{"id":18197,"date":"2026-05-05T09:02:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/news\/?page_id=18197"},"modified":"2026-05-05T09:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:02:39","slug":"central-shenandoah-health-district-recognizes-lyme-disease-awareness-month","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/news\/public-relations-contacts\/2026-regional-news-releases\/central-shenandoah-health-district-recognizes-lyme-disease-awareness-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Shenandoah Health District Recognizes Lyme Disease Awareness Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>May 4, 2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Media Contact:<\/strong> Rachel Dumene, <a href=\"mailto:Rachel.dumene1@vdh.virginia.gov\">Rachel.dumene1@vdh.virginia.gov<\/a>, 540-480-4998<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Central Shenandoah <\/strong><strong>Health District Recognizes Lyme Disease Awareness Month<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>STAUNTON, Va. \u2013 The Central Shenandoah Health District (CSHD) is reaching out this Lyme Disease Awareness Month to remind residents of the dangers of ticks and the diseases they can carry.<\/p>\n<p>Ticks are found across Virginia in all settings, from rural to urban, and can cause several diseases that can affect people. Ticks may be tiny and hard to spot, but they can cause a number of serious <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/ticks\/tick-borne-diseases\/\">medical problems<\/a>, including Lyme disease. Lyme disease can cause fever, headache, fatigue, muscle stiffness, and rashes. If left untreated, it can lead to facial paralysis, an irregular heartbeat, and arthritis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve seen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/surveillance-and-investigation\/virginia-communicable-disease-data\/virginia-monthly-morbidity-surveillance-report-2018\/\">cases of Lyme disease increase across the state of Virginia over the past five years<\/a>,\u201d says Xavier Crocket, Health Director of CSHD. \u201cWhile ticks are part of our outdoor environment, preparing yourself can reduce the chances of being bitten by a tick, and prevent disease.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CSHD suggests several steps you can take to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/ticks\/prevention\/\">protect yourself<\/a> from ticks when you\u2019re outside.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use an EPA-registered insect repellent.<\/li>\n<li>When outdoors in tick habitats, use repellents containing either DEET, picaridin, IR 3535, 2-undecanone, or oil of lemon eucalyptus on your skin or clothing. It&#8217;s important to always follow the instructions on the product label.\n<ul>\n<li>The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends using products containing no more than 30% DEET on children.<\/li>\n<li>Never use oil of lemon eucalyptus and para-menthane-diol on children under 3 years of age.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The repellent called \u201cpermethrin\u201d can also be used to treat clothing ahead of time; it will last on clothing, socks, and shoes for several washes. When used properly, it will kill ticks before they bite.<\/li>\n<li>Do not use any insect repellent on babies under 2 months of age.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When you\u2019re outside in tick-infested areas, get into the habit of tucking your pants legs into your socks will help prevent ticks from climbing up your shoe and sock and onto your skin. Forcing ticks to climb up the outside of your clothing will help you spot and remove ticks before they can reach your upper body. If your shoes, socks and pants were treated with permethrin, any tick that comes into contact with the treated item will usually die or become affected within a few minutes \u2013 before they can bite.<\/p>\n<p>When you come inside after being in areas with potential ticks, take these steps to find them.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Check your clothing after spending time in tick habitats. Tumble dry clothing on high heat for 10 minutes to kill any remaining ticks.<\/li>\n<li>Use a mirror or ask a friend, partner, or spouse to help check your body for ticks. Pay close attention to the armpits, the groin area, in and around ears and your hairline, belly button, backs of your knees and between your legs. All are warm, moist areas that ticks are drawn to.<\/li>\n<li>Also remember to check your children, your hiking gear, and pets for ticks, too.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you find a tick on your body, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/ticks\/tick-removal\/\">remove it<\/a> properly and promptly.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use tweezers to grasp the tick as close as possible to the skin.<\/li>\n<li>Pull upward, with steady even pressure, until the tick releases to avoid breaking the mouth parts of the tick or rupturing the tick\u2019s body.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid any method of removal that could crush, burn, or suffocate the tick.<\/li>\n<li>After the tick is removed, clean the skin and the bite area with rubbing alcohol or soap and hot water.<\/li>\n<li>Save the tick in a bag or container with rubbing alcohol for identification in case <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/ticks\/about\/index.html\">an illness<\/a> develops in the days to weeks following a tick bite.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you notice yourself feeling sick after a tick bite, contact your healthcare provider right away.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve been bitten by a tick in Virginia, you may send it to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/ticks\/tick-identification\/\">identification<\/a> and information about diseases associated with that type of tick. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/ticks\/tick-identification\/virginia-tick-survey\/\">Virginia Tick Survey<\/a> is a free service of VDH.<\/p>\n<p>For information on the number of tick-related illness cases in Virginia, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/surveillance-and-investigation\/virginia-communicable-disease-data\/virginia-monthly-morbidity-surveillance-report-2018\/\">Virginia Reportable Disease Surveillance Dashboard<\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May 4, 2026 Media Contact: Rachel Dumene, Rachel.dumene1@vdh.virginia.gov, 540-480-4998 Central Shenandoah Health District Recognizes Lyme Disease Awareness Month STAUNTON, Va. \u2013 The Central Shenandoah Health District (CSHD) is reaching out this Lyme Disease Awareness Month to remind residents of the dangers of ticks and the diseases they can carry. Ticks are found across Virginia in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":518,"featured_media":0,"parent":16853,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[195,197,1157,377,1703,1156,1154,1701,153,152,1700,1155,1702],"class_list":["post-18197","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","tag-central-shenandoah-health-district","tag-cshd","tag-deet","tag-lyme-disease","tag-lyme-disease-awareness-month","tag-permethrin","tag-tick","tag-tick-bite","tag-vdh","tag-virginia-department-of-health","tag-virginia-reportable-disease-surveillance-dashboard","tag-virginia-tick-survey","tag-xavier-crocket"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Central Shenandoah Health District Recognizes Lyme Disease Awareness Month - Newsroom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/news\/public-relations-contacts\/2026-regional-news-releases\/central-shenandoah-health-district-recognizes-lyme-disease-awareness-month\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Central Shenandoah Health District Recognizes Lyme Disease Awareness Month - Newsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May 4, 2026 Media Contact: Rachel Dumene, Rachel.dumene1@vdh.virginia.gov, 540-480-4998 Central Shenandoah Health District Recognizes Lyme Disease Awareness Month STAUNTON, Va. \u2013 The Central Shenandoah Health District (CSHD) is reaching out this Lyme Disease Awareness Month to remind residents of the dangers of ticks and the diseases they can carry. 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