Tick Bites and Lyme Disease
Most UK festivals take place in fields or on farmland. Even Reading Festival which is walking distance from the heart of the city takes place on a farm. And where there is farm land and animals, there are likely to be ticks. This year the Eisteddfod is in a town but there may still be ticks around. If you find a tick attached to your skin while you are at a festival, your best option is to go to one of the medical centres which may be stocked with tick removal tools – these remove the whole tick, including the head. If you try to remove it yourself using old fashioned methods such as a lit cigarette, there is every chance you will leave the head of the tick in your skin and you run the risk of a local infection in the bite.
Most tick bites are harmless, but each year between 2,000 and 3,000 people in the UK go on to develop a condition called Lyme Disease after being bitten by a tick. The longer the tick stays attached to your skin, the more likely you are to develop Lyme Disease if the tick is carrying the infection.
Symptoms don’t appear until between 3 days and a month after being bitten and may include a circular rash where the bite occurred, feeling a bit ‘flu-ey’ with joint pains, chills and tiredness. If you don’t seek medical treatment the symptoms can become much more serious, so it is important to see your doctor and mention you have had a tick bite. They can prescribe a course of antibiotics, and again it is important to complete the whole course, don’t stop taking them when you start feeling better!
For more information please see: