Lyme disease secondary prevention

Prevention
The currently recommended prevention practices are to avoid areas where ticks are found, wear clothing that covers the entire body when in a wooded area, use mosquito/tick repellent after exposure to wooded areas, and check all parts of the body (including hair) and clothing for ticks. Attached ticks should be removed promptly.

Protective clothing includes long-sleeve shirts and pants that are tucked into socks or boots. Also, light-colored clothing makes the tick more easily visible before it attaches itself.

A more effective, community wide method of preventing Lyme disease is to reduce in numbers the primary hosts on which the deer tick depends.

Management of host animals
Lyme and all other deer-tick borne diseases can be prevented on a regional level by reducing the deer population that the ticks depend on for reproductive success. This has been effectively demonstrated in the communities of Monhegan, Maine and in Mumford Cove, CT. . The black-legged or deer tick (Ixodes scapularis) depends on the white-tailed deer for successful reproduction.

By reducing the deer population back to healthy levels of 8 to 10 per square mile (from the current levels of 60 or more deer per square mile in the areas of the country with the highest Lyme disease rates) the tick numbers can be brought down to very low levels, too few to spread Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.

Removal of ticks
Many urban legends exist about the proper and effective method to remove a tick. Complete removal of the tick head is important; if the head is not completely removed, local infection of bite location may result. Data has demonstrated that prompt removal of an infected tick, within approximately one day, reduces the risk of transmission to effectively zero percent.