Tick fever revisited

DEAR DR. GOTT: I’m a 70-year-old female. When I was a child in a small town in Maryland, I can remember every spring having to go and get a dreaded tick shot. These shots left my arm sore and almost useless for about three days. However, I never remember getting a tick on me. Now I live in Virginia where, after the small towns and cities of Maryland, this is country to me. I take ticks off me every day in the season for them, but no one ever mentions those dreaded tick shots. Is this just something that happened back in my little town? Even when I mention it to people my age, they have no idea what I’m talking about. I don’t hear of anyone dying of tick fever anymore. Are ticks not as dangerous these days?
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