Archive for the ‘Transmission’ Category

Czechs Record Most Tick-borne Encephalitis Cases in Entire EU

https://www.radio.cz/en/section/news/czechs-record-most-tick-borne-encephalitis-tbe-cases-in-entire-eu

CZECHS RECORD MOST TICK-BORNE ENCEPHALITIS (TBE) CASES IN ENTIRE EU

Brian Kenety
24-05-2019

The Czech Republic recorded the highest number of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) cases in the EU last year. In the whole of Europe, only Russia recorded more cases of the potentially deadly disease.

There were 712 recorded TBE cases in the country last year, the highest number since 2011, a Czech member of the International Scientific Working Group on TBE (ISW-TBE) said in a press release on Thursday.

Only about one quarter of inhabitants of the Czech Republic are vaccinated against TBE, a low percentage compared to other EU countries. Within the bloc, the second-highest number of TBE cases was recorded in Germany, which has a population eight times larger.

Encephalitis patients suffer from fever, headache, aching joints and muscles. It can develop into meningitis.

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For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/30/tick-borne-encephalitis-found-in-serbian-dogs-horses-wild-boar-and-roe-deer/

In the USA and Russia, another tick-borne flavivirus, Powassan virus, is responsible of encephalitis in humans.

More on Powassan (which can be transmitted within 15 min.):  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/13/half-of-powassan-cases-from-wisconsin-and-minnesota/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/21/powassan-virus/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/28/powassan-can-kill/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/01/25/new-powassan-test-89-sensitive/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/05/05/powassan-another-reason-to-avoid-ticks/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/05/18/powassan-and-bb-infection-in-wisconsin-and-u-s-tick-populations/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/04/powassan-virus-on-the-up-tick/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/05/04/tick-borne-powassan-virus-confirmed-in-6-minnesota-counties/

 

Category:

Ticks, Transmission, Viruses

Septic Shock Caused by RMSF in Suburban Texas Patient With Pet Dog Exposure: A Case Report

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6091339/

. 2018; 19: 917–919.
Published online 2018 Aug 4. doi: 10.12659/AJCR.909636
PMCID: PMC6091339
PMID: 30076285

Septic Shock Caused by Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in a Suburban Texas Patient with Pet Dog Exposure: A Case Report

Courtney Hatcher,B,C,D,E,F Brian Karahalios,B,C,D,F and Manjulatha BadamB,C,D
Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer

Abstract

Patient: Female, 45

Final Diagnosis: Rocky mountain spotted fever

Symptoms: Altered mental state • ataxia • dyspnea • fever • headache

Objective:

Unusual clinical course

Background:

Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) is associated with high mortality and requires prompt identification and treatment to ensure better outcomes.

Case Report:

We describe an advanced case of RMSF in a 45-year-old female patient with pet dog exposure who presented with altered mental status, dyspnea, and ataxia progressing to septic shock and acute hypoxic respiratory failure requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation.

Conclusions:

This case illustrates the importance of keeping RMSF in the differential diagnosis in patient populations outside of the usual geographic areas of incidence in the appropriate clinical setting.

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**Comment**

This is what can happen when diagnosis is delayed.

This woman that lived in the suburbs had a 7-day history of fevers associated with headache, arthralgias, nausea, fatigue, and neck pain, but did NOT have the tell-tale blotchy RMSF rash.

Two days later, she worsened with confusion, combativeness, dyspnea, and ataxia. She got multiple recent bug bites from her pet dogs sleeping in her bed. The dogs were not up to date on flea and tick medication but were healthy and showed no sign of illness.
  • Rule #1:  Do NOT sleep with pets.  The risk is too great.
  • Rule #2:  If you choose to have pets, make sure you treat them if they go outdoors.  The risk is too great.
  • Rule #3:  Doctors need to start treating this plague with the respect it deserves and frankly should keep it in the back of their minds AT ALL TIMES.
Positive findings were R. typhi IgM 1: 1024 (normal <1: 64), R. Rickettsii IgM 1: 1024 (normal <1: 64), IgG 1: 128 (normal <1: 64), and echovirus Ab 1: 80 titer (normal <1: 80). The Rickettsial titers were repeated for possible cross-reactivity and R. typhi antibodies were noted to be negative (<1: 64).
Although R.typhi was ruled out due to cross-reactivity, I believe we will start seeing more of this strain in the future.
The patient improved on doxycycline, the drug of choice for RMSF and was discharged.
Why isn’t there a full-out media blitz on this like there was on Zika?

Category:

research, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Testing, Ticks, Transmission, Treatment, Uncategorized

Going Outside? Watch Out For Asian Longhorned Tick Now in Kentucky

https://www.wymt.com/content/news/Going-outside-Watch-out-for–510400381.html  News Story in Link

Going outside? Watch out for unusual tick found in Eastern Kentucky

By WYMT News Staff
Posted: May 24, 2019

MARTIN COUNTY, KY. (WAVE) – It’s Memorial Day weekend and more people will head outside as the summer season kicks off. While you’re out having fun, be sure to keep an eye out for a tick that is new to the area.

This year’s tick season is different in Kentucky because a new tick has popped up in our area.

The University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment has received more calls about seeing ticks, but reports that incidents of tick-borne diseases in the state are very low.

People still need to use precautions because ticks are out there. They’re looking to suck blood three times in their lives in order to reproduce. This year’s tick season is different in Kentucky because a new tick has popped up in our area.

“The most common ticks we have are the Lone Star Ticks and the American Dog Tick,” Spencer County Agriculture agent Bryce Roberts said. “The new one we found is the Asian Longhorned Tick.”

Roberts said the Asian Longhorned Tick was found in Eastern Kentucky, in Martin County.

“It’s very concerning because of the diseases they do carry,” Roberts said.

New ticks bring new diseases. Before or when someone gets a tick disease, they see epidemiologist Dr. Paul Schulz.

“The two we encounter the most are Ehrlichia and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever,” Schulz said.

Schulz said the infectious disease department at Norton Healthcare found its first tick-borne disease of the year in March, a sign that tick season could be starting early.

“(In) well over 50 percent of diagnosed infections, the patient didn’t know they had tick exposure,” Schulz said.

People often don’t see or feel when a tick is biting them. However, there are ways to protect yourself and your summer experience: Cover up as much of your skin as you can, use a spray with DEET, avoid overgrown wooded areas, check yourself and your children every night.

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For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/09/12/three-surprising-things-i-learned-about-asian-longhorned-ticks-the-tick-guy-tom-mather/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/08/an-invasive-new-tick-is-spreading-in-the-u-s/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/19/rutgers-racing-to-contain-asian-longhorned-tick/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/14/multistate-infestation-with-the-exotic-disease-vector-tick-haemaphysalis-longhornis-u-s-aug-2017-sept-2018/Where this tick exists, it is an important vector of human and animal disease agents. In China and Japan, it transmits the severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV), which causes a human hemorrhagic fever (2), and Rickettsia japonica, which causes Japanese spotted fever (3). Studies in Asia identified ticks infected with various species of Anaplasma, Babesia, Borrelia, Ehrlichia, and Rickettsia, and all of these pathogen groups circulate zoonotically in the United States (4,5). In addition, parthenogenetic reproduction, a biologic characteristic of this species, allows a single introduced female tick to generate progeny without mating, thus resulting in massive host infestations.

 

Authorities have been relatively mum on what this tick transmits and I’ve had to dig to find it.  So far there are no noted human illnesses caused by this tick in the U.S., but the ones listed above have occurred other countries.  Do they really think this tick isn’t going to acquire disease and transmit here?  Maybe in an alternative reality, but then again, the CDC lives in an alternative reality.

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Anaplasmosis, Babesia, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme, Prevention, Rickettsia, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Transmission, Viruses

Ehrlichia Strain Isolated From a Minnesota Tick – Frequently Lethal in Mice & Hamsters

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31076433/

2019 May 10. pii: AEM.00866-19. doi: 10.1128/AEM.00866-19. [Epub ahead of print]

Characterization and genetic transformation of an Ehrlichia isolated from a Minnesota tick.

Lynn GE, Burkhardt NY1, Felsheim RF, Nelson CM1, Oliver JD1, Kurtti TJ1, Cornax I2, O’Sullivan MG2, Munderloh UG1.

Abstract

Ehrlichia muris subsp. eauclairensis is recognized as the etiological agent of human ehrlichiosis in Minnesota and Wisconsin. We describe the culture isolation of this organism from a field-collected tick and detail its relationship to other species of Ehrlichia. The isolate could be grown in a variety of cultured cell lines and was effectively transmitted between Ixodes scapularis ticks and rodents, with PCR and microscopy demonstrating a broad pattern of dissemination in arthropod and mammalian tissues. Conversely, Amblyomma americanum ticks were not susceptible to infection by the Ehrlichia. Histologic sections further revealed that the wild-type isolate was highly virulent for mice and hamsters, causing severe systemic disease that was frequently lethal. A Himar1 transposase system was used to create mCherry and mKate-expressing EmCRT mutants, which retained the ability to infect rodents and ticks.

Importance: Ehrlichioses are zoonotic diseases caused by intracellular bacteria that are transmitted by ixodid ticks. Here we report the culture isolation of bacteria which are closely related to, or the same as the Ehrlichia muris subsp. eauclairensis, a recently recognized human pathogen. EmCRT, obtained from a tick removed from deer at Camp Ripley, Minnesota, is the second isolate of this subspecies described, and is distinctive in that it was cultured directly from a field-collected tick. The isolate’s cellular tropism, pathogenic changes caused in rodent tissues, and tick transmission to and from rodents are detailed in this study. We also describe the genetic mutants created from the EmCRT isolate, which are valuable tools for the further study of this intracellular pathogen.

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**Comment**

OTHER MODES OF TRANSMISSION

Ehrlichia chaffeensis has been shown to survive for over a week in refrigerated blood. Therefore these bacteria may present a risk for transmission through blood transfusion and organ donation. It has also been suggested that ehrlichiosis can be transmitted from mother to child, and through direct contact with slaughtered deer. (14, 15)

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/12/02/everything-thats-known-about-ehrlichiosis/ (Treatments listed)

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/02/north-carolina-ehrlichia-often-overlooked-when-tick-borne-illness-suspected/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/24/oklahoma-ehrlichiosis-central/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/09/dogs-ehrlichiosis/

 

 

Category:

Ehrlichiosis, research, Testing, Ticks, Transmission

FDA Recommends Testing For Tick-borne Illness in Donated Blood (A Big Duh)

https://www.boston25news.com/news/fda-recommends-testing-for-tick-borne-illness-in-donated-blood/951893377

FDA recommends testing for tick-borne illness in donated blood

By: Jim Morelli

Updated:

BOSTON – It’s an infection transmitted by ticks that may not make you sick but could kill someone who gets your donated blood. 

It’s called babesiosis and the Food and Drug Administration just came out with strict new recommendations on screening for the parasite causing the disease.

Type O blood is in critically short supply this first holiday weekend of the summer.

“It’s the kind of blood that’s most in demand from hospitals and emergency rooms and trauma situations,” American Red Cross spokesperson Kelly Isenor said. “Right now, only three in every hundred people in the United States donate blood and that number just isn’t enough to keep up with the needs of hospital patients.”

With the Red Cross down to a two-day supply from its normal five.

Medical screening has always been part of the blood donation process, but this month a new recommendation from the FDA includes wholesale testing of donor samples in certain areas of the country for the tick-borne infection babesiosis.

“I’ve seen people get very sick from this and it’s great to avoid that,” Doctor Steven Sloan said. “So I think it’s an excellent move on the FDA’s part.”

Sloan is the medical director of the blood bank at Boston Children’s Hospital, where they’ve been testing blood donations for babesia the past few years — with good reason.

“It is the disease that has caused the most transfusion-transmitted fatalities in the U.S. over the last decade,” Dr. Sloan explained.

The FDA report notes that of the 200 known cases of babesiosis from blood transfusions, 95 percent came from fourteen states and the District of Columbia. Those states include all six in New England.

The report recommends updating health questionnaires in the most-affected states.

“So if a sample tests positive, the first thing is we do not use that blood for any patients. That blood will be discarded,” Sloan said.

Donors testing positive would be deferred from further donation for two years.

Although the FDA report makes clear that it is recommending babesia testing — not requiring it — Sloan predicts every blood supplier will get on board in time.

“So, [it will] probably be another year before most places will be testing for Babesia in this part of the country,” Sloan said.

And yes, that could mean more cases of transfusion-caused babesiosis.

But Sloan says with one positive in every few thousand donations, the risk is still small.

Boston Children’s Hospital says it is in dire need of blood donations. You can find out how to help here.

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

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/11/27/blood-screening-for-babesiosis-using-enzymatic-assays/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/07/babesia-tests-approved-by-fda-for-screening-purposes/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/06/02/study-showing-results-testing-babesia-microti/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/11/transfusion-transmitted-babesiosis-one-states-experience/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/08/transfusion-transmitted-babesiosis-in-nonendemic-areas/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/09/27/premature-infants-develop-babesia-via-blood-transfusion/

Babesia is only one of many.  Authorities are so behind the 8-ball it isn’t funny.  Many of the coinfections that often come with Lyme aren’t even reportable.

They aren’t even acknowledging or looking for them much less testing the blood supply them.

Category:

Babesia, Lyme, Testing, Transmission