Tick-Borne Diseases Nearly half of lab-tested ticks carry Lyme disease this summer | Health Gather
Health Gather-Tick encephalitis was not found in any of the ticks tested in the Latvian Infectology Centre (LIC) laboratory as of June 16. According to Latvian Television, over half of the ticks tested were infected with borreliosis, which can cause Lyme disease.
At the Riga East
Clinical University Hospital, 341 ticks have been removed so far (RAKUS).
Because it is a paid service, not all have been investigated. None of the 45
people who were tested for encephalitis had it. Lyme borreliosis was found in
28 (or 43 percent) of those who were tested out of a total
of 64 persons.
Tick analysis costs
between €15 and €40, depending on the number of germs to be found. LTV's laboratory
specialist believes it is worthwhile to determine if the tick is infected.
The most important thing
to do if a tick has attached itself is to remove it as soon as possible. It
also has the most direct influence on the likelihood of contracting one of the
diseases.
"Borrelia is more widespread, and the encephalitis virus has not been identified at all this year," said Sergejs bikinis, head of the RAKUS National Reference Laboratory. "However, we know that the arrival of the Ji, Logoo festival is approaching, and, of course, it will be celebrated outside of town."
Kurzeme is still a leader in
terms of the number of ticks, said Viktorija Černiševa, epidemiologist of the
Disease Prevention and Control Center (SPCC). On average, around 200 people are
infected with encephalitis per year, and 300-400 with Lyme disease are detected in
300-400 patients.
Read More: Ticks And Lyme Disease: 3 Factors Determine Risk Of Infection
So you've found a tick, and it's sucking your blood.
After an initial wave of revulsion, you carefully remove it with a pair of tweezers. Now
you're probably wondering: What's the chance I have Lyme disease?
Nick Berndt found himself in
that exact situation earlier this summer. Berndt, 26, of Lancaster, Pa., felt a
tick attached to his scalp three days after disc golfing in a forest near his
home.
You gingerly remove it with tweezers after an initial sense of
repulsion. You're undoubtedly asking, "How likely am I to develop Lyme
disease?"
Earlier last summer, Nick Berndt found himself in
a similar scenario. Three days after disc golfing in a forest near his home,
Berndt, 26, of Lancaster, Pa., noticed a tick clinging to his scalp.
Berndt says, "Obviously, Lyme disease was
my primary fear about it." "It wasn't anything I wanted to tamper with."
Berndt was up in southeast Pennsylvania before moving to San
Diego State University to study business administration. He stayed in Southern
California after graduation to manage a photography business, but he missed
being close to his family and returned to Lancaster in 2008 June.
Berndt had experience with ticks growing up in Pennsylvania, and
he knew Lyme was a local threat. But he was unsure whether this particular tick
posed a significant risk.
Berndt's situation isn't
unique, says Thomas Mather, a professor of public health entomology at the University of Rhode Island and the director of Tick Encounter, a free service that connects tick-bite
victims with tick experts. Mather estimates that ticks bite millions of
Americans each year, but only 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention annually.
How do you know if your particular bite represents a high-risk case
Lyme Disease Is On The Rise
Again. Here's How To Prevent It
As it turns out, the chance of catching Lyme disease from an
individual tick ranges from zero to roughly 50 percent, according to Mather.
The exact probability depends on three factors: the tick species, where it came
from, and how long the tick was feeding.
First, Mather says it's
important to identify the species of tick.
Only two
species of tick transmit Lyme disease, both from the genus Ixodes. The black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis), often referred to as the
deer tick, is found throughout
the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains. The Western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus) is found west of the Rockies.
Adults of both species have reddish-black bodies and are about the size of a
sesame seed — smaller than most other ticks. As juveniles, they're even tinier
— roughly the size of a poppy seed.
If you've been bitten by
something other than a blacklegged tick, you can stop worrying about Lyme. But
Mather cautions that you may be at risk for other, less common infections like
Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
Even if a black-legged tick
bit you, there's still a good chance you're OK. That's because only a fraction
of black-legged tickscarriesy the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.
Where you live determines how many black-legged ticks are
carrying Lyme. A recent study found that in the Northeast and Upper
Midwest, up to 50 percent of black-legged ticks are infected. But in the South
and West, infection rates are usually less than 10 percent.
If you've been bitten by an ablack-leggedd tick carrying Lyme you still might not get sick, says Rick Ostfeld,
a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York.
"The probability that it
[Lyme disease] is transmitted to you ... depends on the length of
feeding," Ostfeld says. "It looks like something on the order of 24
hours is required before transmission occurs."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives a longer
time frame for transmission. "In most cases, the tick must be attached for
36 to 48 hours or more before the Lyme disease bacterium can be
transmitted," the
CDC website says.
Alison Hinckley, a CDC
epidemiologist specializing in Lyme disease, said several studies show that a
tick "needs to be attached for 48 to 72 hours to even be able to transmit
the infection to a person."
Within a day of discovering
the tick, Berndt submitted photographs and information about his case to Tick
Encounter. Within 24 hours, a specialist informed Berndt that his case posed a
high risk of Lyme disease.
Forbidding Forecast For Lyme
Disease In The Northeast
What made Berndt's tick so
dangerous? It started with a black-legged tick, which is known to carry Lyme
disease germs. Second, the tick was discovered in southeast Pennsylvania, where
a high percentage of ticks are infected (Mather estimates that the Lancaster
area has a 20-25 percent infection rate). Finally, the tick had fed for three
days, far longer than the 24-hour transmission threshold.
As a precaution, Berndt went
to a doctor and started an antibiotic regimen. He also paid a lab to have the tick tested.
Fortunately, the test came
back negative for Lyme disease.
"I think the $50 [for
the test] was worth it, just to be able to say 'No, it definitely wasn't
carrying it,' " Berndt says.
Even though Berndt's tick
tested negative, Mather says it's still a good idea for people like Berndt to
be on the lookout for Lyme symptoms. That's because they could have gotten
other tick bites that went unnoticed.
But Mather stresses that not
everyone who finds a tick on their body needs to worry. Many cases have a low
probability of causing disease.
"There was one woman,
she was nursing a 12-week-old baby and said, 'I just scraped this off my back
and I'm scared,' " Mather says. "In her case, it was a barely
attached American dog tick. We could tell her, 'You're probably fine.' "
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