Lyme-disease isn't the only tick-borne threat. Doctors warn these other diseases are spreading

[nitpicked]

https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/5337215-lyme-disease-isnt-the-only-tick-borne-threat-doctors-warn-these-other-diseases-are-spreading/

(snip)
Just last month, Connecticut researchers said they identified the first case of a longhorned tick infected with a pathogen called ehrlichia chaffeensis. Infections can give people fever chills, headaches, muscle aches and stomach issues.

“We also worry about a parasite called Babesia, which causes a disease called Babesiosis,” said Nicole Baumgarth, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in a recent briefing on tick-borne illnesses. The same ticks that carry the bacteria that cause Lyme disease can carry this parasite, which then infects people’s red blood cells, causing anemia and other “very serious consequences,” Baumgarth said.

Some people infected by the parasite may feel flu-like symptoms, explains the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while others may have no symptoms at all. That’s a problem if people live with the parasite and then donate their infected blood, which can cause harm to the people who receive it as a transfusion.

Baumgarth also warned of viruses that can be spread by ticks, such as tick-borne encephalitis. It’s an infection that can cause inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. It’s a bigger problem in Europe than in the U.S., she said, but here we have Heartland virus and Powassan virus to contend with.
(snip)

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Ehrlichia and babesiosis have been around a long time

We had Lyme Disease 4 years before the first case of Lyme was reported, but the doctors, ever reliant on CDC bulletins that inform on the current pathogens, classified it as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, even though we're 2500 miles from the Rocky Mountains and there was no spotted rash, just a large, angry raised tick-bitten site - which is the case with Lyme Disease.

I recall warnings on Ehrlichia and Babesiosis in the early 1990s.

[markie]

2. just took

a tick out of my leg this morning.... ticks are a serious concern, and it worries me terribly as I hike and work in the woods a lot

[Quakerfriend]

5. I don't know if it's available in your area but, in PA

we can get the tick checked for a variety of tick
borne pathogens. It’s free.

This testing has been many, many times by my family & we are so thankful for it.

[SheltieLover]

3. I guarantee you that was not the first case of ehrlichia dxd in the NE sector.

I had a kid and 3 dogs with lyme, ehrlichia, and babesia (a milder malaria-type co-infection of lyme).

My kiddo has been CURED for 25 years! (Not a term ever used with lyme...it's always "remission." I say fuck remission -- let's kick it's ass. So we did.

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Yeah, I hate these diseases. I remember one time, when I went to the doctor's office for a regular checkup,

and bloodwork, that they told me that I had been exposed to Lyme Disease (and at the same time, when we took our one dog at the time for a checkup too, she had been exposed to Lyme Disease too). Neither one of us had any ill effects.

So, you may not feel ill or something like that, but you may have been infected. Doesn't hurt to check. And we did regular tick checkups too, but still they got us. Best bet is to stay out of the woods 100% if you can. That's why we burned the leaves, try to mow down the weeds as often as possible, sprayed ourselves, mow the yards and the edge of our gravel roads as much as possible, to prevent or reduce the tick presence. In the Ozark woods, this is just about impossible. We also sprayed anti-tick sprays in somewhat populated areas, near the houses, the mobile homes, the roads that we sometimes walked in going to the mailboxes and getting the mail.

We didn't have chickens or anything like that, that would have helped keep the ticks down, but in hindsight, I think I would have spent a little money in putting up fencing to keep the chickens fenced in, and thus, did more of a preventative job in keeping the ticks down to manageable levels.