September is Dental Health Month

Ticks & Lyme Disease

Lyme Disease is an infectious, tick-bourne disease that is caused by the Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium. The disease is tranmitted when an infect tick takes a blood meal from a host, injecting infected material into the host in the process. Symptoms of Lyme Disease include a characteristic bulls-eye rash (erythema migrans), fever, chills, fatigue, joint pain, and headache. Not all symptoms are necessarily present.

Ticks are eight-legged arachnids (relatives of spiders) who require a blood meal to reproduce. There several types of tick found in Nova Scotia. Only the Black-legged Tick (sometimes called the Deer Tick) carries the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria that causes Lyme Disease, and not all Black-legged Ticks are infected. The Wood Tick (sometimes called the Dog Tick) does not carry the bacteria that causes Lyme Disease. The image to the right is of a Wood Tick removed from a patient earlier this month. Note the hypostome, or straw-like mouth part, between the mandibles that is used to draw blood from a host.