WASHINGTON (AP) — Lyme disease makes the headlines but there are plenty of additional reasons to avoid tick bites. New research highlights the latest in a growing list of tick-borne threats — a distant relative of Lyme that’s easy to confuse with other illnesses.
Monday’s study suggests a kind of bacteria with an unwieldy name — Borrelia miyamotoi — should be on the radar when people in Lyme-endemic areas get otherwise unexplained summertime fevers. It’s one of several recently discovered diseases linked to ticks in different parts of the country, a reminder to get tick-savvy no matter where you live.
“People need to be aware of what tick-borne diseases are in their area,” says Dr. Peter J. Krause of Yale University, a specialist who reviewed the research. “And they should know how to avoid ticks.”
Another gift that keeps on giving, courtesy of Plum Island, two or three decades ago. When evidence started mounting that birds (waterfowl) carried the diseased ticks from Plum Island to the mainland, the government kicked into high gear to create an alternative cause for Lyme disease. That weak attempt at “plausible deniability”, coupled with a solid record of lying, fell short of it’s intended purpose. One only needs to know of the sharing of staff, to and fro, from Ft. Detrick Maryland to Plum Island, to smell a rat. Anyone else remember NYC spraying malathion, (at night) just ahead of the West Nile Virus outbreak? Look at a map of NYC’s proximity to Plum Island. One government idiot, even floated the idea that birds migrate east to west, strangely following America’s interstates. Yeah. right! That’ll work
I heard something about that, but no details. (maybe I have their “alternative cause” described below)
I recently took my first antibiotics since the seventies because I had the “bull’s-eye” rash (erythema migrans) that’s associated with Lyme disease right around a tick bite (I hope the war starts before I die of something else). I didn’t know else to deal with it, so I took the antibiotics (doxycycline).
This article deals with (or mentions) diseases related to Lyme, but as far as Lyme disease is concerned, a tick can’t transfer the Lyme-causing bacteria (borrelia burgdorferi) unless he’s been attached to you for more than 24 hours, because it takes that long for the bacteria to work it’s way from the tick’s gut, to it’s saliva. That means you can be confident that you’ll be Lyme-free if you check yourself every 12 hours, and remove any ticks. I doubt I have Lyme, because I do regular tick-checks here.
The Lyme-bacteria originates in the white-footed mouse, and is transferred to the tick in it’s pupae stage, after which the tick drops off the mouse, and attaches itself to any convenient mammal, and spreads the bacteria.