May is Lyme & Other Tick-Borne Diseases Awareness Month! This is a key time to get informed as “tick season” ramps up across the country. 2025 marks 50 years since Lyme disease was first identified in the US, but progress in research, diagnosis, and treatment remains slow. Understanding Lyme and other tick-borne diseases (TBDs), including recognizing symptoms, risk factors, and prevention methods, can help protect your health and ensure timely treatment.
While Lyme disease is the most common TBD in the US, nearly 19 other tick-borne pathogens are known to cause illnesses in the US including Babesia, Bartonella, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Rickettsia, other Borrelia, and tick-borne viruses to name a few; even more occur globally. For perspective, new cases of Lyme disease alone are reaching approximately 500,000 annually—more than breast cancer, HIV, and tuberculosis combined.
Why Tick-Borne Diseases Matter
Colorado has nearly 30 tick species that carry harmful pathogens, posing risks to both humans and animals. Globally the number of tick species is over 900, and many other serious pathogens are a risk worldwide. TBD cases have tripled over a recent 13-year period and many new pathogens have been discovered in in the US and globally in recent years. A single tick can transmit multiple pathogens in just one bite. As ticks and TBDs become more prevalent, education, prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment are increasingly essential to keep the public informed and protected from the risks.
Recognizing the Symptoms of Tick-Borne Diseases
TBDs can be difficult to diagnose due to overlapping symptoms. Along with common signs like fever, chills, joint pain, and headaches, tick-borne infections can cause less known or recognized symptoms:
- Neurological Symptoms: Brain fog, facial paralysis (Bell’s Palsy), nerve pain, numbness, and weakness.
- Gastrointestinal Issues: Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and unexplained weight loss.
- Cardiovascular Symptoms: Heart palpitations, irregular heartbeat, and breathlessness.
- Musculoskeletal Symptoms: Muscle stiffness, pain, and swelling, often missed if not joint-specific.
- Skin Changes: Bull’s-eye rash (for Lyme), spotted rashes (RMSF), other atypical rashes. Rash may not occur at all even with Lyme & spotted fever cases.
- Fatigue and Malaise: Chronic, unexplained fatigue often misdiagnosed.
- Other Health Risks from Tick Bites
- Tick paralysis: Muscle weakness and paralysis caused by toxins transferred in ticks’ saliva. Most often reversible with tick removal.
- Alpha-gal allergy: An allergic reaction to a sugar in mammal meat, transferred in ticks’ saliva leading to potentially severe allergic reactions after contact/consumption with red meat or other mammalian products.
Special Considerations
- Children may show neuropsychiatric or behavioral symptoms in addition to or instead of other common TBD symptoms. Children are often unable to communicate about symptoms clearly.
- Women experience different Lyme disease symptoms than men, including rash size, response to blood test results, and severity of symptoms.
- Pregnant women can pass Lyme and other TBDs to their unborn child.
- Co-infection with two or more pathogens can make diagnosis and treatment more complex.
- Current diagnostic tests are unreliable or unavailable, so clinical evaluation is crucial.
- Ticks carrying more than one pathogen (co-infections) are increasing. Multiple pathogens can be transmitted in a single bite and may require different treatments.
- Bartonella may also be transmitted through cat scratch and biting fleas and flies.
- Many TBDs can be transmitted to blood or organ recipients.
Know Your Risks
- Tick Activity: Ticks may be active year-round, though more prevalent during “tick season.”
- Detecting ticks: Ticks are tiny and hard to spot, leaving many people that become ill unaware of being bitten.
- High-risk groups: Children, older adults, outdoor workers, and pet owners.
- Travel: Tick species and pathogens vary regionally and globally, increasing risks to different diseases.
Preventing Tick Bites
- Permethrin: Wear permethrin treated clothing and gear. Spraying even just shoes and socks reduces tick bite risk by over 70%.
- Tick repellent: Use EPA-registered tick repellents on skin.
- Protective clothing: Wear long sleeves, pants, and socks in tick-prone areas.
- Avoid tick habitats: Stay on the center of trails, avoid tall grass and dense woods.
- Shower after outdoor activities: Helps to detect ticks early.
- Dry clothes on high heat for 10 minutes: Kills ticks clinging to clothing.
- Perform frequent tick checks: Especially in areas like the scalp, armpits, groin, and behind knees. Check pets too!
- Tick removal: Use fine-tipped tweezers to remove ticks safely.
Increasing awareness, understanding your risks, recognizing symptoms, and practicing prevention can greatly reduce the risk of TBDs. Visit coloradoticks.org for more information and resources!