Is It the Summer Flu or Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease—although traditionally marked by the bull's-eye rash—can cause flu-like symptoms, according to Connecticut-based Lyme Research Alliance. The LRA provides tips to protect against ticks to prevent Lyme disease and how to check for ticks.

You’ve been enjoying a wonderfully relaxing summer—sunning, grilling, spending time in the great outdoors—so why have you suddenly developed a fever, chills, muscle and joint aches, and feel totally drained? If you’re suffering from a flu-like illness, it could mark the beginning of Lyme disease.

“Although many people associate Lyme with the hallmark bull’s-eye rash, less than 50 percent develop one,” said Debbie Siciliano, co-president of Lyme Research Alliance. “If you develop what seems like a summer-time flu, and you live in or have visited an area where deer ticks are found, it’s important that you see a doctor and get tested for Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses.”

July and early August are prime months for tick trouble because the insect-like creatures are in their “nymph” stage, about the size of a poppy seed, and are hard to detect. Their tiny size permits them to painlessly attach to your skin and feed on your blood—often unnoticed—for days. They also tend to attach themselves to parts of the body that you don’t readily see, like the armpits, groin, behind the knee, and scalp.

In an interview with Lyme Research Alliance, Kirby Stafford III, Ph.D., vice director/chief scientist of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, said nymph ticks are more active this year than they have been recently. “We don’t know why, but we’re seeing more nymphal activity in Connecticut than in the past few years,” said Stafford, also the state entomologist.

If an infected tick transmits the Lyme spirochete into your bloodstream, you don’t feel anything. The corkscrew shaped bacterium burrows into and through your tissues, where it starts multiplying. In as soon as three days, you can start to feel sick as the bacteria disseminate throughout your body.