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Comment by lupusreal | Hacker News Reader

> In most cases, a tick has to be attached for around 36 to 48 hours before the bacteria can be transmitted

That's news to me.

I live in Western Massachusetts and I can confirm this is objectively false. We have a ton of ticks here. You won't get lyme if it's on you for a few hours but if you get one on you and go to sleep you can get it by the time you wake up. It's more the longer it's on the more likely it is, but you absolutely can get it if it's been attached for only 12-18 hours.

How do you know? I also live in a tick area and typically when i have one tick on me, there are more if i look around for them.

I realize there is confirmation bias here, but ticks always seem to cause pain and inflammation after being attached for a bit

>How do you know?

I've seen it happen multiple times, once to myself.

Chronic lyme patient here, been bit twice. The first time a deer tick was attached to me for roughly 6-8 hours. I got really sick.

Here's a couple pictures next to a ruler and a penny to show how tiny the tick was:

https://imgur.com/7YpvzRb.jpg

https://imgur.com/b5sUUO3.jpg

Any treatments you’ve found to help? It’s a disaster trying to find info online.

Doxycycline worked for my Lyme infection.

I have a local doctor in my area that specializes in Lyme care. Doxycycline, Minocycline, herbs, supplements, and sleep. I have also taken the path of acupuncture and medical cannabis for supplemental pain management. Overall I'm doing better now!

Tick gut bacteria takes awhile, but tick borne viruses that multiply in their salivary glands, like Powassan virus, are much faster. 15 minutes transmissions.

It's one of those "the risk goes up the longer it's attached" type things. I can't find studies, but I presume it looks like a bell curve.

I know there's also a much higher risk of contracting diseases if you can't remove the tick in a careful way. If you smoosh it, or otherwise cause it enough distress that it regurgitates while still attached to you, that will also increase your chances.

If you live in tick areas, get a tick kit, people. They're cheap. Don't do what my dad did and use pliers.

> It's one of those "the risk goes up the longer it's attached" type things. I presume it looks like a bell curve.

These two statements contradict each other.

Not if the GP is describing the rate of change of the probability of transmission as a bell curve. We can assume 0% transmission when the bite first occurs, and assume that chance gradually plateaus at some point. That would look like an S-shaped logistic curve, whose derivative is bell-shaped.

It doesn’t—

Most tick bites take 36-48 hours before you get infected (bell hump). But sometimes you get infected quickly (left tail) and sometimes it takes longer (right tail).

That'd be an s-curve, as it's always going up - a bell curve goes up then down.

I suppose it depends on whether you’re charting the cumulative or the “instant” odds.

They’re the same thing; the bell curve is probability of being infected at time X specifically, and the S curve is the cumulative sum, that is, the probability you’ll have been infected by day X

Its well known here for past decade. Maybe having wife working as a doctor helps, but this info is freely available. Also, if you ever interacted with any doctor with suspicion of a tick bite, this is first thing they ask.

If you are outdoorsy type, this is should be around top of your list, just like knowing inside & out of say various mosquito-borne diseases and their spread vectors when traveling around.

I assume they're citing the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/transmission/index.html

Central MA, also can confirm this is false. Possibly RMSF or something other than Lyme, but you can definitely get sick from non engorged nymphs.

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