Emergency rooms are seeing more tick-bite visits mainly because there are more ticks and more bites. But there is also greater public awareness of tick-borne disease, which makes people more likely to seek care.
More people are going to the ER for tick bites now. It's a serious enough situation for health officials to have flagged it. And the reasons this is happening are worth understanding so you can take care of yourself.
First, there are more ticks. Their range is expanding and there is a greater number of them across the region. Warming temperatures stretch their active season into new months. This combination creates massive populations and provides numerous opportunities for humans to encounter them.
At the same time, people know more about tick-borne illness than they did in the past. A few decades ago, nearly no one was talking about Lyme disease. That means people are more likely to seek medical attention for a rash or flu-like symptoms if they need it. This is good, plain and simple, but it does skew the numbers upward.
Warmer seasonal temperatures are also at least partly to blame. Health systems have been able to link tick-bite visits to warm stretches. It’s not surprising either since warm spells both bring ticks out of dormancy and make people eager to spend time outdoors.
It’s a good idea to know when a tick bite warrants medical attention. Most bites can be handled at home. You remove the tick promptly and then keep an eye on the area. Reasons to see a provider include a tick that was attached for a long time or is hard to remove, an expanding or bull's-eye rash, or flu-like symptoms in the days to weeks after a bite.
If you’re looking for more you can do, you can always cut down on the tick population on your property where you spend the most time. For this, Mosquito Squad of Chicago can help. Mosquito Squad reduces the ticks around your property so there are far fewer bites to worry about. This can help you to protect your family with up to 90% reduction in pest activity on a recurring 21-day cycle.
