“We have started seeing an uptick in cases in our emergency rooms,” Medstar Health’s Dr. Chloe McCoy told WTOP News.<\/p>\n
Every year, 31 million people in the United States are bitten by a tick.<\/a> But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said reports of tick bites are higher than normal for this time of year.<\/p>\n The weekly rates of emergency room visits due to tick bites are the highest they\u2019ve been since 2017, according to the CDC.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe have started seeing an uptick in cases in our emergency rooms, with people coming in either with concerns after being bit by a tick or with symptoms that may be concerning for tick-borne illness, such as Lyme disease,\u201d Dr. Chloe McCoy, an emergency room doctor with MedStar Health, told WTOP.<\/p>\n McCoy said people who believe they were bitten by a tick should tell healthcare providers where they were at the time. The location provides clues about the type of tick and the illness its bite could cause.<\/p>\n She said the most common tick-borne illness in the D.C. region is Lyme disease.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most common symptom that I think people attribute to Lyme disease, in particular, is a characteristic rash, which sometimes may look like a bull\u2019s eye,\u201d McCoy said.<\/p>\n But you can still contract Lyme disease from a bite that doesn\u2019t result in that distinctive bull\u2019s eye pattern.<\/p>\n Not every contact with a tick will result in Lyme disease.<\/p>\n \u201cA tick needs to be attached, meaning it needs to have bitten the skin and remain attached for, typically, between 24 to 48 hours for it to even transmit any sort of illness,\u201d McCoy explained.<\/p>\n Lyme disease symptoms typically appear within three to 30 days, McCoy said, and they usually start with a rash that expands over a period of days. Other symptoms of Lyme disease can include severe headaches, neck pain, facial palsy, heart palpitations and dizziness or shortness of breath.<\/p>\n