Last July, a day after a family outing to the zoo, Crystal Cochrane of Edmonton was pulling five-year-old Mikayla?s hair into a ponytail when she felt a small sesame-seed-sized bump at her daughter?s hairline, near the nape of her neck. When combing didn?t dislodge it, Crystal looked closer and discovered a tick had firmly attached itself to Mikayla?s head. ?I panicked,? Crystal recalls. ?We had heard about Lyme disease, and knew it was bad.? Wanting to know for certain whether the bite might make Mikayla sick, the Cochranes headed to the Stollery Children?s Hospital, with the tick (which they had carefully removed and placed in a sealed container) in hand.
Lyme disease, an illness that?s transmitted via the bite of an infected deer tick, is relatively rare but has been on the rise in recent years in Canada (from 144 cases in 2009 to 1,487 in 2018), with children between five and nine years being more commonly affected than most other age groups. If not treated in its early stages, Lyme disease can cause problems, such as meningitis, temporary weakness of muscles in the face and arthritis. A very small proportion of ticks also carry Powassan virus, which can cause inflammation in the brain and serious neurological symptoms. Only about 25 cases have occurred in Canada in more than 50 years, but with ticks on the rise, experts are worried the population of infected ticks may also grow. So what do you need to know to protect your kids" Learn where they lurk
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