Deer Ticks Carry Lyme Disease Germs

Deer Ticks Carry Lyme Disease Germs.
People who go outdoors in several regions of the United States may have something else to agonize about. Scientists arrive that there's another troublesome bacterium hiding in the deer tick that already harbors the Lyme disease bacterium. There are indications that the virus infects a few thousand Americans a year, potentially causing flu-like symptoms such as fever. In one newly reported case, a piece with existing medical problems appeared to have brain tumescence and dementia caused by an infection.

It is not clear, however, how serious of a threat may be posed by the germ. For the moment, Lyme blight appears to be much more prevalent. And four other germs that affect humans skulk in deer ticks. Still, scientists say the germ is cause for concern.

And "This would not be commonly picked up by any of the aware tests for Lyme disease," said Victor Berardi, co-author of one of two reports about the basis in the Jan 17, 2013 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The bacterium in pump is Borrelia miyamotoi and is found on deer ticks (also known as blacklegged ticks) in parts of the outback where Lyme disease is prevalent.

In 2011, Russian researchers reported that populace there were infected by the bacterium, and the new reports have found that it has infected people in the United States as well. "We've known about this bacterium for a big time - at least 10 years," said Sam Telford III, a professor of transmissible disease at Tufts University in Medford, Mass, who co-authored the account with Berardi.

And "It's been under our nose all this time, and a lot of us just ignored it until there was this case report". For the most part, Lyme cancer infections occur in northeastern states, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and northern California. The germs are broaden by ticks that bite the skin and remain there for a day or more.

In the US case, an 80-year-old lady who lived on a farm in New Jersey was infected by the Borrelia miyamotoi germ. She suffered from non-Hodgkin lymphoma (which disrupts the insusceptible system) and developed what appeared to be signs of dementia. She recovered after prepossessing penicillin, and scientists later confirmed that she had been infected with the bacterium and may have developed distension in the brain and brain lining as a result.

Researchers warned that the microbe could be responsible for apparent cases of dementia in older people, especially those who suffer from conditions such as AIDS, which reduce the immune system. The germ also appears to cause fever, headache, chills and sweats, surrounded by other symptoms. So how common might infection with the germ be? Another new discharge in the journal found signs of B miyamotoi infection in blood tests taken from people in New York and New England between 1990 and 2010.

They were treated with the antibiotics doxycycline and amoxicillin, which are budget and unpropitious to have serious side effects, said lead author Dr Peter Krause, a superior research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Conn. He estimates that 4000 to 5000 cases of the plague may appear in the United States each year, compared with 30000 of Lyme disease. There is no evaluate for the germ yet, but researchers are working on one female. It should rate about $100, said Berardi, who also is an associate director of laboratory science at Imugen, a Norwood, Mass, business that develops medical tests.