Lyme disease and other pest infestation disorders

[waltky]

Tick habitat has doubled in the last 20 years...

Ticks carrying Lyme disease found in half of U.S. counties
Jan. 21, 2016 - New CDC data shows the number of places where ticks have established populations doubled in the last 20 years.

Nearly half the counties in the United States have ticks that carry Lyme disease, according to new research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study, the first since 1998, shows the blacklegged tick significantly expanded into parts of the northeast and some northern states as it doubled the number of counties researchers consider it to be "established" in. Lyme disease is caused by the Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium and is spread by tick bites. The infection is characterized by fever, headache, fatigue and a rash. If it isn't treated, the infection can spread to joints, the heart and the nervous system.

Knowing ticks in the area carry Lyme disease can help with diagnosis, researchers said, because the symptoms can be mistaken for flu. Although there are about 30,000 cases of Lyme disease reported to the CDC each year, the agency believes that is a fraction of the actual number, estimated to be closer to 329,000. "This study shows that the distribution of Lyme disease vectors has changed substantially over the last nearly two decades and highlights areas where risk for human exposure to ticks has changed during that time," said Dr. Rebecca Eisen, a research biologist at the CDC, in a press release. "The observed range expansion of the ticks highlights a need for continuing and enhancing vector surveillance efforts, particularly along the leading edges of range expansion," Eisen said.

Although there are about 30,000 cases of Lyme disease reported to the CDC each year, the agency believes that is a fraction of the actual number, estimated to be closer to 329,000.​

CDC researchers who conducted the study, published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, analyzed previous research and government data on confirmed cases of Lyme disease and ticks carrying it. A county was determined to have an "established" tick population if there were at least six individual sightings of ticks each year, though they noted whether a county had any reports of ticks at all. The blacklegged tick and western blacklegged tick can be found in 1,531 counties in 43 states, or 49.2 percent of the 3,110 counties in the continental United States. The ticks can be found in 44.7 percent more counties than in 1998, when the previous study was conducted. The researchers point to the expansion of tick presence in the Northeast and North-Central states as of particular concern. The also said the South, where ticks with Lyme disease already were established, has remained relatively stable.

Further research is needed on the spread of tick species, how and where they are spreading, and where tick invasions may lead to more people being bitten, CDC researchers wrote in the study "The nice thing about this data is that it shows the vector -- the ticks that transmit Lyme disease -- spreading in the same ways that we've been seeing the human cases spreading," Dr. John Aucott, director of the Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center, told CBS News. "So, the take home message is that Lyme disease is a geographically expanding infectious disease and so the areas of risk have expanded dramatically over the last two decades."

Ticks carrying Lyme disease found in half of U.S. counties

 

[The Great Goose]

It's got a cure. Stop belting on about it.

 

[Pogo]

It's got a cure. Stop belting on about it.

Ah -- you mean

 

[Arianrhod]

It's got a cure. Stop belting on about it.

If it's diagnosed early enough. Unless doctors know enough to look for and recognize the rash, it often goes untreated until it's too late.

 

[The Great Goose]

It's got a cure. Stop belting on about it.

Ah -- you mean

Thats scurvy!

 

[waltky]

Second, more intense form of Lyme disease discovered...

Scientists confirm second, more intense form of Lyme disease
Feb. 9, 2016 - A second bacteria, found in ticks in the Midwest, adds nausea, vomiting, double-vision, and a Dalmatian-like rash to already-known symptoms of Lyme disease.

Scientists at the Mayo Clinic and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified a second tick-borne bacteria that causes Lyme disease, according to a new report. The bacteria, Borrelia mayonii, was identified in ticks in Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota after scientists tested six people there thought to have Lyme disease despite differences in their symptoms. Although several types of bacteria are known to cause the disease in other parts of the world, Borrelia burgdorferi was, until now, the only one known to infect humans in North America.

Lyme disease can cause fever, headache, rash and neck pain within days of infection, and causes arthritis within weeks, though the new infection may also include nausea, vomiting, diffuse rashes instead of the the well-known single "bull's-eye" rash, and a higher concentration of bacteria in the blood. Current tests and treatment are effective against the new form of the disease, the CDC said in a press release. About 3 percent of black-legged ticks carry the new species of bacteria, while scientists said the older species can be found in 30 to 40 percent of black-legged ticks, which can carry both forms of the bacteria. Each year, 300,000 people are infected with Lyme disease, 96 percent of whom live in the Northeast and Midwest, according to the CDC. "At this time there is no evidence that B. mayonii is present outside of the Upper Midwest," Dr. Jeannine Petersen, a researcher at the CDC, told CBS News. "However, people who live in areas where black-legged ticks are common should continue to take precautions."

Researchers at Mayo Clinic and the CDC said a species of Lyme disease-causing bacteria was not seen in thousands of samples collected before 2012​

Researchers involved in the study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, have tested more than 100,000 Lyme disease specimens from patients collected between 2003 and 2014. Among these, Mayo Clinic researchers found six with bacteria different from the other patients, who also reported different symptoms. Five had fever when they sought treatment, four had a diffuse rash, three had neurological symptoms that included difficulty being woken and vision disturbances, and another had pain and swelling in the knee. Scientists at Mayo and the CDC analyzed DNA sequences from the bacteria, finding they were a different species than typically causes Lyme disease in the United States. The new species was found among 9,000 blood samples from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota residents thought to have Lyme disease between 2012 and 2014.

Mayo Clinic and CDC started a large study of tick-borne disease in 2015 to test more than 30,000 clinical specimens from patients with tick-borne diseases. The continued research seems even more important because the second form of Lyme disease had not been found in thousands of samples collected before 2013. "Maybe it infected woodchucks and no one ever tested them," Dr. Bobbi Pritt, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic, told NPR. "But what we can say is, it's a species that no one has ever described before and it's clearly infecting patients."

Scientists confirm second, more intense form of Lyme disease

 

[waltky]

Granny always checkin' possum fer ticks...

Researchers Developing New Test for Lyme Disease
August 16, 2017 | WASHINGTON — Diagnosing if a tick bite caused Lyme or another disease can be difficult, but scientists are developing a new way to do it early — using a "signature" of molecules in patients' blood.

It's still highly experimental, but initial studies suggest the novel tool just might uncover early-stage Lyme disease more accurately than today's standard test, researchers reported Wednesday. And it could tell the difference between two tick-borne diseases with nearly identical early symptoms. "Think about it as looking at a fingerprint," said microbiology professor John Belisle of Colorado State University, who helped lead the research.

Ixodes scapularis, commonly known as the deer tick, transmits Lyme disease, the most common U.S. tick-borne illness.​

Lyme disease is estimated to infect 300,000 people in the U.S. every year. Lyme-causing bacteria are spread by blacklegged ticks — also called deer ticks — primarily in the Northeast and Midwest, although their range is spreading. Lyme typically starts as a fever, fatigue and flu-like symptoms — often but not always with a hallmark bull's-eye rash — and people usually recover quickly with prompt antibiotics. But untreated, Lyme causes more serious complications, including swollen joints and arthritis, memory and concentration problems, even irregular heartbeat.

Yet today's best available test often misses early Lyme. It's considered no more than 40 percent accurate in the first few weeks of infection. It measures infection-fighting antibodies the immune system produces. Those take a while to form, making the test more useful a month or more after infection sets in than when people first start feeling ill. "We are trying our best to come up with something to help the diagnosis in the very early stages of this infection," said microbiologist Claudia Molins of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who teamed with Belisle to develop a new test. "Our goal really is to try to fill that gap."

Checking for a marker

 

[waltky]

Watch fer ticks - Lyme Disease Is On The Rise Again...

Lyme Disease Is On The Rise Again. Here's How To Prevent It
May 7, 2018 - Lyme disease was once unheard of in western Pennsylvania, where Barbara Thorne, now an entomologist at the University of Maryland, spent time as a kid.

Thorne knew that if black-legged ticks are infected with bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi, they can transmit Lyme to people and, that if untreated, symptoms can range from fever, fatigue and a rash, to serious damage to the joints, heart and nervous system. But she didn't realize that ticks in that part of Pennsylvania had become broadly infected with the bacteria. That is, until she was bitten during a family reunion weekend. She never saw the tick on her body. But about eight or nine days later, after returning home, she became suspicious. "I noticed a roundish red rash above my waistline and it expanded each day," she recalls. "I was also feeling sick with exhaustion and achiness."

Her primary care doctor diagnosed her with Lyme disease and prescribed a course of antibiotics. After a few months, she felt better. "I felt very lucky to have had the rash appear as literally a red flag," Thorne says. It's a telltale warning sign of the disease. But not everyone with a Lyme infection develops a rash. And other symptoms, such as fatigue and aches, overlap with common illnesses. So, spotting Lyme disease can be tricky. Some people don't realize they're infected and don't seek medical treatment. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the actual prevalence of Lyme disease infections is 10 times higher than the number of reported cases.

Because data are reported on the county level, the CDC randomly placed a dot within the county of residence for each case.​

Tick-borne diseases have been "steadily going up every year ... as the diseases expand to new areas around the country," Lyle Peterson of the CDC told reporters in a recent conference call announcing the updated infection estimates. Lyme disease accounts for about 80 percent of the tick-borne illnesses in the U.S. Another factor that can contribute to the underreporting of cases is a lack of effective surveillance and tracking. "People just go to their local doctor to be treated," says Peterson, and the doctor may not report the case to the local or state health department. Or, if the case is reported by the doctor, he says, sometimes "state health departments have a very difficult time keeping up with the sheer number of cases reports."

There's another factor at play, too: shortcomings in the way the infection is diagnosed. "Many of the tests for Lyme disease are negative at the time that patients first visit their doctor," says Dr. Paul Fiedler, a clinical pathologist on Yale School of Medicine's faculty who also heads the department of pathology at Western Connecticut Health Network. Blood tests to detect Lyme disease rely on a person's immune response, Fiedler explains, and after infection with the bacteria, it takes time — sometimes as long as 10 to 30 days — for the body to mount a measurable response. The blood tests detect Lyme-specific antibodies. If somebody is tested before the immune system has produced enough antibodies, the result will be a false negative. "And the diagnosis could be missed," Fiedler says. The subsequent lack of treatment after a missed diagnosis can lead to serious health problems.

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