Archive for the ‘Ticks’ Category

2600% Increase in Babesia in 12 Years in Wisconsin

CDC Reports 2600% Increase in Tick-Borne Babesiosis Infections in Wisconsin in 12 Years

It is not just a bad summer for ticks — it has been a bad decade for the spread of tick-borne infections. New surveillance from the CDC reports rapid expansion and increase in cases of babesiosis, a sometimes life-threatening disease, in Wisconsin.The CDC compiled the new report from surveillance conducted every three years during the period between 2001 through 2015. During that time, electronic surveillance came online to provide faster, more thorough, case reports. While a boost in case counts as monitoring methods improve is sometimes due to under-reporting, the CDC says the increase in Wisconsin is due to an actual uptick in cases — not just better reporting.

Total confirmed babesiosis case counts (N = 294) initially reported directly and electronically through the Wisconsin Electronic Disease Surveillance System (WEDSS),* Electronic Laboratory Report (ELR) — Wisconsin, 2001–2015.Image via MMWR

What Is Babesiosis and Why Should You Be Concerned?

The black-legged tick Ixodes scapularis transmits the Babesiosis bacteria. This is the same tick that spreads Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, and recently the more immediately deadly Powassan virus.

These ”black-legged ticks”, Ixodes scapularis, are capable of spreading babesiosis, Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, and Powassan disease, this small arthropod packs powerful poison.Image by Jim Gathany/CDC

Babesia microti, a relative of the parasite that causes malaria, causes the babesiosis infection. While some people have no symptoms when infected, in others, the illness can be fatal. Symptoms of babesiosis include fatigue and weakness, nausea, diarrhea, and often a high fever. More severe complications include kidney damage and heart failure.

Because babesiosis is spread by I. scapularis, the geographic range of the infection is expanding along with the tick. While ticks are the agent, or “vector,” that spreads the bacteria, rodents like white-footed mice are the reservoir culprits who carry the disease. Ticks are infected when they feed on mice, and in turn, ticks infect white-tailed deer, that then become the primary hosts for tickborne infections carried by black-legged ticks.

The blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) is widely distributed in the northeastern and upper midwestern United States.Image via CDC

Here are some of the findings of the new babesiosis report:

  • The length of time between infection to symptoms can be about two weeks, with 96% of cases reported between April and October.
  • Between 2001 and 2015, there were 430 cases reported in Wisconsin. Of those, laboratory testing confirmed 68%. For the victims with confirmed cases, 158, or 65%, were hospitalized, and three people died as a result of the infection.
  • Of the 108 patients with probable babesiosis, 24% were hospitalized, and none died.
  • Wisconsin did not begin screening its blood supply for the babesiosis parasite until 2016. Before that, three cases of the infection spread through transfusion with contaminated blood.

The threat is rising. Between the years of 2001–2003 and 2004–2006, there was a 400% increase in the mean annual incidence of babesiosis cases. The rate rose incrementally after that until it jumped again between 2007–2009 and 2010–2012 with a 235% increase.

Overall, the incidence rose 2600% between 2001–2003 (o.03 mean annual incidence) and 2013–2015 (0.80 mean annual incidence).

Number and incidence of reported confirmed babesiosis cases by 3-year interval and percentage confirmed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) — Wisconsin, 2001–2015. Mean annual incidence is the average number of cases per 100,000 residents in a single year.Image by MMWR, July 7, 2017/66(26);687–691

The number of counties reporting the incidence of babesiosis rose from 20 to 46 between 2011 and 2015.

Geographic distribution of confirmed cases of babesiosis per 100,000 residents by county of residence — Wisconsin, 2001–2005, 2006–2010, and 2011–2015.Image by MMWR, July 7, 2017/66(26);687–691

This report and physical observations of ticks on hunter-harvested deer, support the finding that the range of the black-legged tick has expanded rapidly, and will continue to do so with a warming climate and clearance of forest stands. As essential the ticks, so go the infections they transmit to humans.

Study authors write: “Babesiosis cases in Wisconsin are increasing in number and geographic range. These trends might be occurring in other states with endemic disease, similar suburbanization, and forest fragmentation patterns, and warming average temperatures.”

If you have reason to believe a tick could have bitten you, and experience symptoms, contact your doctor. Prompt treatment is important. The best defense to tick infection is offense — use repellent containing DEET, stay clear of tick territory, wear long sleeves, and pants — and most important, shower and check for ticks each time you return from time in the wild — or just your backyard.

With warming temperatures, ticks are getting worse — readiness is the best way for you, and family members, to avoid infection.

 

**For more on Babesia:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/01/16/babesia-treatment/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2011/09/25/the-babesia-checklist-copyrighted-2011-james-schaller-md-mar-version-20/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/12/15/blood-screening-for-babesia/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/06/17/babesia-cure/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/12/05/babesia-cure-update/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/10/31/the-gift-that-keeps-giving-wisconsin-organ-donor-gives-babesiosis-to-two-recipients/

Category:

Babesia, Ticks, Treatment

Global Warming Numbers Fudged

https://player.vimeo.com/video/226928039“>

 Mike Adams, Health Ranger, Approx. 7 min.

Scientists continue to use global warming/climate change as an excuse as to why ticks and the diseases they carry are proliferating.  In scientific circles, global warming is being used as a key to obtain grants to fund more research propagating it.  It’s circular reasoning at its best.

Please remember that Lyme disease began as an epidemic in Lyme, Connecticut in the 70’s.  It is now a pandemic – in every continent but Antarctia and as Dr. Bransfield says, “Given enough time it will be found there too.”  I do not believe for a minute that global warming and/or landscaping practices are causing what we are suffering with today.

This 30 page pdf points out that the steeper warming linear trend of historical GAST data used by the NOAA, NASA, and Hadley CRU, was accomplished by systematically removing the previously existing cyclical temperature pattern.

In sum:

The conclusive findings of this research are that the three GAST data sets are not a valid representation of reality. In fact, the magnitude of their historical data adjustments, that removed their cyclical temperature patterns, are totally inconsistent with published and credible U.S. and other temperature data. Thus, it is impossible to conclude from the three published GAST data sets that recent years have been the warmest ever –despite current claims of record setting warming. Finally, since GAST data set validity is a necessary condition for EPA’s GHG/CO2 Endangerment Finding, it too is invalidated by these research findings.

Abridged Research Report found here:

https://thsresearch.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/ef-gast-data-research-report-062717.pdf  June 2017

http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-07-26-nasa-confirms-sea-levels-have-been-falling-across-the-planet-for-two-years-media-silent.htmlAl Gore states he needs $15 trillion to stop rising ocean levels, yet NASA shows Ocean levels have actually been falling for nearly two years dropping from 87.5mm to below 85mm.  Even in the worst case scenerio, oceans rise at 3.4 mm per year – a foot per century!  https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/sea-level/

http://www.climatedepot.com/2017/05/24/global-warming-is-not-about-the-science-un-admits-climate-change-policy-is-about-how-we-redistribute-the-worlds-wealth/

Excerpt:

Ottmar Edenhofer, lead author of the IPCC’s fourth summary report released in 2007 candidly expressed the priority. Speaking in 2010, he advised, “One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. Instead, climate change policy is about how we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth.”

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research, Ticks

One Tick Bite Could Put You at Risk For at Least 19 Different Diseases

http://www.businessinsider.com/deer-tick-can-carry-lyme-disease-powassan-virus-babesiosis-and-more-2017-6 by Kevin Loria, June 28,2017

The deer tick, also known as the blacklegged tick, is a fascinating but nasty little creature, and it’s spreading.

The tiny arthropods carry Lyme disease — the serious illness that we most associate them with — but that’s not the only pathogen they spread.

“One thing that people really need to be aware of is that Lyme disease is not the only pathogen that’s out there — there’s quite a few of them, [including] probably quite a few that we haven’t discovered yet,” says Rafal Tokarz, an associate research scientist at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

And the deer tick, which as far as we know carries more illnesses than any other tick, “has been expanding its range enormously in the last 30 years,” says Durland Fish, professor emeritus of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. Before the early 70s, it was largely unknown outside the Northeast, but now it has spread north, south, and west.

The diseases that we know deer ticks spread are all serious:

1. Lyme disease, which is transmitted by ticks infected with the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, infects roughly 300,000 Americans every year. It can be treated with antibiotics if caught early, but can cause severe inflammation, nerve, and joint pain,among other symptoms, if left untreated.

2. When people are infected with babesiosis, parasites infect and destroy red blood cells. Not everyone shows symptoms but it can be life-threatening for some at-risk patients. It’s “like tick-borne malaria,” says Fish, and is the most important contaminant of the blood bank right now, he says.

3. Anaplasmosis is spread by another bacteria carried by deer ticks. It usually shows up a week or two after a bite and can cause fever, headaches, nausea, and general malaise, among other symptoms. If untreated it can be severe, leading to hemorrhage, renal failure, and for a small fraction of even healthy patients, potentially can be fatal.

4. Deer ticks can also spread the Borrelia miyamotoi bacteria, which Fish says is similar to the one that causes Lyme. Symptoms include joint pain, fatigue, fever, chills, and headache.

5. A relatively recently discovered disease that’s spread by deer ticks as well as dog and Lone Star ticks is ehrlichiosis, caused by a bacteria in the same family as the one responsible for Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Symptoms often present like the flu.

6. Powassan virus has been around for a while but has received more attention recently, especially since the deer tick (which frequently bites humans) started spreading it — the ticks that transmitted the first reported cases in the 1950s rarely bite people. Unlike Lyme, which often takes many hours or even a couple days before it’s transmitted, Powassan infection can occur in as little as 15 minutes. Not everyone who gets bitten by an infected tick gets sick, but if they do, it’s a serious problem since there’s no treatment. In those (still rare) cases, Fish says that there’s about a 50% chance of permanent neurological damage and a 10% chance of death.

The broad range of potential conditions means that doctors don’t even necessarily know what to look for. Even worse, “ticks can frequently be co-infected with more than one pathogen,” says Tokarz. That’s especially true in certain locations, like on Long Island. One bite could transmit both Lyme disease and babesiosis, conditions that would normally be treated quite differently.

It’s also possible that having two or more illnesses could change the way the disease manifests. “We still don’t know whether co-infection exacerbates a disease or doesn’t make a difference,” says Tokarz.”Studies have shown both.”

Unfortunately, we don’t have any good way to control ticks and to stop the ongoing expansion, which will lead to more people getting sick.

In the places where people are at risk of picking up a tick “it is a very important, very severe problem, but the only thing that can be done is to educate people on the dangers of coming into contact with ticks,” says Tokarz.

If you get one on you, pull it off right away — don’t bother with urban legends about needing to burn it off. And protect yourself if you are going to be hiking or spending time in a place where ticks are common. Use permethrin-treated clothing for outdoors work and use insect repellent that contains DEET.

________________________________________________________________________________________

**My letter to the author**

Dear Mr. Loria,

Thank you for your piece on ticks and the pathogens they carry. I just wanted to add to your list; however, as there are many more pathogens carried by ticks. Also, they are discovering a variety of ticks carry pathogens, and if you think about it logically for a moment, ticks have similar habits and mouth parts, and require blood meals to survive, which technically makes every tick suspect. Unfortunately, geographical maps and entomology information (which ticks spread what) have been used to deny patients diagnosis and treatment. A doctor will look at the CDC map and claim, unequivocally, that since such and such isn’t supposed to be in that state, it isn’t TBI’s (tick borne infections). https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/09/24/arkansas-kids-denied-lyme-treatment/ and then eventually they have to admit they are wrong: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/03/02/hold-the-press-arkansas-has-lyme/

How many went undiagnosed through the years?

https://www.lymediseaseassociation.org/about-lyme/other-tick-borne-diseases

  • Babesiosis
  • Bartonellosis
  • Borrelia miyamotoi
  • Bourbon Virus
  • Colorado Tick Fever
  • Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic Fever
  • Ehrlichiosis/Anaplasmosis
  • Heartland Virus
  • Meat Allergy/Alpha Gal
  • Pacific Coast Tick Fever: Richettsia philipii
  • Powassan Encephalitis
  • Q Fever
  • Rickettsia parkeri Richettsiosis
  • Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF)
  • SFTS: Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome 
  • STARI: Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness
  • Tickborne meningoencephalitis
  • Tick Paralysis
  • Tularemia

I run a physical support group here in Wisconsin, 4th in the nation for TBI’s, and nearly all of us are co-infected, and while Tokarz states he doesn’t know whether coinfection exacerbates a disease, we all do. http://danielcameronmd.com/babesia-and-lyme-its-worse-than-you-think/.  Each pathogen necessitates different medications so the CDC mono therapy of doxycycline won’t do a thing against many of the other pathogens.

“Babesia can increase the severity of Lyme disease. Coinfected patients were more likely to have experienced fatigue, headache, sweats, chills, anorexia, emotional lability, nausea, conjunctivitis, and splenomegaly more frequently than those with Lyme disease alone. [7]
Babesia can also increase the duration of illness with Lyme disease. Babesia patients can remain symptomatic for years with constitutional, musculoskeletal, or neurological symptoms. One study found that 50% of coinfected patients were symptomatic for 3 months or longer, compared to only 4% of patients who had Lyme disease alone. [7] Meanwhile, one-third of patients with a history of both Babesia and Lyme disease remained symptomatic an average of 6 years. [2]

“The clinical pictures for 3 out of our 4 coinfected patients included a large number of symptoms, and 1 coinfected patient had persistent fatigue after treatment,” according to a study by Steere and colleagues. [8]”

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/03/20/why-we-cant-get-better/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/05/01/co-infection-of-ticks-the-rule-rather-than-the-exception/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2014/11/14/studies-show-why-its-tough-to-treat-lyme-and-co/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/05/08/interview-with-dr-horowitz/

For a fantastic book on all of this and more, read science journalist and past Executive Editor of Discover Magazine, Pam Weintraub’s work, Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic. http://www.astralgia.com/pamelaweintraubresume18.pdf

Sincerely,
Alicia Cashman
Madison Lyme Support Group
https://about.me/lymecoordinator56
lymecoordinator56@gmail.com
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com

Category:

Activism, Anaplasmosis, Babesia, Bartonella, Lyme, Mycoplasma, Ticks, Tularemia

Letter to Patients Having a Hard Time Getting Treatment After a Tick Bite

Tick bite care, references for Urgent Care and PCPs.

ILADS Member Jane Marke, MD has the following message. To contact her directly, write to contact@ilads.org and your message will be forwarded on to her.

I’m getting lots of calls from friends and family all over the country who are having trouble getting treated for tick bites. If you have having a similar experience, you, too, might want to have something handy to send them about what to expect, and how to enlist the health providers they see in giving appropriate treatment. To that ends I’ve gathered what I think is helpful for people to bring to Urgent Care or their PCP with them if they find these providers resistant to treating them.

Thanks to MMI, Lucy Barnes and PubMed for content.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Basic email:

Dear________,

Here’s what I think is most important to know about tick bite treatment:

Tick Bite Care
What to do if you get a tick bite? There are some myths, but there’s good science busting them.

1.  Tick attachment time is irrelevant. If a tick is sick enough, Lyme bugs are in their saliva, and they transmit the disease immediately. If the tick is less infected, they have to send bugs from their stomach to mouth, and that takes longer. But do you really want to count on how sick the tick is? Don’t let anybody tell you that because the tick wasn’t attached for 24-36 hours you’re ok.

2.  One double-dose of doxycycline is not sufficient. The guidelines that are on the government guideline website, www.guidelines.gov advise 21 days. (That’s a federal government Institute of Medicine website and it’s high quality). No other Lyme guidelines exist. (CDC is not in charge of guidelines; the Institute of Medicine is.) The problem with the study of one single-dose of doxy is that it looked for the bull’s eye rash; it did not look to see if people got sick later. It reduced the rash incidence by 87%. That’s something; but not enough, and it tells us nothing about whether those without rash got sick later. There is no reason to not follow the government guidelines and to risk your health or that of your child because somebody only wants to give you one “double dose” of doxy. There are mice studies of this treatment, and they look abysmal.

3.  If you missed the tick bite and have the bull’s eye rash you are lucky inasmuch as you have incontrovertible evidence of being infected with Lyme. You HAVE Lyme. You can still get “early Lyme” treatment, but it’s not the same as treatment for a tick bite. You can find recommendations for treatment on the http://www.guidelines.gov website. Here’s a direct link to the Lyme Guidelines: http://bit.ly/2tqnaGU. These are government endorsed guidelines, the best we have at this point in time.

4.  Tick-testing is controversial. Don’t wait for the testing to get treated. Negative tick tests give you no useful information; we have no idea how reliable tick testing is vs human testing. But if a tick is positive for a co-infection, something other than Lyme, you might consider getting prophylactic treatment. That’s your call, made with your doctor, but it’s a real consideration. So if you send the tick for testing, make sure the lab tests for co-infections, as well as several species of Lyme.

Jane Marke, MD, ILADS member
New York, NY

**Comment**

If you find a doctor willing to become educated on TBI’s (tick borne illness) please give them this link:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/20/help-doctors-get-educated-on-lyme-and-tick-borne-illness/

Please read:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/12/start-treatment-if-tbis-are-suspected/

Even the CDC is stating to treat empirically (this is new as of July, 2017): https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/01/good-morning-america-cdc-advises-multiple-lyme-tests-due-to-false-negative-results/  CDC spokesperson at end of video.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/05/01/co-infection-of-ticks-the-rule-rather-than-the-exception/ If ticks are co-infected, patients can be too.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/01/one-tick-bite-could-put-you-at-risk-for-at-least-6-different-diseases/  Ticks transmit a whole lot more than Lyme.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/03/20/why-we-cant-get-better/

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing, Ticks, Treatment, Uncategorized

Tick-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

http://today.uconn.edu/2017/06/tick-hikers-guide-galaxy/?utm_source=launchdistribution&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=monthly_email#/   June 23, 2017 – Elaina Hancock – UConn Communications

Following an unseasonably warm winter, the tick population is flourishing and these shiver-inducing, cringe-worthy arachnids are making themselves known.

To avoid the tiny creatures that are generating news headlines as the carrier of all sorts of diseases, you must have an understanding of ticks’ likes and dislikes. The UConn Home and Garden Center offers a fact sheet about what makes ticks tick.

Thankfully, ticks are unable to fly or jump; but they are particularly good at hitchhiking, using a behavior called “questing.” When questing, the tick clings to the tips of grass or other vegetation with its rear legs, and with its front limbs it will reach out awaiting a passerby and grab hold.

“The ticks are aiming for your head and neck,” says Sandra Bushmich, associate dean of agriculture, health, and natural resources. “Larval ticks will climb about an inch up, nymphs will quest about six inches up, and adults will climb about a foot up on the vegetation waiting for someone to brush by.” After finding their host, they will climb up to find the perfect location for feeding.

Ticks usually feed on different hosts during their various life stages. Larvae often feed on ground-dwelling rodents, while the nymphs and adults search out larger animals including humans.

The hungry ticks literally “dig in” while feeding. They first grasp the skin, cut into it, and insert their feeding tube. It is often difficult to pull off a tick, since some species secrete a cement-like substance that keeps them well attached.

Bushmich also notes that ticks rely on cool, damp, and dark locations, where they hang out so that they don’t dry out. As long as they have somewhere like this to stay, they can go without feeding for months or longer (depending on the species).

The stone walls of New England are not only beautiful, they are also ideal for providing these basic tick necessities. Fortunately for ticks, these habitats are also frequented by small rodents such as squirrels, chipmunks, or mice, who play the dual role of transporting them around and serving as a source of blood for them to feast on.

While the tick hitches a ride and starts chowing down, its rodent host carries on with its life, scurrying about looking for food and making rodent babies. The tick will hang out here until it is full, when it will ditch its current host, molt, and then in its new stage of life search for a different host, whether it be another rodent, a deer, a dog, a human – you name it. There are few places these hitchhikers can’t access.

Since rodents are key players in the tick life cycle, controlling their population is a vital step in reducing the tick population. Cute as they may be, these rodent hosts are typically where the young ticks – the nymphs – are first exposed to diseases such as Lyme, Powassan, or Anaplasmosis. Rodents are reservoirs where these pathogens may hang out waiting for a tick to suck them up and transmit them to a new host. According to the Home and Garden Center’s field rodent fact sheet, populations of small mammals are effectively controlled with baited traps or by keeping cats around to help keep the numbers in check.

Landscape modification also provides a barrier to ticks and can be very effective at management of ticks, says Susan Pelton of the Home and Garden Center.

Dry wood mulch and crushed stone are both good. “Just no fresh mulch or leaf litter – keep that clear!” Pelton says. It’s important to maintain clear paths and also provide a dry mulched perimeter around stone walls, plantings, and in areas close to the forest’s edge. Keep wood piles away from the house, and avoid ground covers like pachysandra because they provide excellent cover for wandering rodents, she adds.

Some 82 percent of deer ticks found in a yard will be around 9 feet from the edge of the nearest wooded area, according to the Home and Garden Center fact sheet.

Discouraging the presence of deer is another proven method to reduce tick numbers, Bushmich notes. “Deer are the host that is best for reproduction in the deer tick life cycle, and the deer population is out of control in this area.”

Fences or repellents can be used, but also avoid planting deer-preferred plants such as hosta, ivy, or rhododendron, which act to invite deer onto your property. The Home and Garden Center offers a list of deer-resistant trees and shrubs.

If you have made the gruesome discovery of a feasting tick, remove it as quickly as possible. Since they may be ‘cemented’ in place, it’s no wonder ticks can be tricky to remove. To effectively remove one, grasp it as close to your skin as you can while applying a steady, firm, upward force to pull the tick off without squeezing its abdomen, which can lead to regurgitation of its stomach contents into the host.

Of course, it’s better not to pick up hitchhikers in the first place.

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks