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Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Panic / Health WARNING: Summer Can Kill You!

Posted by Goldy on Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 10:56 AM

The Washington State Department of Health just issued a news release advising you on how to "Protect yourself against the bites, stings, and disease risk of summer’s pests," and it starts out innocuously enough, giving tips on how to avoid fly bites and bee stings and such.

And then it starts to get scary. Fatal allergic reactions, Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, hantavirus, West Nile virus, and ominous sounding stuff like "tick paralysis" and "relapsing fever." I never even heard of those last two. It's apparently so dangerous out there that DOH even has its own Zoonotic Diseases web site.

The takeaway is, nature is a killer, especially the small or invisible creatures, so whatever you do, DON'T STEP OUTDOORS!!! Either that or, you know, use a little bug spray when hiking, and take reasonable precautions.

Comments (11) RSS

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And the sun gives you cancer. Summer is pure evil.

Posted by very bad homo on August 2, 2011 at 11:00 AM

@1 Thank God we have so little of it!

Posted by Goldy on August 2, 2011 at 11:02 AM

I mean honestly, is it over yet?

Posted by very bad homo on August 2, 2011 at 11:13 AM

They totally left out leishmaniasis.

Posted by Joe M on August 2, 2011 at 11:21 AM

mmm, the safety of drenching yourself in chemicals

Posted by Andy_Squirrel on August 2, 2011 at 11:26 AM

How did we ever survive all those millions of years ago living in caves?

Posted by suddenlyorcas on August 2, 2011 at 11:30 AM

Um, by and large, we didn't, @6. You're probably already older than most cavemen/women ever got to.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on August 2, 2011 at 11:39 AM

New Column! Goldy's Alarmism DOs and DON'Ts!

DO: Factory-Farmed Chicken, Japan
DON'T: Lyme Disease, Allergies

Please be sure to update this list regularly. Like most people, I require detailed instructions on when to lose my shit over serious but rare threats to my health and when to ignore them.

Posted by blip on August 2, 2011 at 12:17 PM

It's no joke, people. I was dx'ed this summer with a tick-borne illness. Either RMSF or Erlichiosis, from a tick bite in the North Carolina woods.

My summer lesson learned: Unexplained fever, tick exposure rash or eschar sighting: get thee to doxycycline immediately!

Posted by emma's bee on August 2, 2011 at 5:10 PM

All fantastic reasons that I always cite whenever someone complains that I spend all day at my computer.

Posted by Knat on August 2, 2011 at 8:10 PM

Having two children with late-stage Lyme disease in treatment, trust me, dousing ourselves in chemicals to prevent a tick bite is preferable. I wish I had dipped them in DEET to avoid this horrible debilitating disease for which there is no cure, only remission, which I pray comes for them soon. They never had a bulls-eye rash and went undiagnosed for years.

Posted by morningchild on August 3, 2011 at 11:58 AM