October 9th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in News, True Stories
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Thanks to Glenn Reynolds over at InstaPundit, I learned that motor vehicle collisions with deer are up 18% compared to 5 years ago.
State Farm calculates the chances of a West Virginia vehicle striking a deer over the next 12 months at 1 in 39. Michigan remains second on that list. The likelihood of a specific vehicle striking a deer there is 1 in 78. Pennsylvania (1 in 94) and Iowa (1 in 104) remain third and fourth respectively. Montana (1 in 104) moved up three places to fifth.
Now, aside from the fact that deer present challenges to our driving friends in West Virgina, Michigan, and beyond – they are also the definitive host for Lyme disease. Ticks feed on the deer (who, by the way, become infected with Lyme spirochetes but suffer no symptoms) and on unsuspecting humans – passing the infection along. And so when deer populations increase, Lyme disease often does too. Read more »
August 9th, 2009 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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Dr. Jeremy Joslin is a wilderness medicine aficionado and has without question posted the greatest number of intelligent and useful comments to posts at this blog. So, I’m pleased to learn that he has created a very useful iPhone application named TickDoctor.
TickDoctor provides a stunning visual atlas of the most common ticks encountered in North America. Although not yet comprehensive, most common ticks are represented. For each tick species, the user is able to identify males, females, and nymphs. In many instances, there are included images of the engorged female, which often looks very different from its non-fed state.
More than just a beautiful atlas, TickDoctor provides instructions for prevention of tick bites and how to remove them if bites should occur. If a bite has occurred, or if you’re just plain curious, Dr. Joslin has included medically relevant data on each species, describing which diseases have been associated with it.
While this application should never substitute for the advice of a physician, it will help guide you to the identification of the tick in question and provide a framework of reference for dealing with “what to do next.”
I’ve been informed by Jeremy that, “if you have a great photo of a tick and want it considered for the next application update, let me know. You can do this by posting a comment and I’ll follow up with you. We’re always interested in making the atlas better.”
This post, The iPhone TickDoctor, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..