May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month

Cormode was bitten by a tick in 2012 and has the disease herself.

“I didn’t know anything about Lyme disease [and] I’d been told there wasn’t any [ticks] here on the west coast, where I live,” she told LNN.

She said the tick was “so tiny” and they can be tough to detect at first, so it’s important to check over your body after playing outdoors to ensure a tick hasn’t latched onto you.

Ticks are very small and can be tough to see (Photo: Sarah Cormode/CanLyme)

Cormode explained that, “when you’re spending time outdoors, you can wear long pants because they’ll generally start at your feet and crawl up to find a hot spot on your body.”

“So, at the end of your day, once you’ve had your awesome outdoor adventure or if you’re working outside with your cattle or something, you just want to make sure you check for ticks.”

She noted key areas to check are your head, eyes, armpits and groin.

“If you do find a tick, you want to make sure you remove it properly and submit it for testing to see if that tick is carrying any pathogens, because with ticks, they can carry more than just Lyme disease. They can carry lots of different diseases that can make you even sicker sometimes,” Cormode added.

“If you have children, it’s really important to check behind their knees, and sometimes even between your toes.”

She recounted how when bitten in 2012, she went from being “super healthy and active” to a sudden onset of headaches.

“My brain function just deteriorated so quickly to the point that I honestly couldn’t put words into sentences, I couldn’t do basic things like remembering to put my car in park,” she shares.

“It was really scary because I was aware of what was going on, but I didn’t (truly) know what was going on.”

Cormode said the severity of her sickness caused her to take a long time getting help.

“I did end up going down to the States to get diagnosed and get treatment. It took a long time to get better, but I am pretty much 100 per cent again, which is awesome, and I just don’t want other people to go through the same experience I did.”

A tick removal kit from CanLyme (Photo provided by Sarah Cormode, CanLyme)

May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month, and Cormode said the goal is to educate people, not to scare them.

She issued some reassurance, explaining that, “If a tick is crawling on your body, they can’t transmit the disease that way. They actually have to be there feeding for several days to be able to transmit any pathogen into you.”

Cormode added that anyone who is bitten by a tick should not be alarmed and should just remove the tick properly with an item like tweezers and submit it for testing.

TICK MAP

Cormode told LNN she’s been working with Justin Wood, the CEO of Ontario-based laboratory Geneticks.

The lab has developed an interactive map outlining data like Lyme disease infection prevalence, seasonal tick activity and regional species composition. Wood unveiled the map on Cormode’s podcast.

People can submit ticks they’ve been bitten by for Geneticks to compile the data for its interactive map.

Said Cormode: “They did a lot of work compiling this data from across Canada. If you look at the map, you won’t see many ticks submitted from Alberta and I think that’s probably because people don’t know that this service is out there.”

“On there, you’ll see all of the information as far as what kind of tick species people are encountering, the ones that they’re submitting for testing and you’ll also see whether they’re carrying any pathogens or Lyme disease.”

The map can be accessed through the Geneticks website.

by Justin Goulet (Lethbridge News Now)

May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month

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