Deep-freeze winters combined with rainy-day springs have created the perfect condition for the proliferation of ticks. And though those tiny creepers haven't caused any incident of tick-related Lyme disease just yet, health experts in New England and other states have issued a warning that they very well could, and soon.
The Tick Encounter Resource Center of the University of Rhode Island has issued a red alert warning for high tick levels in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. The warning is based on data gathered by several tick surveyors in the area.
Sam Telford, an infectious disease professor and Lyme disease expert at Tufts University, monitors a site in Nantucket, Massachusetts. He said the number of ticks he found last week were more than the number of ticks he found last year.
"The next three to four weeks is the peak season of risk," Telford says. "That's when the nymphal ticks emerge and appear in large numbers. It's going to be gangbusters the next few weeks."
In Edward Hospital in Naperville, Illinois, spokesperson Keith Hartenberger said "a few folks" have already been to the medical center with ticks, although only one of them has been suspected to harbor Lyme disease. In Naperville's neighboring DuPage and Will County, no cases of Lyme disease have been yet been reported. But health officials are not loosening their stance on tick season and are bracing themselves for what could be an onslaught of Lyme disease and other tick-related illnesses.
Will County health department spokesperson Vic Reato says one of the problems with Lyme disease is victims do not often recognize the problem until later when the disease has advanced a little bit. Symptoms of Lyme disease include fever, muscle pain and fatigue. The tell-tale bull's eye rash that definitely indicates Lyme disease doesn't actually appear in one-third of all people who catch the disease.
Lyme disease is caused by the black-legged tick, which is native to the Northeast and upper Midwest regions. Not all black-legged ticks carry the bacterium that causes the illness, but reports show increasingly rising numbers of Lyme disease cases. New Hampshire saw more than 1,700 Lyme disease cases last year, adding to the total number of more than 100,000 cases overall, the largest number of Lyme disease cases in the U.S. says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Even in Maine, which has cooler tick-averse temperatures, maple sugar makers have reported seeing ticks in their maple trees, according to Atlantic Pest Solution district manager Ted St. Amand.
To minimize risk of contracting Lyme disease, experts encourage citizens to wear clothing that cover the feet and legs, wear insect repellent with 30% DEET for adults and less than 20% for kids, and avoid walking outdoors in tall grasses and under trees where ticks and tick nymphs tend to be found. They also recommend checking their skin, clothes and hair for ticks every day, since ticks have to stay on the skin for 24 hours before it can transmit infection.
