Archive for the ‘Transmission’ Category

After a Tick Bite, How Long For Disease Transmission?

https://danielcameronmd.com/have-you-been-bitten-by-a-partially-fed-tick/

AFTER A TICK BITE, HOW LONG FOR DISEASE TRANSMISSION?

tick-disease-transmission

A single tick bite can transmit several diseases. But investigators continue to debate how long a tick must be attached before it can transmit the Lyme disease bacterium. While many believe a tick must be attached for at least 36 to 48 hours before transmission can occur, others say it can happen within several hours.

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People often ask: How long does it take for disease transmission to occur after a tick bite? According to investigators, Lyme disease may be transmitted faster if the tick previously fed on another host.

In a 2014 article entitled “Lyme borreliosis: a review of data on transmission time after tick attachment,” Michael J Cook explored the topic. “It is frequently stated that the risk of infection is very low if the tick is removed within 24 to 48 hours with some claims that there is no risk if an attached tick is removed within 24 hours or 48 hours.”

However, in animal models, Cook found, “transmission can occur in less than 16 hours, and the minimum attachment time for transmission of infection has never been established.”

Have you been bitten by a partially fed tick?

Investigators suggest that transmission time may be shorter if a tick has already fed on a host. A study by Shih and colleagues, found that, “Partially fed nymphal ticks transmit spirochetal infection more rapidly than do ticks that have never been attached to a host.”¹

So, how quickly a tick can transmit Lyme disease may depend on whether the tick had been partly fed BEFORE it attached to its second host.

Shih et al. demonstrated that partially fed nymphal ticks (84%) were capable of transmitting spirochetes to a non-infected mouse within 24 hours. The authors discovered it took less time for an infected nymphal deer tick to transmit Lyme spirochetes to a mouse if the tick was partially fed.

Ticks spontaneously detach from hosts

Individuals may mistakenly believe that once a tick bites it will remain attached throughout the entire feeding or until it is removed. But this isn’t the case.

In the mouse study, Shih found that ticks can spontaneously detach during the feeding process. And this action can profoundly impact the time it takes for spirochetes to infect the host.

“Virtually all nymphal ticks that previously had fed for 16 hours reattached efficiently.”¹

“We found that nymphs do detach spontaneously from free-ranging mice in the laboratory, perhaps as frequently as 15% of the time,” the authors report.

“Indeed, about [one tenth] of questing nymphs in nature seem to be distended, and reattachment by partially fed sub-adult ticks commonly occurs.”

In the laboratory, partially fed ticks would reattach to a second host and commence feeding. “Virtually all nymphal ticks that previously had fed for 16 hours reattached efficiently.”

What happens in partially fed ticks?

The tick attaches to a host, feeds and the Lyme bacteria multiply rapidly in the tick’s mid-gut. Normally, the tick eliminates all of the bacteria, leaving behind only those spirochetes that survive in the mid-gut before they molt into an adult.

But, in a partially fed tick, spirochetes multiply in the mid-gut and then move to the salivary glands.

If the tick bites again, the spirochetes residing in the salivary glands can be transmitted more quickly. “Partially fed nymphs [ticks] are able to reattach to another host and Lyme disease spirochetes may be transmitted by partially fed nymphs more rapidly than by nymphs that have not already fed.”

Pet owners: be wary

Their findings are particularly relevant to people who own pets. “These partially fed ticks may already have acquired spirochetal infection and avidly seek other hosts,” writes Shih.

“Pet ownership appears to be a risk factor for human Lyme disease, and this may reflect contact with ticks that have detached from a cat or dog within the household.”

If an unfed tick attaches it can take up to 36 hours to transmit the Lyme spirochetes to a mouse, Shih claims. “The chain of events that culminates in migration of the spirochetes from the gut of the tick to its salivary apparatus begins within the first day of attachment and requires at least another day for completion.”

Note: The study by Shih and colleagues was conducted only with mice and has not been replicated with humans.

UPDATED: June 22, 2021

References:
  1. Shih CM, Telford SR, 3rd, Pollack RJ, Spielman A. Rapid dissemination by the agent of Lyme disease in hosts that permit fulminating infection. Infect Immun, 61(6), 2396-2399 (1993).

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Category:

Activism, research, Ticks, Transmission

Tick Season 2021: Why Researchers Are Focusing on Staten Island Backyards

https://www.silive.com/news/2021/06/tick-season-2021-heres-why-researchers-are-focusing-on-staten-island-backyards.html

Tick season 2021: Here’s why researchers are focusing on Staten Island backyards

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — For the last four years, researchers from Columbia University have been studying the rise in tick populations and Lyme disease on Staten Island — and the work continues this summer as they drag for ticks, set up hair traps and place trail cameras in residents’ backyards.

The researchers are studying both parks and residential areas to better understand the ecology of ticks and the risk of tick-transmitted diseases in urban environments. And ticks are now being found across all of Staten Island, not just in the southernmost parts.

Most notably, the Asian longhorned tick continues to spread across the borough.

(See link for article)

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**Comment**

For more on Diuk-Wasser’s work.

Category:

Anaplasmosis, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme, research, Rickettsia, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ticks, Transmission

Tick Research Lab of Pennsylvania Weekly Newsletter

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**Comment**

The continued advice to sit around and “watch for signs of infection” is not helping patients. ILADS recommends consideration of prophylactic treatment for ALL black legged tick bites with a minimum of 20 days of doxycycline.

It’s also important to remember that Lyme is just the tip of the spear and ticks transmit 19+ pathogens, some of which can be transmitted within minutes. Also, other types of ticks transmit disease as well and need to be considered.

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Category:

Prevention, Ticks, Transmission

How to Co-Exist With Wisconsin’s Ticks

https://mywisconsinwoods.org/2020/05/27/how-to-co-exist-with-wisconsins-ticks/

By Denise Thornton

If you plan to be out in the woods or live next to woods, don’t be too quick to trade long pants and long sleeves for shorts and a tee shirt as the weather warms. You need to protect yourself from the ticks that are starting to emerge. Tick bites are possible year-round, but ticks are most active April through September.

Many types of ticks never feed on people. In Wisconsin, the two most common ticks that do are the wood tick, which is not a health concern here, and the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis), commonly known as the deer tick, which can transmit several serious diseases including Lyme disease and, more recently, anaplasmosis, which can start with symptoms like fever and nausea and in some cases, progress to organ failure.

Deer tick (left) and Wood tick (right). Photo courtesy of prevention.com

Wisconsin is Tick Heaven

The Upper Midwest and the northeastern states are hardest hit by Lyme disease, and the numbers in Wisconsin are rising. According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Wisconsin had 3,105 estimated cases in 2018.

Once considered to be a north woods hazard, deer ticks are now found in every county of the state. Deer are an important blood source for adult ticks, and in 2018 overwinter deer densities in the state varied from three to over 60 per square mile. The abundant woodlands interspersed with agriculture throughout much of central and southwestern Wisconsin creates high quality deer habitat.

“There’s been a change in the past 25 years,” says Dr. Susan Paskewitz, chair of the UW-Madison Department of Entomology. Ticks thrive in moist, shady forested environments, and love our increasingly mild winters. “We find them in pine forests, mixed forests and deciduous forests.”

Paskewitz has sampled along the woody edges and out into the yard in neighborhoods in Eau Claire and near Delton.

“Of 90 houses tested, by the end of June, 80 percent of them had at least one deer tick in the area we were sampling. Most were within three to six feet of the woods,” Paskewitz continued, “but a few were found in bright, open, mowed lawn. I don’t think they live long there, but they were making their way out there, so if you are walking out to get your mail without your shoes on, you might pick up that particular tick.”  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

They say a picture‘s worth a thousand words.  The picture of this tick in the gum line in the mouth of a dog shows how durable and tenacious ticks are.

A few points for consideration:

  • Migrating birds, rodents, deer, lizards, and human movement are transporting ticks everywhere.  For far too long doctors have been looking at maps to diagnose people.  Trust me, ticks are virtually everywhere and adapt to weather conditions quite easily.
  • If I’ve written this once, I’ve written it 1,000 times – many people never see the tick or the rash and research shows the rash is highly variable – certainly not a sure thing.  
  • For more on tick prevention:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/12/tick-prevention-2019/  I’m happy to report I saw some controlled burning in ditches as I was driving North today.  This has proven to reduce tick populations significantly.  I wish more of this was happening.
  • Regarding the section on if you find a tick bite: while it’s true that removing the tick as soon as possible is step #1, step #2 is getting prompt treatment as the “wait and see” approach has doomed patients to decades of suffering.  Demand immediate prophylactic treatment for each and every tick bite.  Trust me – whatever mild side effects and inconvenience a month or two’s worth of doxycycline can cause is nothing compared to the pain and suffering of a chronic, relapsing infection.
  • Testing for all tick-borne illnesses is abysmal.  Lyme is just the tip of the spear.  Ticks are literal garbage cans full of numerous pathogens they can transmit in just one bite.  The only infections listed in this article were Lyme disease, Anaplasmosis, and Babesia, when there are 19 and counting infections ticks can transmit.  Research has shown being infected with more than one pathogen causes more severe illness for a longer duration.  It is imperative that treatment includes medications that focus on each pathogen.  For the mounting list of tick-borne pathogens:
    • 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
  • While the wood tick and deer tick are the most common ticks in Wisconsin, they are hardly the only ticks we must be concerned about.  Go here for more on the various types of ticks and the diseases they carry. The Lone Star tick has been found in Wisconsin and one allergist in MN states he diagnoses approximately 1 patient per month with Alpha-gal allergy – some patients hailing from WI.  Wisconsin is a hot-spot for Powassan virus, and we recently had our first death due to Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. It would be a huge mistake to believe you only have to worry about Lyme, Anaplasmosis, and Babesia in Wisconsin.  Nearly every patient I work with also has Bartonella – a tenacious pathogen that isn’t even on most doctors’ radars, and Mycoplasma is very common.
  • Most articles such as these don’t tell you what to do once you’ve become infected. Optimally, you would be prepared before this ever happened by finding the Lyme literate doctors (LLMD) in your state.  The best way to do this is to contact your local Lyme support group. There is also a tab on the right side of this website called, “Find a Lyme Support Group.”  There is also another tab slightly down from that in which you can contact ILADS directly for doctors in your area.  Read this if you don’t know what a LLMD is.  LLMDs are specially trained in tick-borne illness and know how to diagnose patients clinically.  This is crucial because current 2-tiered CDC testing misses anywhere from 70-85% of cases or more.  You truly can not trust testing.  They also know how to treat this complex illness that typically is far more than just Lyme.

Category:

Babesia, Lyme, Prevention, Testing, Ticks, Transmission, Treatment, Viruses

May Lyme Awareness Talk, 2021

http://

May 5, 2021

Lyme Awareness Talk

According the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the average number of Lyme disease cases has more than doubled over the last decade.  In this presentation, Alicia Cashman from the Madison Lyme Support Group discusses tick-born illness, why it’s so difficult to obtain help, symptoms, prevention, and real life experience of patients.  The program was made possible through funding from the Friends of the Oregon Library.

Slide 1: Lyme Disease a 21st Century Pandemic
Slide 2: Why should we care about Lyme disease:
Slide 3: The History of Lyme disease:
Slide 4:  What is Lyme disease?
  • The CDC/NIH/IDSA accepted narrative
  • Reality
Slide 5: Pleomorphism (Lyme shape-shifts)
Slide 6: Video of a spirochetal cluster grown from a sick patient’s blood
Slide 7: Polymicrobialism (There are often other infections involved)
Slide 8:  How is Lyme Transmitted?
  • The CDC accepted narrative
  • Reality
Slide 9:  Congenital Lyme – is real
Slide 10: How is Lyme diagnosed?
Slide 11:  Symptoms of Lyme disease
  • CDC accepted narrative
  • Reality
Slide 12: Lyme disease signs and symptoms explained by Dr. Aucott of Johns Hopkins
  • Patients can jump to stage 3 quickly and bypass the other stages.  I give the example of the little girl who went out to play, got a tick bite above her eye and within 4-6 hours couldn’t walk or talk.
  • Many never see the tick or the rash
  • While the rash is diagnostic for Lyme (if you have the rash, you have Lyme – no testing required), you may still be infected even if you don’t have the rash. Most doctors are uneducated, don’t know what the rash looks like, and mistakenly tell people they got a spider or other bug bite.  The rash can also be irregular: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/07/18/misdiagnosis-of-lyme-caused-rash-can-have-potentially-fatal-consequences/
Slide 13: Why are definitions important?
  • Organism
  • Transmission
  • Treatment
Slide 14:  Tick Prevention
Slide 15: Willy Burgdorfer, the “discoverer” of Lyme
Slide 16: New Treatments for Lyme disease
Please remember that most patients are infected with numerous infections.  Treatment should reflect this as research shows patients fighting numerous infections simultaneously have more severe symptoms for a much longer duration.
Slide 17: Hollywood Stars infected with Lyme

Category:

Activism, Babesia, Bartonella, Biofilm, Lyme, Prevention, Psychological Aspects, research, Testing, Ticks, Transmission, Treatment