Archive for the ‘Transmission’ Category

Two Exotic Disease-Carrying Ticks Identified in Rhode Island & First Case of Parasitic Soft Ticks Reported in New Jersey

https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/27511/20200929/two-exotic-disease-carrying-ticks-identified-rhode-island.

Two Exotic Disease-Carrying Ticks Have Just Been Identified in Rhode Island

Hannah C. Sep 29, 2020

Local authorities in Rhode Island announced that two new tick species were identified on Block Island. The tick species were traced back to Eurasia and Asia origins.

Dr. Danielle Tufts from Columbia University identified the two species Haemaphysalis longicornis (Asian long-horned tick) and Haemaphysalis punctata (red sheep tick), reported the state’s Department of Environmental Management (DEM). (See link for article) 

Two Exotic Disease-Carrying Ticks Had Just Been Identified in Rhode Island

(Photo: Asian long-horned tick, adult female dorsal view climbing on a blade of grass – Photo by James Gathany; CDC)

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**Comment**

Both ticks are considered live-stock pests but they can and do bite humans, transmitting diseases.  Farmers, hunters, and hikes are at greater risk.

  • The red sheep tick is identified with Tick paralysis, Tick Borne Encephalitis virus, Tribec virus, Bhanja virus, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus, Babesia bovis, Theileria recondita, Coxiella burneti, Francisella tularensis.  http://www.bristoluniversitytickid.uk/page/Haemaphysalis+punctata/17/#.X3S-TS2ZOWgCattle: Babesia major, Babesia bigemina, Theileria mutans, Anaplasma marginale and Anaplasma centrale

    Sheep: Babesia motasi, Theileria ovis

H.-punctata-female-dorsal-0-300x225

Red sheep tick, Adult female dorsal view

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-09-jersey-1.html

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

Bat tick found for the first time in New Jersey

by Todd Bates, Rutgers University

Bat tick found for the first time in New Jersey

A tick species associated with bats has been reported for the first time in New Jersey and could pose health risks to people, pets and livestock, according to a Rutgers-led study in the Journal of Medical Entomology.

This species (Carios kelleyi) is a “soft” . Deer ticks, which carry Lyme disease, are an example of “hard” ticks.

“All ticks feed on blood and may transmit pathogens (disease-causing microbes) during feeding,” said lead author James L. Occi, a doctoral student in the Rutgers Center for Vector Biology at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. “We need to be aware that if you remove from your belfry, attic or elsewhere indoors, ticks that fed on those bats may stay behind and come looking for a new source of blood. There are records of C. kelleyi biting humans.”  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

A few important points:

  1. A related species, Carios jersey, was found in amber 2001
  2. C. kelleyi has been found in 29 states so far
  3. Public health risk remains unknown, but it has been found to be infected with harmful pathogens in other states
  4. There are reports of this tick feeding on humans
  5. The bat it feeds on regularly roosts in attics and barns
  6. It has been identified with rickettsia and borrelia (Lyme):  https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/carios
I can’t help but notice the bat connection, as well as the following:

https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2058858379813/first-case-of-parasitic-soft-ticks-reported-in-new-jersey  The current pandemic has been accompanied by cases of other illnesses and diseases such as African Swine Flu, Ebola, Bubonic Plague, West Nile Virus, Dengue outbreaks around the world.

For Tick Prevention:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/12/tick-prevention-2019/

Category:

Anaplasmosis, Babesia, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme, Q Fever, Rickettsia, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ticks, Transmission, Tularemia, Viruses

Tick-borne Virus: All You Need to Know About the Disease That Has Killed 7 in China

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/tick-borne-virus-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-disease-thats-killed-7-in-china/

Tick-borne virus: All you need to know about the disease that has killed 7 in China

Belonging to the Bunyavirus category, China isolated the pathogen of the virus first in 2011. First identified in China, the virus has also been reported in Japan and Korea.
AP

Beijing: A new tick-borne virus has killed seven and infected 60 others, Chinese media reported, warning about the imminent possibility of human-to-human transmission.

More than 37 people in East China‘s Jiangsu province contracted the SFTS Virus in the first half of year 2020. Later, 23 people were found infected in East China’s
Anhui province, Global Times quoted media reports. (See link for article)

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**Comment**
While the world is fixated on COVID, there are other viruses that are deadly, and SFTS is one of them.
Important points:
  1. Symptoms include fever, coughing, thrombocytopenia (low platelets), leukcytopenia (love white blood cells), neurological issues and gastrointestinal disorders.
  2. SFTS has a 30% fatality rate.
  3. The Asian Longhorned tick appears to be the culprit which is now spreading across the U.S. ,despite the weather, by migrating birds.
  4. They don’t know if human to human transmission occurs.
  5. Since this was first isolated in 2011 you would think we would have better answers for something that kills 30% of the people it infects….

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/11/death-from-tick-borne-virus-sfts/  This article states the woman may have been infected by the bite from a cat.  If this is true, human to human transmission is highly probable.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/09/12/three-surprising-things-i-learned-about-asian-longhorned-ticks-the-tick-guy-tom-mather/  We need answers on this tick fast because they line up on a blade of grass like a cluster-bomb.  Brush against it and you have hundreds if not thousands of ticks on you all at once.
And while researchers are quick to report it transmits Lyme disease rarely, it’s still a possibility:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/10/26/researchers-conclude-asian-longhorned-tick-contributes-minimally-to-lyme-disease-in-the-u-s/
uninfected H. longicornis larvae could acquire B. burgdorferi s.s. while feeding on infected Mus musculus mice (infection prevalence >50% in freshly fed larvae) but that the infection was lost during the molt to the nymphal stage. None of 520 tested molted nymphs were found to be infected, indicating that transstadial passage of B. burgdorferi s.s. is absent or rare in H.
This tick should be a grave concern to all of us.

Category:

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ticks, Transmission, Viruses

Allegheny County’s Tick Collector Warns of Lyme Disease Risks

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/environment/2020/08/07/ticks-Lyme-disease-risks-Allegheny-County-blacklegged-tick/stories/

Leah Lamonte, vector control specialist for the Allegheny County Health Department, looks for blacklegged ticks in their nymph stage after dragging a cloth along a trail in Hartwood Acres on July 30, 2020, in Allison Park.

Allegheny County’s tick collector warns of Lyme disease risks

Pam Panchak / Post-Gazette
AUG 7, 2020

After dragging a swath of white cloth the size of a doormat through the forest duff along a shaded, onetime bridle trail now well used by walkers and joggers in Hartwood Acres county park, Leah Lamonte had her tweezers out.

Ms. Lamonte is the vector control program coordinator for the Allegheny County Health Department, and the specks she plucked from the “drag cloth” last week looked like smudges of finely ground black pepper. Except they were moving.

As she delicately grabbed each tiny crawling dot and dropped it into a clear plastic vial filled with alcohol, she explained that she was collecting ticks, especially blacklegged ticks, the kind that carry Lyme disease and pass it to thousands of Pennsylvanians every year.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Important takeaways:

  1. Lamonte states she’s finding ticks in every one of the city and county parks.
  2. She rightly assumes that every time she’s been in a park she’s been exposed to Lyme (if not other things as well).
  3. According to their results, 25% of nymphal deer ticks carry Lyme, while 50% of adults do. She states this is because adults have had two blood meals thereby increasing their risk.
  4. 4% carry Anaplasma
  5. 1% carry Babesia
  6. They repeat the mantra that a tick has to be attached for 36-48 hours when minimum attachment time has NEVER been determined.  I show here that within 4-6 hours a little girl couldn’t walk or talk after a tick bite:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/04/14/transmission-time-for-lymemsids-infection/  It’s also been shown that ticks partially feed, drop off, and then attach to a new host. These partial feeders are able to transmit much more quickly:  m.org/content/iai/61/6/2396.full.pdf  and a more recent 2019 article:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/26/three-strains-of-borrelia-other-pathogens-found-in-salivary-glands-of-ixodes-ticks-suggesting-quicker-transmission-time  This study was in castor bean ticks – still in the Ixodes family.
We really need to stop saying a tick has to be attached for hours and hours – giving people a false sense of security.

 

 

Category:

Lyme, research, Ticks, Transmission

Rarely Infected Not Infectious: How Dogs & Cats Have Become Victims of COVID-19

https://www.icam-coalition.org/infected-not-infectious-how-dogs-and-cats-have-become-the-victims-of-covid-19/

Infected not infectious: How dogs and cats have become the victims of COVID-19

Excerpts:

Infected: Can dogs and cats be infected by SARS-CoV-2?

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen a number of positive cases in companion animals (see our blog on why testing in companion animals should be limited). But equally as important, are the negative results.

Infectious: Can dogs and cats transmit SARS-CoV-2 to people? 

“Currently, there is no evidence that animals are playing a significant epidemiological role in the spread of human infections with SARS-CoV-2.” OIE. Evidence of transmission from dogs or cats to people would require clarity on two factors; timing and other transmission routes. A person would need to become sick with COVID-19 after their dog or cat had shown signs of infection AND all other possible routes of transmission from people would need to be excluded. Because they are in contact with many more dogs and cats than most people, veterinarians and shelter workers would be most at risk for this kind of transmission. Thankfully, there appears to be no greater prevalence of COVID-19 in these workforces.

With over 4 million human cases worldwide we have an abundance of complex, uncontrolled but undeniably valuable epidemiological evidence about transmission. The extremely small number of infections from people to dogs and cats, and the lack of any examples of transmission to people, is meaningful.

Dogs and cats are not playing a role in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to people.

These companion animals are the victims of this reverse zoonosis; they are (rarely) infected but not infectious.

(See link for article)

 

Category:

Activism, Transmission, Viruses

Researcher: ‘No Viable SARS-CoV-2 Detected On Surfaces’ in Real Life Situations

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/laninf/PIIS1473-3099(20)30561-2.pdf

Exaggerated risk of transmission of COVID-19 by fomites

Published Online July 3, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1016/ S1473-3099(20)30561-2

Emanuel Goldman

egoldman@njms.rutgers.edu

Professor of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, New Jersey Medical School – Rutgers University, Newark, NJ 07103, USA

In my opinion, the chance of transmission through inanimate surfaces is very small, and only in instances where an infected person coughs or sneezes on the surface, and someone else touches that surface soon after the cough or sneeze (within 1–2 h). I do not disagree with erring on the side of caution, but this can go to extremes not justified by the data. Although periodically disinfecting surfaces and use of gloves

are reasonable precautions especially in hospitals, I believe that fomites that have not been in contact with an infected carrier for many hours do not pose a measurable risk of transmission in non-hospital settings.

A more balanced perspective is needed to curb excesses that become counterproductive.

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**Comment**

Earlier studies did not use real life situations.

In this video, Dr. Popper discusses a study that showed passive contact with bleach (what they are wiping shopping carts and everything else down with) was associated with a major increase in self-reported influenza.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/07/30/breaking-down-covid-19-face-masks-do-not-work/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

research, Transmission, Viruses