PORT ANGELES — The ticks could drive you bats.
Worse, they could give you Lyme disease.
Worst, the bats could give you rabies, a disease that has a 100 percent fatality rate without medical intervention.
It’s summertime, and the living’s uneasy for folks who are unaware of seasonal dangers, the Clallam County Board of Health learned last week.
Christina Hurst, public health program director of the county’s Health and Human Services Department, said state health authorities were monitoring ticks on the Spruce Railroad Trail on the north shore of Lake Crescent, the Striped Peak Recreation Area and Miller Peninsula State Park.
“They have found Lyme disease in our area,” she said.
The illness, transmitted to humans by ticks, produces fever, headache, fatigue and a rash. It can be treated with antibiotic medications.
Neither the county nor the state health department tests ticks for disease, but the state Public Health Laboratories can identify a tick’s species and thus its likelihood of carrying the bacterium that causes the illness.
For details and more information about the disease and ticks — including how to remove them — visit www.doh.wa.gov.
Ways to prevent tick bites suggested by the state Department of Health include:
■ Wear long-sleeved shirts, long-legged pants and high socks, all in light colors so ticks who hitch rides on the clothes will be visible.
■ Use insect repellent.
■ Avoid walking in high grass and brush.
The other hazardous seasonal creatures are bats, the only animals known to carry rabies in Washington state.
Dr. Jeannette Stehr-Green, interim county health officer, told the board of health that close encounters with the flying rodents rise at this time of year as they migrate.
Baby bats also are learning to fly and sometimes blunder into human habitats, she said.
Rabid bats were identified in Clallam and Kitsap counties last year, in Puget Sound counties from King north to the Canadian border, and in Klickitat County, according to the state.
Human cases of rabies were reported in Washington in 1995 and 1997. Unless treated before the start of symptoms that include seizures, excessive salivation, fear of water, delirium and paralysis, it is almost always fatal.
A suspect bat or a pet thought to have been bitten by one should be reported immediately to county health authorities.
In Clallam County, call 360-417-2274.
In Jefferson County, call 360-385-9400.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
