2torial #0512: Learn2 Remove a Tick (Continued) Live Safely in a Lyme Disease Area Worried about Lyme disease? You don't necessarily have to be. Not all ticks carry Lyme disease--and more importantly, tick-borne Lyme disease appears to be limited to certain geographic areas. If you're at all concerned, call your local hospital or municipal health department; they'll have information about the subject specific to your area. If you're in an area with Lyme disease, do a very careful inspection of your clothes and exposed body parts (and your pets) every time you come in from a forest or a meadow. If you'll be outdoors in tick habitats for several hours or days, check yourself and the others in your party every two or three hours. Wearing light clothes provides color contrast and improves the chances of spotting a tick. Found it! If you find a tick in a Lyme disease area, it's very important to avoid contact with your bare fingers during the removal process. Do you have a pair of tweezers with you? (Are you sure you don't? Many multi-purpose knives have a pair tucked away in the handle.) If you don't have it, use a piece of tissue paper or handkerchief to remove it. Analyze it: If the tick is difficult to remove, it may have been attached for some time. In this case, you definitely want to save the tick for laboratory analysis. Once a disease organism is identified in the tick's body, treating a human patient is pretty straightforward. Although as the disease progresses in humans, it's much more difficult to diagnose, and therefore more difficult to treat. Take the time and get it checked out. All you need is a few sturdy zip closure plastic bags, which are both light and easily compacted. -end- Learn More! or All steps at once (for ease of printing out)