If untreated, Lyme disease also can severely damage the heart and nervous system. The disease can even present with cardiac and neurological problems like carditis or Cranial nerve palsies, Chronic Lymphocytic Meningitis, Motor or Sensory Rediculitis, Encephalitis or Myelitis. Check yourself and your children regularly for ticks. Wear long sleeves and pants tucked into socks or boots when venturing into tick-prone areas like unmowed grass or brush. But that last bit of advice is unrealistic.
Ticks are most active in the summer when people are stripping down to shorts and bare feet.
And it's not just campers, hikers or utility workers stomping through the brush who are at risk. Till recently there was no other preventive mesure to secure protection against Lyme disease. In December 1998, the Food and Drug Administration approved the world's first Lyme vaccine, SmithKline Beecham's LYMErix . Now doctors are advising anyone age 15 to 70 who lives in Lyme-endemic states and spends time outdoors to consider being vaccinated. Tick checks recommended in high risk areas Don't panic if you get bitten by a tick without being vaccinated.