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New diseases enter the U.S.
YOUNGSTOWN
Beware the bugs.
Several species of ticks and mosquitoes spread misery ranging from being a nuisance to being fatal.
Some, such as the growing population of the black-legged deer tick in Ohio, are active year-round and transmit diseases, including Lyme disease, said Susan L. Kovach of the Mahoning County District Board of Health’s community health division.
Black-legged ticks and Lyme disease are present in 65 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and Lyme disease is endemic in 24 counties including Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
Lyme disease is considered endemic when a county has two or more laboratory-confirmed human cases with local exposure, or infected ticks have been confirmed.
Confirmed cases in Mahoning County totaled three in 2012, one in 2013 and six in 2014, Kovach said.
But now, according to the website WebMD.com, the black-legged deer tick also may carry a bacteria that causes Borrelia miyamotoi disease (BMD), similar to Lyme disease, which has been documented in the northeastern part of the nation.
The BMD bacteria causes flulike symptoms such as chills, muscle or joint paint, high fever and headaches; and, like Lyme disease, can lead to a serious brain infection, meningoencephalitis, researchers say.
Nearly 25 percent of BMD patients require hospitalization, but it can be treated with the same antibiotics used to treat Lyme disease.
Ticks are not the only insects bringing new health concerns to the Americas.
Tiger mosquitoes transmit the chikungunya (pronounced chik-en-gun-ye) virus to humans.
The most common symptoms are fever and joint pain, but also may include headache, muscle pain, joint swelling and rash.
In 2013, chikungunya was found for the first time in the Americas on islands in the Caribbean.
Infected travelers have brought the virus to the U.S. and Ohio, said Dr. Richard Gary, Ohio Department of Health entomologist.
“We have seen cases in Ohio, but they were all travel-related,” Gary said.
But, he also noted, Ohio is home to the tiger mosquito, the insect that spreads the disease.