Exploring Lyme Disease Prevalence and Co-Infections in California

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Exploring the misconceptions and prevalence of Lyme disease in California, emphasizing the importance of considering it in medical diagnoses, particularly in high-risk areas. The chapter also touches on the presence of co-infections in ticks and the possibility of concurrent illnesses alongside Lyme disease.

Lyme Disease! Powassan virus! That Lonestar tick meat allergy! Paralysis ticks! Acarology taught us all about the eight-legged villains that aim for our crevices, but Disease Ecologist Dr. Andrea Swei offers a deep dive under the skin to learn more about what nasties a tick can give us. We chat a whole bunch about Lyme Disease: its prevalence, testing, treatment, which animals carry it, “chronic Lyme” vs. post-treatment Lyme. We also cover how lizards might harbor a helpful protein, two Ukrainian princesses by the names of Borrelia and Babesia, why you'll want chickens and possums hanging out at your barbecues, Lyme vaccines, pet care, symptoms, prevention and what scares her most. This one's a wonderful episode on its own, but is even better as a follow up to Acarology: the nightmare lesson of how ticks work.

Listen to the Acarology (TICKS) episode: alieward.com/ologies/acarology

Follow Dr. Swei on Twitter @Andeswei or @SweiLab

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