A children’s songwriting duo has created a catchy new dance-jingle that makes tick checks fun and easy, potentially reducing the incidence of dangerous tick-borne diseases in kids.

Tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease affect children more than any other age group, yet only about 1 in 10 check for ticks after playing outside. To encourage kids to do more and better tick checks, comedic songwriters “Louis and Dan and the Invisible Band” created a “viral” song-and-dance routine to help kids remember to check for creepy-crawly ticks in their favorite hiding places.

Sponsors of this project, PA Lyme Resource Network and Invisible International, have also organized an educational campaign around the dance called the #TickCheckChallenge. (This project was developed for the Invisible International 2020 Hackathon, which was focused on creating education and awareness around tick-borne illness.) To help spread the word about the importance of tick checks, they’re encouraging people to record their own TikTok-style interpretations of the dance, then share them on social media, following the instructions at https://palyme.org/tick-check-challenge/

Lyme disease is the fastest growing vector-borne illness in the United States, with an estimated 476,000 new cases a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. If ticks take a blood meal undetected, they can transmit other dangerous bacteria and viruses to humans and their pets, including the Babesia parasite, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and the Powassan virus. Initial symptoms are often hard to detect, mimicking those of the flu or Covid-19 — fever, chills, headache, and aches. Prevention through tick checks is the best way to stay safe.

PA Lyme Resource Network is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation with a mission to reduce the suffering of Lyme and tick-borne disease patients via education, prevention, patient support, and advocacy. Their signature “Dare 2B Tick Aware Program” has provided 300+ tick education seminars to date, as well as an informative suite of prevention materials made available to the public.

Invisible International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation dedicated to reducing the suffering associated with invisible illnesses and social marginalization through innovation, education, and change projects, such as the Lovell family Hackathon that funded the Tick Check Challenge. To donate or to learn more about our many programs to reduce the impact of tick-borne illness, visit the website: https://invisible.international

How to post your videos:

Learn how to create your own video here: https://palyme.org/tick-check-challenge/

Post your video to your social media channels, tagging three friends, and put #TickCheckChallenge on every post so that we can share your efforts to raise awareness.  

To listen to more health-education songs by Louis & Dan and the Invisible Band, go to www.louisdaninvisibleband.com.

Image: kohei_hara @iStock, Video: Chris Flicek