Belmont County Experts Educate on Lyme Disease as Cases Rise
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Belmont County’s case count for Lyme disease continues to grow, even with the county having the most in the state at 189 cases.
To help curve the rise, Ohio State University postdoctoral researcher Troy Koser and the Belmont County Health Department teamed up on Thursday evening at Ohio State University Extension's Belmont County location to inform residents on how to stay safe from ticks.
Koser spoke to the crowd of residents informing them his lab works broadly on tick and tick-borne disease issues.
He said Belmont County has an impressive Lyme Disease case count for its population, meaning its incidence rate is large.
"Looking at the landscape, it looks like a great habitat for the tick that transmits Lyme disease, the black-legged tick. This part of Ohio, in general, tends to have the type of forest patches intermingled with residential communities and kind of those like small-ish rural mixed agricultural areas too that tend to lead to a lot of Lyme risk," Koser said. "Belmont and the counties surrounding it, to be honest, tend to be in this nexus of the perfect habitat for this tick, and then very good habitat for the two hosts that it needs to have around to do well."
He added the two hosts the black-legged tick needs are deer and white-footed field mice and said Belmont County’s landscape is perfect for it.
For Belmont County the tick that carries Lyme disease is the black-legged tick, which are most active in spring and are quite large.
"In Belmont, we’re very concerned about the black-legged tick, the Lyme disease vector. One of the life stages that’s really important for that tick here is the nymph, and that’s active for the most part in the spring and early summer. If it’s nice and warm in March all the way through early June, that’s a really important time when people are getting excited to go out," Koser said. "The same thing will be true for when the adults come back out in the fall. That tends to be when people are excited after winter to go out and go on hikes and to get their garden ready, but that’s when you want to be looking out for ticks."
Koser said the middle of summer sometimes has decreased tick activity, but they can be active whenever it’s nice outside.
He said the best ways to protect yourself tend to look a little bit goofy, but their effectiveness is no laughing matter. One suggestion, Koser said, is to wear long pants and try to tuck your pants into your socks.
"If you could tuck your shirt into your pants, that will help make it so the first thing that that tick can really attach onto would be right around your neck and on your arms. The chances of it making it all the way up there are much lower than if you give it a chance to attach right around your ankles or lower down on your body," Koser said. "If you’re interested in repellents, make sure you’re following EPA protocols. There are far fewer EPA approved repellents and acaricides for ticks than one would think. So make sure you’re looking for something that is approved for ticks and not just mosquitoes."
He recommended the use of Permethrin treated clothing, which is a product specifically made for treating clothing from ticks and mosquitos.
"It’s great because it lasts through multiple washings. So every time we are going to go out during a tick season to do field work, we’ll treat our clothing beforehand. You let it dry, and it lasts for multiple washings, which, if you spend a lot of time gardening, out in the field, or hiking, but you’re wearing pretty similar clothes during all of that, then I would consider treating those clothes. That’s how we protect ourselves."
He added whenever you come back inside, make sure you do a really good tick check on your body and clothing.
Belmont County Health Department Director of Nursing Gabby Timko and registered nurse Jenna Cunningham then spoke to the residents in attendance.
Timko said when a tick bites you, it gets in your skin and feeds on your blood. Many of the ticks-but not all-carry disease-causing pathogens and organisms capable of getting in bloodstream.
"Sometimes it’s days, sometimes it’s weeks before you start developing symptoms. Some of the early effects are very vague, and a lot of times I know that I have two friends that are nurse practitioners who see a lot of patients. If you come in and tell them that you have muscle aches and you’re tired, they’ll test you for Lyme disease. Even if you’re just like an outdoor person, they’ll just test you anyway," Timko said. "It’s that common here that they want to test for it if you have headaches, swollen lymph nodes, nausea, loss of appetite, and the famous bullseye rash. However, a lot of times, and we’ve seen a lot of them lately, there is no bullseye rash."
Cunningham added especially in kids, knee pain and headaches are the main symptoms. She said she also sees a lot of Bell’s Palsy in Lyme disease cases, which causes weakness or paralysis in one side of the face.
"Sometimes it can present as a stroke too. So if you ever have that numbness on one side of your body or your face, make sure you get straight to the ER," Cunningham said.
She added some other symptoms include severe headaches, stiff neck, confusion, and tingling in your arms and legs.
Cunningham said people who have past medical history such as diabetes can even get meningitis, which is the area of the brain and spinal cord becoming inflamed.
Koser added the Ohio Department of Health website has up-to-date information on what times of season to look out for ticks, depending on the ticks that are of importance for each specific part of Ohio. This information is available at https://odh.ohio.gov/know-our-programs/zoonotic-vector-borne-diseases/diseases/tickborne-diseases.