Running through meadows, exploring woods and picnicking in parks are the classic joys of summer holidays. Yet something nasty may be lurking in that beautiful British countryside, a tiny tick that can suck your blood and infect you with a debilitating and even fatal illness — Lyme disease.
Lyme infections appear to be getting more common across the UK. Experts fear that our changing climate, with its mild winters and warm, wet springs and summers, is increasing the proliferation of the tiny ticks that transmit the Lyme disease infection, a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi.
The first symptom is often a bullseye-shaped rash, called erythema migrans, around the bite. In the early stages of infection victims may also suffer flu-like symptoms such as tiredness, muscle
