Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 6 July 2017

Science says: Too early for forecast on Lyme disease ticks

BY MIKE STOBBE too early to tell just how
AP MEDICAL WRITER bad a year it is.”
NEW YORK (AP) - Tick popu- Thomas Mather, a Univer-
lations are exploding? Tick- sity of Rhode Island re-
borne diseases are on the searcher who’s considered
rise? Some recent head- a pro at surveying for ticks,
lines suggest Americans hasn’t seen a jump in the
are facing a particularly blacklegged variety. Even
bad year for tick bites and if blacklegged ticks are
illnesses, but the evidence up this year, a change in
is patchy and the science conditions - like a dry heat
complicated. What may wave - could knock the
be true in one part of the population way down, he
country - or even one part added.
of a county - may not be OTHER TICKS
true in another. And there Other kinds of ticks can
are signs that the most cause other diseases and
common tick-borne illness health problems.
- Lyme disease - may be Perhaps the most unusual
occurring at roughly usual is caused by the Lone Star
levels. tick, which - despite its
Here’s a look at the tick Texas-sounding name, is
situation: found mainly in the South-
THE HAZARD east. Several years ago,
Ticks are small, bloodsuck- doctors began noticing a
ing insects that feed on an- This Monday, March 18, 2002 file photo of a female deer tick seen under a microscope at the sudden increase in meat
imals but will bite people, entomology lab of the University of Rhode Island in South Kingstown, R.I. This Associated Press allergies in people bit-
too. Some are infected ten by Lone Star ticks. Re-
with germs that can cause a wider range . said Stephen Rich. He runs and Prevention. searchers concluded that
illness, and they spread When infected ticks bite, a a project that tests around Concern about black- the bloodsuckers are car-
those germs when they “bulls’-eye” rash can ap- 10,000 ticks each year sent legged ticks recently rying a sugar humans don’t
bite. For people, the main pear a few days later. It in by people who were bit- amped up, largely be- have, which can trigger
worry is blacklegged ticks, can be followed by severe ten. cause of a prediction the bizarre immune system
which can spread Lyme headaches, neck stiffness THE OUTLOOK made by Richard Ostfeld reaction that makes them
disease and other illness- and pain in the joints or oth- U.S. health officials refuse of the Cary Institute of Eco- react to red meat.
es. Nearly 30,000 cases of er parts of the body. People to make predictions about system Studies, north of Blacklegged ticks also
Lyme disease are reported usually recover quickly and ticks and tick diseases, and New York City. Ostfeld, a spread other infections in-
to the federal government completely when treated say it’s hard to even know respected tick research- cluding the rare Powassan
each year, but experts with antibiotics in the dis- how bad things are. There er, says blacklegged tick virus. Only 75 cases were
think it’s underreported ease’s early stages. are monitoring projects in populations can explode reported across the na-
and the actual number Not all blacklegged ticks some states, or some parts based on a boom-and- tion in the last decade, but
may be more like 300,000. are infected. Typically of states, but there’s not bust cycle of acorns and more doctors are looking
Blacklegged ticks - also about half of the adult ticks any comprehensive data white-footed mice, which for it and other tick illnesses
called deer ticks - were that come in for testing at a to give a clear picture of ticks like to feed on. He says and that may affect future
once found mainly in New University of Massachusetts what’s happening nation- conditions over the last two counts, experts said.
England and pockets of lab carry the bacteria, and ally, noted Rebecca Eisen, years bode for a boom this To protect against ticks,
the Midwest, but in recent that’s about what the lab a tick expert at the U.S. year in the Northeast. learn what kinds are com-
years have been seen over is seeing again this year, Centers for Disease Control But he acknowledges “it’s mon where you live. q