Pharmacy First: Recognition of tick bites and the symptoms of Lyme disease
As we move into the warmer months, pharmacy teams may start to see people presenting with tick bites and potentially symptoms of Lyme disease.
While tick bites/Lyme disease is not treatable under the Pharmacy First clinical pathway for infected insect bites, with patients needing to be signposted onwards, patients may present with a tick bite with an erythema migrans (EM) rash – also known as a bullseye rash. Therefore understanding more about the signs and symptoms should help pharmacy teams recognise the symptoms and allow them to signpost patients as appropriate.
Lyme Disease UK is holding their annual Be Tick Aware monthly campaign in May to raise awareness of how to prevent tick bites, how to safely remove ticks and the importance of early treatment for people who become unwell, following a bite.
Lyme Disease UK has lots of information on their website for pharmacy teams including:
- Key considerations and photo examples to help diagnose the EM rash;
- A Be tick aware awareness pack – this includes posters, leaflets and tick awareness cards; and
- An animation that can be played (if you have a digital screen) in your pharmacy.
The Royal College of General Practitioners website also has a Lyme Disease e-learning toolkit which is available for other healthcare professionals to access (please note, you will need to register on the website to be able to access the e-learning).
