Leadermanual.pdf

Problems associated with various ticks have been widely reported throughout much of the country including the areasurrounding Tomahawk Scout Reservation in Wisconsin. With proper planning and education, tick problems can beminimized. To assist troops with educating campers, the staff at Tomahawk has prepared the following plan: All campers should wear a good quality insect repellant when they are in the woods. The most effective repel-lants contain at least 30% Deet (or Permethrin).
Aerosol containers are prohibited in camp. Please advise Scouts to invest in insect repellant in a pump spray orsqueeze bottle.
Review tick information that is available in your camp program room. Share this information with the Scouts andleaders in your troop.
Make “tick checks”part of the daily routine at camp.
Scouts should be reminded every day to check for ticks.
Having a buddy such as a tent mate assist is a good idea. Regular showers will also help with early detection.
Provide the parent tick information sheet to every Scout leader to give to parents upon your troop’s return home.
This is available in your program room and will be distributed at the Thursday afternoon roundtable.
See your camp health officer or camp director if you have additional questions.
Lyme disease is an infectious disease that can cause a wide variety of signs and symptoms. It is the result of aninfection with a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi, which is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected ticks.
The symptoms of Lyme disease can vary a great deal from one case to the next.
In general, early signs and symptoms appear 3 to 32 days after a tick bite and include fever, fatigue, headache, ach-ing joints, nausea, and often a characteristic skin rash. This rash, which occurs in about 70% of people with Lymedisease, tends to be roughly circular in shape, and is usually found at the site of the tick bite, although multiplerashes may often occur at other sites. In time, as the rash lesion gets larger, the center becomes clear (not red-dened). The early symptoms may disappear on their own over a period of several weeks.
If Lyme disease is not treated when the early symptoms are present, many persons will develop late symptoms ofthe disease. These may occur weeks to even years after the initial exposure and can involve the joints, nervoussystem and heart.
Severe headache, stiff neck, weakness and/or pain in extremities, and facial paralysis (Bell’s palsy) can result if thenervous system is affected.
If Lyme disease affects the heart, conduction disturbances in the heart can result, which may produce fainting spellsor an abnormally slow heart rate.
Arthritis of the large joints is a common problem in the later stage of Lyme disease. The arthritis may be intermittentand in some persons may move from joint to joint.
Remember that an individual with Lyme disease will likely have only a few of the above symptoms, and that the earlyand later stages of the illness may overlap.
Problems associated with mosquitoes are not widely reported throughout the Midwest region including the area sur-rounding Tomahawk Scout Reservation in Wisconsin but they do exist. In 2001 the first case of West Nile virus wasfound in infected birds in the United States. Very few mosquitoes carry the virus and there have only been 12 casesof West Nile found in humans in Wisconsin. Most people infected with the West Nile virus DO NOT become ill.
Wearing insect repellant, long pants and long sleeve shirts, and using mosquito netting at night will greatly decreaseyour chances of getting mosquito bites at camp.
If a tick or mosquito related illness develops after camp, please report this information to Northern Star Council / BSA at 651-254-9133.

Source: http://www.troop114.us/PDF/LymeDisease09.pdf