HEALTH COACH - Experts warn against increasing tick-borne Powassan virus

HEALTH COACH -

 Experts warn against increasing tick-borne Powassan virus  
 Over the past decade, 75 cases have been reported in the northeastern states and in the United States. Great Lakes region, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although no one can tell how many infections will occur this year, warmer winters have resulted in an increase in the tick population, so experts predict the increase in tick-borne infections many kinds. 
 
 Everyone risks from Powassan: newborns, 20 years old, middle age, the elderly and immunocompromised people. Anyone bitten by an infected tick can get it, said Dr. Jennifer Lyons, head of the Division of Neurological Infections and Inflammatory Diseases at Brigham and Women 's Hospital in Boston. Infections are more likely in late spring, early summer and mid-fall, when ticks are most active. 
 
 "About 15% of infected patients and symptoms do not survive," Lyons said. Also an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. "Of the survivors, at least 50% will have long-term neurological damage that will not resolve." 
 
 Although most infected people never show symptoms, those who get sick usually do it a few days to about a week after the bite, she says. The most common symptoms are fever and headaches. 
 
 
 
 "Influenza" Symptoms 
 
 
 "You mostly feel non-specific species of influenza," said Lyons, including "muscle aches and pains Pains, maybe you have a small rash on your skin, but almost certainly you will have a fever and headache. " 
 
 The unfortunate ones who develop a more serious illness will do so "very quickly over the next couple of days," she said. "You begin to develop difficulties in maintaining your consciousness and knowledge ... You can develop convulsions. You can develop the inability to breathe on your own." 
 
 
 
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 So far there are no vaccines to prevent infection, nor are there any treatments for Powassan. 
 
 "There are experimental therapies that we try when someone comes in and they get there early and we start early enough for therapy but we have no idea of ​​it works" , Said Lyons. 
 
 Standard treatment includes intravenous fluids, although antiviral drugs, systemic corticosteroids and other drugs have been tried in some patients. 
 
 Scientists also believe that Powassan increases according to studies that have identified an increase in the number of infections in deer. 
 
 "So it seems that there are more deer than they find that they have been infected with this virus," Lyons said. "So, we should expect it to increase the incidence of human disease over the next few years." 
 
 Similarly, Lyme displays increasing numbers. 
 
 According to a recital (PDF) 19% of deer ticks received and tested by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, a state-owned research facility in 2012 were Infected with Lyme disease and 29% of deer ticks were positively posed for the virus in 2016. 
 
 
 A season of bad falls to come 
 
 
 Goudarz Molaei , A research scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, predicts more new Lyme disease infections in the coming months due to a greater number of ticks and rates of infection Higher among them. Each year, there are nearly 30,000 confirmed cases of Lyme disease in the United States, according to the CDC, but with unconfirmed cases, the total can reach 300,000. 
 
   the station does not receive many ticks for testing, he explained: one or two per month, maybe five at most. 
 
 
 
 
"This year, I have received hundreds of ticks, "Molaei said. "Since April 1, we have received nearly 1000 ticks."   This greater abundance results from two consecutive warm winters, the insects of which are better able to survive and springs and longer summers. 
 
 Overall, 38% of these ticks have been positively tested for Lyme disease, he said. 
 
 "In one day, 50% of the ticks were infected," he said. The peak season is expected to be around June or July. 
 
 "To make the case more complicated, we find more ticks infected with other pathogens associated with ticks, including babesiosis and anaplasmosis, "Molaei said. Babesiosis and anaplasmosis usually do not have any symptoms, just like Powassan, although both can cause serious or even life-threatening illnesses. 
 
 "With ticks, this is not just Lyme disease," Molaei said. Prevention is the first step  
 
 The Powassan virus was first discovered in Ontario in 1958. 
 
 "A child is Fallen with an unspecified encephalitis "or an inflammation of the brain, explains Lyons. When the virus never seen before was identified, scientists called it Powassan after the town where the child was living. 
 
 
 
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 Dr. Daniel Pastula, Assistant Professor of Neurology, Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Epidemiology at the University of Colorado Denver and Colorado School of Public Health, explains that of the three ticks Which can carry Powassan - Ixodes cookei, Ixodes marxi and Ixodes scapularis - The third "likes to bite humans" the most. 
 
 Known commonly as a deer tie, Ixodes scapularis can also bite mice, explains Pastula. 
 
 "The thought may be where Powassan is getting," he said. The virus can enter the cycle between ticks and small and medium-sized forest rodents that live in the Great Lakes and Northeast, and "humans sometimes appear involved in this cycle." 
 
 "Unless you" It is very difficult to identify ticks. They're a little bit small, "he said. 
 
" The best thing people can do if they worry about Powassan or any other tick-borne virus Is to prevent against all tick bites, "said Pastula. 
 
 This is best done by avoiding high brush areas every time you are in the woods, wearing long sleeves and pants when This is possible, using an insect repellent and making checks after being outdoors, he said. 
 
 "It must be an insect repellent that is actually shown to work. Things with DEET or picaridin or IR3535 are recommended, according to EPA and CDC, "said Pastula. 
 
" Basically, you do not have to worry about Powassan if you do not Receive not a little by a check mark, "he said.