
Illnesses from Mosquito, Tick, and Flea Bites Increasing in the US - indescions_2018
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2018/p0501-vs-vector-borne.html
======
clayrichardson
I'm spinning up a lab in Santa Cruz to research the local tick population. We
could use extra skilled hands to help obtain the distribution of pathogens,
and in developing treatment protocols. Plus, who doesn't enjoy a good tick
hunt?

Get at me if you're 'bout it: eng at clayrichardson.me

~~~
montyf
Sounds like something I'd be good at. All I have to do is stroll through the
woods and I have 20 ticks on my person.

------
Sevrene
The amount of people contracting diseases from bites can increase, but it
doesn't actually mean you're more likely to contract diseases from bites.

For instance here in Australia there has been a rise of shark attacks
recently. The reason isn't necessarily because sharks were attacking more
people or acting more aggressively, it was because more people were in the
water.

It's interesting how statistics can point you in the wrong direction.

~~~
et-al
That's a good point. We can probably account for the increase by seeing when
Instagram started having an uptick in #outsideisfree photos.

~~~
sizzle
"uptick" heh

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delinka
Alpha-gal allergy, or mammalian meat allergy, needs more attention.

“Bites from certain ticks, such as the lone star tick in the US, [...] have
been implicated in the development of this delayed allergic response which is
triggered by the consumption of mammalian meat products.”

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-
gal_allergy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy)

------
andrewl
There's been a good bit of press about this, and I expect more. Here's one
recent article:

[https://aeon.co/essays/how-lyme-disease-became-the-first-
epi...](https://aeon.co/essays/how-lyme-disease-became-the-first-epidemic-of-
climate-change)

The article is by the author of _Lyme - The First Epidemic of Climate Change._
[1]

[1] [https://islandpress.org/books/lyme](https://islandpress.org/books/lyme)

------
todd8
I see climate change being blamed for this increase in insect bites, but can
this be right? Perhaps it’s a factor; however, as I understand it the USA has
warmed by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 100 years[1]. There is
roughly a 50 degree difference between the northern states (excluding Alaska
and Hawaii) and the southern states based on a quick peek at iso therm maps
for the USA.[2]

It lookes like that would increase the ticks habitats very little over a whole
century. Now take a look at the dramatic changes in just few years presented
in the article.

[1]
[https://globalclimate.ucr.edu/resources.html](https://globalclimate.ucr.edu/resources.html)

[2]
[https://climate.ncsu.edu/images/edu/IsobarsIsotherms.gif](https://climate.ncsu.edu/images/edu/IsobarsIsotherms.gif)

~~~
stevenwoo
I remember having concerns over finding a tick on myself in the early 90's.
The doctor assuaged me at the time among other things with the fact that only
a couple of states in the Northeast had to be extremely vigilant about ticks
and we were in the South. Now the range for concern is much of the entire
range of deer in the United States and researchers are finding it in urban
areas in Western Europe.

A small average change is small but it's something. There was some separate
issue about saiga antelope undergoing catastrophic die off a few years ago.
The best theory now is a temperature change enabling bacterial infection by
bacteria that were always present but not killing the antelope. The average
temperature would not change that much as per your data but the extremes are
going to swing more with climate change. [http://www.bbc.com/news/science-
environment-42720955](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42720955)

~~~
phyller
How does warmer weather explain ticks moving farther south?

~~~
stevenwoo
The ticks carrying the Lyme disease bacteria were trapped in the Northeast
(for the USA). Climate change changed the feeding behavior of the prey of
juvenile nymph ticks, the main vector for increasing the habitat is mice not
deer. The adults feed on deer but most infections in people that we know about
come from nymphs ( probably because they are so tiny).

A laymen's explanation:

[https://qz.com/441583/lyme-disease-is-spreading-faster-
than-...](https://qz.com/441583/lyme-disease-is-spreading-faster-than-ever-
and-humans-are-partly-to-blame/)

"But our rapidly changing climate also seems to be making it easier for Lyme
to spread, by shifting when blacklegged ticks typically feed."

This means it's simply a matter of waiting for the temperature to rise just a
bit more for the Lyme disease to be a problem in the USA everywhere there are
deer.

There is the difficulty with temperature theory helping the spread the same
way in Europe which the article covers, but Lyme disease in Europe is a
slightly different bacteria as well.

The National Science Foundation explanation:
[https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/ecoinf/lyme.jsp](https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/ecoinf/lyme.jsp)

------
cmrdporcupine
Suppressing the booming deer population and getting higher populations of
foxes and other predators of mice would definitely with the lyme disease
problem.

------
aldoushuxley001
I can't help but wonder if this isn't related to the decimated insect
populations and subsequent cascade effects

~~~
acdha
Or other predators – apparently foxes and martens preying on mice helps reduce
the tick population:

[https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/sports/2017/08/17/ecker...](https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/sports/2017/08/17/eckert-
ticks-make-you-nervous-you-need-more-coyotes/578105001/)

------
fallingfrog
Here in Maine, we now have a big problem with ticks with lyme disease, whereas
when I was little I lived in the woods and was never once bitten by a tick.
But now they're everywhere. The winters are becoming milder, the deer
population is growing, and the ticks are surviving the cold better, and it all
combines to create a situation where the tick population is growing fast.

------
nyxtom
We are epically screwed if our only defense against this is "wear long sleeves
and pants" and "try insect repellent"

~~~
Alex3917
\- All clothes that you wear into the woods should be treated with permethrin.
(Don't apply DEET, because mixing permethrin with DEET is neurotoxic.)

\- Pants should always be tucked into socks.

\- Wear light-colored clothing so that ticks are easier to see before they get
onto your skin.

\- Wear something like boxer briefs where there is tight elastic on both the
wasteband and thighs.

\- If you get a tick in a certain park, never go back to that park. The
distribution of ticks is highly uneven, so this is surprisingly effective.

\- Always check yourself in the mirror as soon as you get home, and then
immediately take a shower and make sure you check every square inch of your
body.

\- Any clothes you wore into the woods should either go into the laundry, or
else be stored in a sealed container so that any ticks on your clothing can't
start running around your bedroom.

Tickborne illnesses are extremely serious, difficult or impossible to
diagnose, and often deadly. But if you always follow these basic steps then
you can eliminate the vast majority of the risk.

Scientists used to believe that it took 24 hours after getting bitten to
transmit tickborne illnesses, but this is no longer the case. When in doubt
just do the 21 days of doxycycline, although obviously this isn't something
you ever want to have to do. (Some tickborne illnesses aren't treatable with
doxycycline, but this is a good starting point absent other specific
symptoms.)

~~~
analogmemory
This is almost enough to make me stop hiking. :(

~~~
maxerickson
I guess if you aren't in a Lyme disease area or pregnant or medically
compromised, it isn't that big a deal.

For healthy adults, stuff like Zika and West Nile pose a small risk of serious
infection or complications.

------
zaroth
I don’t know about ticks and fleas, but can we all agree to just fucking
eradicate aedes aegypti and the 30 or so species of mosquitos which bite
humans? They are literally the most dangerous thing (to humans) on the planet.
Responsible for spreading diseases which have killed more humans than any
other cause (including all wars) throughout human history.

We can leave the remaining ~3,500 species of mosquitos—which don’t bite
humans—alone.

~~~
colordrops
Every creature in an ecosystem serves some niche and is part of a very complex
balance, and willful eradication of an entire species is extremely
irresponsible in that no one can know every consequence.

~~~
lifeformed
On the other hand, letting them live is disastrous too. Malaria has killed
half of all people who have ever lived. Also, we unintentionally destroy a lot
of species every year, often with little direct consequence to humans, so
destruction of another one isn't necessarily ecologically disastrous. Of
course, it could still be a bad idea, and we shouldn't do it without
sufficient research, but the option to do shouldn't be dismissed outright.

~~~
fooker
Maybe without that humans would have overpopulated the earth and driven
everything to extinction much quicker that what is happening now?

------
neves
The cynical in me thinks this is great news. Now research to control these 3rd
World diseases will finally be well funded.

------
TheBeardKing
Anyone have experience with mosquito yard treatments? I'm in the southeast and
have a good-sized garden, so I don't want to treat with anything which would
harm pollinators. I've used the Terminix AllClear Bait and Kill spray the past
couple years, and there's several studies which support the efficacy of its
patented ATSB ingredient. The problem is it's only available to consumers in
the small spray cans, which run $15 for a 2-pack. The concentrate is only
available to Terminix exterminators and municipalities. There are other
natural methods, but they mainly rely on deterrence rather than elimination.

~~~
mlloyd
I use this on my yard in the midwest. Turns it into a no-fly zone. Fine for
dogs, not safe for cats so keep that in mind.

Permethrin SFR 36.8%

*Edit - Nevermind - this WILL harm bees. Sorry about that.

------
samstave
I recently (two weeks ago) - went hiking on Mt. Tam in Marin. I played on a
beautiful mossy log.

When I got up, I wiped all the leafy detritus off me - and I found a tick. I
killed it immediately and gouged his head out of me.

What should I do? Should I be worried about Lyme? How test?

I had a tick only once before on a camping trip in Big Sur - and that one was
much bigger than this one - but nothing happened.

Any advice?

~~~
andbberger
Not the place to ask for medical advice... maybe call an advice nurse?

~~~
samstave
So in a thread about Lyme disease where people are talking about their
company's efforts to eradicate ticks, its not the place to ask a question
about ticks?

Whatever.

So, in a thread about Redshift on AWS, with Jeff here talking about the
service, I should probably go hire a DBA rather than ask a simple question
like "how often should one perform a vacuum?

This is not the place to ask about redshift, you should probably go hire an
AWS solutions architect.

Sure.

~~~
gardnr
People get unreasonable when having normal conversation in the liability
environment the US legal system creates.

~~~
andbberger
Wat. nothing do with liability. This isn't a medicine forum!

------
tyu100
In the Canadian prairies we already had an insanely short window between
endless winter season and infinite mosquito season and now tick invasion
season has ably filled that gap. Argh.

------
timb07
"Mosquitoes and ticks and the germs they spread are increasing in number and
moving into new areas."

Why? I suspect that climate change is a factor, but how do we know whether
that's true and the CDC isn't allowed to report it, or whether it's false?

------
jaequery
Lyme is one thing everyone needs to be worried or cautious about. I dont know
why but the media is trying to keep it under wraps. Its a hidden pandemic
waiting to happen.

~~~
acdha
> I dont know why but the media is trying to keep it under wraps

Major citation needed: I’ve read tons of coverage over at least three decades.
What makes you think it’s being covered up?

~~~
jaequery
there isnt a specific one but here is an example:

[https://www.holtorfmed.com/cdc-doesnt-want-know-
lyme/](https://www.holtorfmed.com/cdc-doesnt-want-know-lyme/)

~~~
acdha
That’s a pretty weak argument and it’s on a site devoted to getting you to
sign up with a “Lyme Literate MD”, which by strange coincidence includes the
guy writing the page.

I’m more convinced that there’s a conflict of interest there than anything
else.

AFAICT, the CDC position is the usual conservative scientific process:
“chronic Lyme” isn’t a recognized diagnosis, the proposed treatments aren’t
clinically proven, and there are significant risks:
[https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6623a3.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6623a3.htm)

------
jbob2000
Is this because the bites are actually making people ill, or are people
finally going to the doctor for their illnesses because they have insurance?

Could this also be that people who live in mosquito areas are getting older
and thus more susceptible to illness? (Since young people flock to cities on
the coast)

They kind of alluded to this in the article, saying that people are traveling
more, and thus spreading diseases to mosquitoes, but the data shows a dramatic
uptick (pun intended) from last year!

~~~
maxerickson
The huge jump in 2016 was mostly Zika, mostly in Puerto Rico (36,000 cases).

The full text of the report is more informative than the pamphlet (less likely
to get on the nightly news though).

[https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6717e1.htm?s_cid=mm...](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6717e1.htm?s_cid=mm6717e1)

------
jph
This is terrifying. A friend's kid is fighting back to help people: she's just
13 and she's learning as fast as she can about medicine.

Website and donate link:
[http://livlymefoundation.org/](http://livlymefoundation.org/)

“She went from this sweet, bubbly kid with a twinkle in her eye, to a child
who could not track you, who was completely checked out”.

They went to doctor after doctor but no one could provide an answer. Finally,
51 doctors and 18 months later, they found out Goodreau had Lyme disease.

[https://www.thedenverchannel.com/lifestyle/health/denver-
gir...](https://www.thedenverchannel.com/lifestyle/health/denver-girl-
diagnosed-with-lyme-disease-fighting-to-bring-awareness-find-a-cure)

~~~
wl
There is a tiny minority of primary care physicians ("Lyme-Literate Medical
Doctors") who will blame any fatigue of unknown etiology on Lyme disease
and/or other tick-borne diseases, despite the lack of any clinical signs like
the classic red ring or commonly accepted lab results like antibody assays.
They prescribe powerful antibiotics on a long term basis, despite the severe
side-effects and the complete lack of evidence that such treatments are
helpful.

I blame this problem on the fact that some maladies just don't have any
answers yet, but people want to provide them. For some, it's chronic lyme. For
others, it's biofilms (Cf. the Marshall protocol), subluxations
(chiropractic), or unbalanced qi (reiki).

~~~
freeflight
> despite the lack of any clinical signs like the classic red ring

Afaik proper diagnosis still poses quite a bit of challenge. The red ring
doesn't always happen, in a German trial only 23% of neuroborreliosis patients
actually had the "wanderröte". [0] Similar problems with the antibody assays:
They can only detect if the pathogen had been present/not present, but not if
it's an acute or a chronic infection. That's why some physicians keep on
giving long-term antibiotics regimes, based on the assumption that it's a
chronic infection.

[0]
[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00115-003-1560-z#...](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00115-003-1560-z#/page-1)

