wear light clothing which makes ticks easier to spot, try to avoid grassy areas, keep covered with long sleeves and closed footwear, use repellent with DEET in it, put a tick collar on your pet and search your body after being in bushy areas.