The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is predicting that Lyme disease will soar this year. That means that the thousands of folks who will camp outdoors this season are at risk of contracting potentially deadly vector-borne diseases, which have tripled in incidence since 2004.

“Mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas can all carry very serious diseases that are life-threatening,” says Dr. Irwin Rediener, a professor at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Lyme disease is an especially nasty bacterial infection from infected deer tick bites and if left untreated can wreak havoc with the joints, heart and nervous system.

“The highest risk age group for contracting Lyme disease is children,” notes leading expert Robert Oley, a public health consultant, who tells Newsmax that Lyme disease is a grave health risk.

Here are his tips for protection and prevention:

1. Avoid areas where there are ticks to the maximum extent possible.
2. When outside, wear clothing treated with permethrin. This is one of the easiest things to do with big prevention payoffs.
3. If you chose not to treat your clothing yourself, you can send it to the Insect Shield facility in North Carolina. It will come back, looking the same, but with permethrin protection bonded to the fabric good for 70 washings.
4. Wear a tick repellent on your exposed skin. The product must say it repels ticks and for how long. You can buy insect repellents with chemicals such as IR3535, Picaridin, or DEET. Your can also try essential oils such as Lemon Eucalyptus Oil and Cedar Oil.
5. Keep your outdoor clothes outside the home. As soon as you come in, put your clothing in a separate hamper in the mud room or garage. As soon as you can, put the clothes in the dryer at high heart for 20 or 30 minutes to kill potential ticks.
6. Do not allow any outside pets to sleep with you or your children.
7. Treat your pets with tick repellents as recommended by your veterinarian and check them thoroughly before they enter the house.
8. Conduct a full body search when your are outdoors when family members return home or  before they gp  to bed.

If you do find a tick attached to you or a loved one, remove it promptly to prevent tick-borne infections by using pointed tweezers to grab the tick as close to the skin as possible.

Pull the tick straight out and wash the site and apply an antiseptic. Save the tick, dead or alive in a zip lock back to help a health care provider identify possible disease organisms. You should also seek immediate assistance from your health care provider to initiate protective treatment. For more information visit Bob’s Web site at www.boboley.com.