May is National Lyme Disease Awareness Month, and it’s an excellent time for everyone to take the necessary precautions to protect, not only your pets, but your family from this disease.

Lyme disease is, by far, the most common tick-borne disease in the United States. Spring and summer are when you need to be most wary, since the ticks that spread the disease are most active in May, June, and July.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, a spiral shaped bacterium that is most commonly transmitted by a tick bite. The disease takes its name from Lyme, Connecticut, where the illness was first identified in the United States in 1975.

“This disease will always be with you. The spirogens, which are the disease component in the ticks bite, are stored in the Gallbladder and can be released back into the blood stream when you are under severe stress,” said English teacher Sharon Krasney. “This disease attaches to the nervous system and drains magnesium from muscles causing an overall feeling of lethargy and forgetfulness.”

Some doctors and Lyme disease patients have argued that Lyme disease can evade courses of antibiotics and become a chronic infection that needs long-term antibiotic treatment, even though conventional antibody tests are negative.

Chronic Lyme disease has been blamed for causing pain, fatigue, muscle aches, cognitive short comings and a host of other problems.

“I had a huge rash on my stomach and a great deal of joint pain” said Norden.

“I thought I had it once because I had a tick on me and I felt really tired and sore for two weeks” said junior Stephanie Sharp.

“If you experience a fever and chills shortly after a tick bite, go see your doctor and tell them what you have and about the bite,” said Krasney.

Common location includes hard-to-see places like the groin and the armpits. The rash may ot appear until weeks after the tick has detached nd is long gone. People ith Lyme disease often miss the tick that initiated the disease.

So make sure you not only check your pets but be sure to thoroughly check yourselves as ell.