DDESS/Fort Knox/Mudge Primary School

Tick Bite Information

Spring is here and so are the ticks and tick bites.

Organisms causing Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever are spread by tick bites.  These diseases usually occur from spring through early fall.Deer ticks may carry Lyme Disease.  Common symptoms:  Ring-shaped rash, flu-like symptoms and arthritis; later, the disease affects joints, heart, and nervous system.Dog ticks may carry Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.  Common symptoms:  Spotted rash, high fever, chills, and severe headache.If your child has been bitten by a tick, the Preventative Medicine Clinic at Ireland Army Community Hospital will have it analyzed at Fort Meade, Maryland, to see if it is infected with a disease.  This is what you must do:

The tick must be removed intact and alive.  This can easily be done with tweezers or with your clean fingers.  Grasp the tick close to the child's skin and apply a gentle but firm pull.  The tick will usually let go of the skin.  Larger ticks may be grasped by your fingers and with gentle back and forth motion, loosened and then pulled firmly out.Put the tick in a container such as a zip lock bag.  Put a few strands of grass and a few drops of water in the bag.  We will do these things at school if a tick is found imbedded on your child.  We will send the tick home to you.

Take the tick to the Preventative Medicine Clinic at Ireland Army Community Hospital located on the sixth floor of the hospital A Wing.  (6A, 7:30-4:30)  Telephone number 624-0502.  POC:  SGT Fournier.

If the tick is dead, it cannot be tested only identified.  Just remember the above symptoms, mark the date of the bit on your calendar, and take your child to the physician for evaluation if any of the symptoms appear after a tick bite.  If the live tick is tested and found to carry disease, Fort Knox receives a report and you will be notified an urged to seek treatment.

If you have questions, please call the school nurse at 624-2539 between 12:00 - 3:30 p.m..