Backcountry,    lyme disease

Let's Be Careful Out There: The Lyme Disease Risk Map

By Tom Chandler 2/15/2012

You contract Lyme disease from ticks, and it's a nasty little disease -- something fly fishermen should watch for when they're not too drunk to notice.

A group Yale researchers ran a multi-year study to find the high risk areas in the eastern United States:



See you going tick, tick, tick.... Tom Chandler.

(Hat tip to Chile Underground).

AuthorPicture

Tom Chandler

As the author of the decade leading fly fishing blog Trout Underground, Tom believes that fishing is not about measuring the experience but instead of about having fun. As a staunch environmentalist, he brings to the Yobi Community thought leadership on environmental and access issues facing us today.

10 comments
Thanks for sharing that story. Good tip about the second test.
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lyme happens. and be warned, just because you think you're proactive on it doesn't mean it won't get WAY out of hand. spring i came down with a fever. i thought i might have lyme. i went to a doctor and had a lyme test done. it came back negative. i didn't have a rash, so must not be lyme. fever went. lots of other things happened, easily written off to other issues (pulled back meant pain in knees, ... more pain meant no sleep, no sleep meant decreased mental acuity), etc. one day i woke up, and it looked like i had a stroke. doctor says, "bell's palsy." i say, "lyme causes that!" doctor says, "so does random infection i treated you for, and other things. your lyme test was neg. suck it up." weeks go by with half a face, i get referred to neurologist. neurologist goes over symptoms, all the random side effects and everything. neuro says, "you've got lyme." i say, "test was negative!" he says, "you took it too quickly. body didn't develop antibodies." catch that, people? i should've had a second test a week or two after my first! i reacted fast enough to the whole thing that my body wasn't producing the neccessary antibodies to flag a test as positive. fwiw, because the lyme progressed to its point (albeit far quicker than normal), i not only had bell's palsy (4.5 months), but loss of all facial movment (CNS lyme, 3 weeks), standard oral medication didn't cut it (PICC line, 30 days of self-admin'd IV drugs), and a book's worth of blood tests, MRIs and assorted other tests. deet doesn't fight ticks, permanone will help fight ticks, but is expensive and i don't trust it 100%. only protection is to cover yourself (long sleeves, long pants, and a hat) and shower when you get home (prevents them from digging in). i lost my spring, summer, and fall to lyme (and cancer, which the lyme testing discovered), so i might suggest that avoiding lyme is 100% in your best interests. unless you suspect you've got cancer, then CNS lyme is a great way to have yourself gone over with a fine tooth comb by expensive specialists. :)
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Rick: First off, my wife and enjoy vacationing in Wisconsin. So thank you. Another satisfied customer.
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Professor: It’d be nice to see a similar map for the western U.S.I know of a lot of cases in northern California. Personally, I'm all for ignorance in this matter, especially since I'm pretty sure my little part of the world would also be bright red.
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BWOs Everywhere: And I thought this map was High Risk for catching lots of Trout. Yeah, like I'm posting that map for the Undergrounders...
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You're doomed. If you find a tick and feel yourself starting to slip away, be sure to send any expensive gear to us for safekeeping while you (ahem) recover...
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First off, my wife and enjoy vacationing in Wisconsin. So thank you. Second off, I would always get ticks while working in the sand dunes along the shores of Lake Michigan. Right where the little red x is on the west side of the state. It is in a yellow shaded area according to the map. Deet works.
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And I thought this map was High Risk for catching lots of Trout. See you covered in DEET.....
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It'd be nice to see a similar map for the western U.S. I know of a lot of cases in northern California.
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Great. I live in Wisconsin, so the best I can hope for is a transitional area that is a 5 hour drive from my house.
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