[GeoStL] Mo. issues tick warning
- From: "k Sneed" <sneed14@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 16:10:04 -0500
BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!!
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/sciencemedicine/story/897E1D5ECEB29F23862572F20064FFC4?OpenDocument
Mo. issues tick warning
By Tina Hesman Saey <tsaey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
06/06/2007
Officials at the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services are
warning residents to be wary of ticks. A child in northeastern Missouri died
May 23 of an infection with a tick-carried bacterium called Ehrlichia
chaffeensis. That is one of three types of bacteria that cause the illness
known as ehrlichiosis. All three types are found in Missouri.
So far, the health department has confirmed 16 cases of ehrlichiosis and is
investigating two other cases. On average, Missouri has about 9 cases of the
diseases at this point during the year.
Cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever have more than doubled this year.
State health officials have confirmed 54 cases of the illness this season.
In an average year, only 22 cases would have been seen by this time.
Health officials have also had reports of 10 cases of Lyme-like disease and
two cases of tularemia.
Symptoms of the illness usually resemble the flu with body aches, tiredness,
and fever, said Joyce Berkowitz, infection control practitioner at SSM
Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever usually
starts with a rash, but rashes appear in less than half of people with
ehrlichiosis.
The hospital has seen only two possible cases of tick-borne illnesses this
year. Advertisement
"We usually start seeing stuff when the kids get out of school and are in
vacation mode," Berkowitz said.
Brian Allan, a biology graduate student at Washington University, has been
tracking ticks for four years. It's too early in the season to say if the
increase in diseases from tick bites are due to a larger number of ticks.
In Illinois, the Department of Public Health has had an increase in the
number ticks reported by veterinarians, doctors and others, but people have
not fallen ill at a higher rate than usual.
The increase in human illness may be due to a greater percentage of ticks
carrying disease, Allan said. The infection rate is determined largely by
population fluctuations in animals that serve as reservoirs for the
diseases.
For instance, a large number of infected white-tailed deer last fall could
lead to an increase human disease now, he said. White tailed deer carry
Ehrlichia chaffeensis. So Lonestar tick larvae could have feasted on
infected deer last August or September, picking up the infection. The ticks
over-winter and emerge as nymphs between May and July. Ticks at the
nymph life stage are most likely to transmit disease to people, because
nymphs are small and easy to miss and people often don't feel the
ticks crawling on their skin, Allan said.
Nymphs take a blood meal, drop off the host and over-winter, emerging as
adults the following April. Adult ticks may also infect people, but are more
noticeable and account for only a small number of infections with tick-borne
diseases, Allan said.
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For more information:
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services
*www.dhss.mo.gov/TicksCarryDisease/*<http://www.dhss.mo.gov/TicksCarryDisease/>
The Illinois Department of Public Health
*www.idph.state.il.us/public/hbhome.htm*<http://www.idph.state.il.us/public/hbhome.htm>
The National Center for Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention page on Tick-Borne Illnesses
*www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/list_tickborne.htm*<http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/list_tickborne.htm>
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