Dawson: I needed heart surgery after tick bite in city park
MATT DAWSON, the former England rugby union captain, has disclosed he underwent multiple heart operations after contracting Lyme disease from walking in a London park.
Dawson, 44, said he is still recovering two years after being infected by a tick, as experts warn this summer’s mild weather has heightened the risk of catching the disease.
Cases of Lyme disease have increased considerably in recent years, from approximately 250 officially reported cases in 2000 to nearly 3,000, although some charities claim the unreported number is as high as 45,000.
The condition has traditionally been most associated with heath and moorland areas, but scientists said yesterday it was “no surprise” that Dawson picked up the pathogen in an urban park.
Dawson said: “It was a scary time for me and my family and I was shocked to find out that a tick bite in Chiswick – such a tiny creature – caused me to end up needing heart surgery.”
The former rugby star, also known for being a long-running captain on A Question of Sport, is now free from the disease but still has to take daily medication to help his heart recover, a process he said will take a “long time”.
If left untreated, Lyme disease can lead to heart failure, meningitis, paralysis and memory problems.
It is transmitted via ticks that feed on deer, and can also be picked up from undergrowth by dogs and humans.
The increase in the number of cases is thought to be linked to Britain’s ris- ing population of deer. The proportion of ticks in the environment carrying Lyme disease is still relatively small but climbing rapidly.
In 2015, around one in 200 ticks (0.5 per cent), carried the pathogen, compared with between 2 and 6 per cent this year, depending on location.
In around two thirds of cases, a distinctive rash develops in the days that follow a tick bite. Flu-like symptoms are another indicator of the disease.
“I had two days where I felt awful – very feverish on the sofa, crashed out,” said Dawson. “I’d heard of Lyme disease before. It was something I’d always associated with places abroad, on the Continent, in America, wherever there were deer. There’s no way that I would’ve walked through a wood or a forest with my kids and gone back home and thought, ‘right, I’ll just check for some ticks just to make sure everything is fine’.”
Professor Richard Wall, a leading expert on ticks at the University of Bristol, said it can take up to 24 hours for a tick attached to human flesh to transfer the pathogen, making it worth checking for the parasites after a walk. “The peak of biting tick activity is early spring but, because of the mild summer, they will carry on biting,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
Dawson is now supporting the Big Tick Project, which aims to raise awareness about the dangers of ticks and tick-borne diseases in the UK
The project recently conducted the largest ever study of ticks in dogs, studying 14,000 canines, finding almost one in three was carrying the parasite.