*Flashback Friday*

*This post originally appeared on The PediaBlog on July 29, 2021.

 

Lyme Cases Tick Up

 

 

More than three years ago on The PediaBlog we noticed an explosion of Lyme disease in Pennsylvania, where for the first time children and adults were being diagnosed in all 67 counties. This year, because of a mild winter and early spring, a spike in the blacklegged tick population is being recorded across the state. With COVID-19 winding down at least temporarily over the summer, John Hayes says more people have been spending time outdoors where the ticks live… and bite:

A spike in the state’s tick population is coinciding with unprecedented participation in hiking, camping, fishing and other outdoor activities. In Harrisburg on Tuesday, the chiefs of three Pennsylvania agencies said a surge in tick-borne diseases has spread across the state.

Patrick McDonnell, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said the agency has collected twice the number of blacklegged tick nymphs compared to last year. And Dr. Denise Johnson, Pennsylvania’s acting physician general, cited a correlation in the blacklegged tick population and reported cases of diseases carried by ticks.

“This year in particular, we are seeing increases in the number of Lyme disease reports across the state, and clinicians are reporting that they are seeing more cases of other tick-borne diseases, such as anaplasmosis,” Dr. Johnson said in a statement.

 

Amanda D’Ambrosio explains that the surge in tick-borne diseases is happening nationwide, and it’s not just Lyme disease that is rising:

Each year, 30,000 to 40,000 Lyme Disease cases are reported to the CDC by state health departments. But that figure is much lower than what is actually diagnosed and treated. Approximately 476,000 cases each year were diagnosed and treated for the illness between 2010 and 2018, according to a recent CDC estimate.

The prevalence of all tick-borne illnesses has also jumped significantly in the past few years, with anaplasmosis, spotted fever rickettsiosis, babesiosis, tularemia, and Powassan virus disease all rising in recent years — although, these diseases are much rarer.

 

Climate change has played a primary role in helping the blacklegged tick expand its range north and west, where the weather is getting warmer and less snow is falling:

The blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis in the eastern U.S.; Ixodes pacificus in the west), which transmits the bacteria that causes Lyme Disease (mainly Borrelia burgdorferi), has crept into areas it historically hasn’t been seen. “We know that this tick has moved north and west quite significantly in the past 20 years,” Toledo said in an interview. Deer and mice populations — primary hosts for this tick — also play a role in expansion.

A wider distribution of ticks means that more people are encountering them. But while ticks have migrated, people have too. Previous wooded areas have been deforested and developed into suburban environments, pushing more people into tick habitats and increasing their chances of getting bitten, Toledo said.

 

Back in Pittsburgh, Gabrielle DeLuca reports that Lyme disease is affecting more kids than ever:

It’s a record year at the UPMC Children’s Hospital — but it’s not something doctors are celebrating.

They’ve seen a spike in Lyme disease cases among kids.

“We are not only seeing a lot of cases we are seeing a lot of severe cases too,” explained Dr. Andrew Nowalk from the UPMC Children’s Hospital.

So far this year, they’ve had 700 cases of Lyme disease and 300 of those cases were just in June alone.

“It’s a lot of kids. It’s our most commonly diagnosis infectious dense right now, way more than covid way more than any viral infection that we are seeing at the hospital.”

 

Kristin Emery reviewed a study conducted by Dr. Nowalk’s group at Children’s that found that fewer than half of children diagnosed with Lyme disease displayed the classic bulls-eye rash around the site of a tick bite. In fact, only a third were aware they’d been bitten by a tick at all before other symptoms appeared:

Lyme disease is caused by black-legged tick bites. A tick must be attached for 36 to 48 hours to transmit the disease caused by a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi. Lyme disease can cause fever, fatigue, joint and muscle aches, inflammation, arthritis and even facial paralysis if not treated with antibiotics.

 

DeLuca warns that the worst may be coming:

Nowalk’s fear is that things could get worse before the end of the summer.

“Our biggest months every year are June, July, August, so we started very bad with a record June and moving into July and August, it’s possible we will equal the number of record in these three months.”

 

Read Dr. Brian Donnelly’s excellent article about tick bites in the Summer 2021 edition of The PediaMag here.

 

(Google Images)

 

source http://www.thepediablog.com/2022/07/29/flashback-friday-217/