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SCOUTER Feature:
Lyme Disease Awareness
ALWAYS
consult your medical physician
for diagnosis and treatment of any medical condition.
by MaryAnn Gardner
Lyme
Disease and related illnesses are a serious health threat. To join with
the Lyme disease Foundation in recognizing
May as Lyme Disease Awareness Month,
SCOUTER has gathered dozens of links to web pages providing information about this
problem.
Since Scouting is built on outdoor
activities, our Scouts are going to come in contact with ticks. Our job as
leaders is to educate the scouts and each other about the dangers of tick bites, how to
attempt to prevent them, and what to do if someone is bitten.
One of the best Scouting websites I found with information on the subject
is the Gaelic Wolf Outdoors section on Tick-Borne Illnesses. Not only do
they explain the how and why of such diseases, they offer excellent illustrations to identify the
ticks.
There are informative online
publications about Lyme Disease and related illnesses. The Lyme Disease Brochure, a
public information guide, can be downloaded from The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention at the National Center for Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, Georgia.
Several online newsletters are available:
"Spotlight on Lyme" from
the Lyme Alliance, ICTTD Newsletter from the European
Integrated Control of Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases project, LymeTruth
edited by Douglas Dodge, and the Lymenet from The Lyme Disease Network
To help them understand more about Lyme Disease, your
Scouts can listen on the Lyme Disease
Audio Network as medical and research personnel and their patients talk about their
experiences.
Browsing through our group of links you can become acquainted with the sypmtoms of tick-borne
diseases, as listed by the University of Rhode Island, and read the personal stories of victims of such
illnesses on the Fine Print website.
You can take a look at an actual bull's eye rash, as shown
on the Berntsen Family's site, or become familiar with the terms used when talking
about tick-borne illness.
The Tick-borne Disease Educational Foundation provides a list of preventive measures to minimize tick
bites, what do if you find an attached tick, and the proper use of insect repellants.
Remember, you can reduce your chances of
being bitten by:
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Wearing light colored clothing
so ticks can be easily found
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Wearing long-sleeved shirts and
long pants
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Tucking pant legs into socks or
boots and tucking shirts into pants
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Wearing a hat.
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Treating clothing with insect
repellent containing DEET (Caution: Follow ALL product use safety precautions)
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Avoid brush and tall grass at
the edges of hiking trails.
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Remove outdoor clothing
immediately when you return home and launder at high temperatures.
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Inspect yourself for ticks and
remove any that are attached.
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If
you are bitten by a tick, ALWAYS save it so correct identification and testing for Lyme
disease can be done. BUDDY
TAG IT - In Scouting we have two very useful and readily available tools for keeping up with
tick bites. After removing a tick, find a 35mm plastic film cannister and then use a Buddy Tag
to mark where & when and from whom the tick was removed. Any Summer Camp
Health Lodge should have both of these items, and they should become a
part of your troop First Aid Kit.
SCOUTER
cautions our visitors that we are NOT medical experts. We cannot and do not verify that
information available on the Internet is correct. These links and their data should be
used for information ONLY. ALWAYS consult your medical physician for diagnosis and
treatment.
Related Compass Point- Rocky
Mountain Spotted Fever |
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