Ticked off: America ’s quiet epidemic of tickborne diseases
For most of us, springtime marks the return of life to a dreary landscape, bringing birdsong, trees in bud, and daffodils in bloom. But if you work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the coming of spring means the return of nasty diseases spread by ticks and mosquitoes.
The killjoys at CDC celebrated the end of winter with a bummer of a paper showing that infections spread by ticks doubled in the United States from 2004 to 2016. (Tick populations have exploded in recent decades, perhaps due to climate change and loss of biodiversity.)
Lyme disease
The most common infection spread by ticks in the US i...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 25, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Ross, MD, FIDSA Tags: Health Infectious diseases Source Type: blogs
Heartland virus disease
Six new cases of Heartland virus disease have been identified in residents of Missouri and Tennessee. The cause of this disease appears to be a member of the Phlebovirus genus in the Bunyaviridae family that was first identified in 2009 and appears to be transmitted by the Lone Star tick (Amblyomma americanum, pictured).
Heartland virus was first identified in two Missouri farmers who were hospitalized with fever, leukopenia (low numbers of white blood cells), and thrombocytopenia (low numbers of platelets). Both were males over 55 years old who reported being bitten by ticks in the week before disease onset. The novel vi...
Source: virology blog - March 28, 2014 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information amblyomma americanum bunyavirus Heartland disease leukopenia Lone star tick phlebovirus severe fever with throbocytopenia viral Source Type: blogs
