Thank you for great article and all coments. Even though while reading I feld crazy itchy all over and was shivering from all those imaginable crittes :)
The article helped me a lot - I made some notes. I went to big park 2 days ago with my son and one of my two dogs. Yesterday my son (12yo) pulled two ticks out of the skin on his head. He found them just by luck. It terrified me a lot. Now I am paranoid about all those tick and afraid I will never go hiking again.
Outside Magazine has a great article on ticks, currently available online at http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/science/Feeding-Frenzy.html?page=1
All sorts of info on various diseases, ongoing research, ecology etc -- who knew that opossums could destroy tick populations?
Described as "the Swiss Army knife of disease vectors", the article made me realize that Lyme disease is just one of the reasons you want to clear any ticks off your body within 24 hours.
At least four pathogens, in addition to the Lyme bacterium, can be transmitted by the black-legged tick: Anaplasma phagocytophilium, which causes anaplasmosis; Babesia microti, which causes babesiosis; Borrelia miyamotoi, a recently discovered genetic relative of the Lyme spirochete; and Powassan virus. Some of these infections are more dangerous than Lyme, and more than one can infect a person at the same time. Simultaneous infection, scientists suggest, may well enhance the strength of the assault on the immune system, while making the disease itself harder to treat or recognize.
“I am not sure why we act as if we know the answers,” Brian Fallon told me. Fallon, a psychiatrist who has studied the neurological impact of Lyme for years, is the director of the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center, at Columbia University. “The evidence that something more complex is going on is tantalizing and substantial.”
Nora - Apr 10, 2013 5:59 am - Voted 10/10
ticksThank you for great article and all coments. Even though while reading I feld crazy itchy all over and was shivering from all those imaginable crittes :)
The article helped me a lot - I made some notes. I went to big park 2 days ago with my son and one of my two dogs. Yesterday my son (12yo) pulled two ticks out of the skin on his head. He found them just by luck. It terrified me a lot. Now I am paranoid about all those tick and afraid I will never go hiking again.
LincolnB - May 18, 2013 6:30 pm - Hasn't voted
The Rise of the TickOutside Magazine has a great article on ticks, currently available online at http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/science/Feeding-Frenzy.html?page=1
All sorts of info on various diseases, ongoing research, ecology etc -- who knew that opossums could destroy tick populations?
Described as "the Swiss Army knife of disease vectors", the article made me realize that Lyme disease is just one of the reasons you want to clear any ticks off your body within 24 hours.
LincolnB - Jun 24, 2013 10:11 am - Hasn't voted
Ticks in the newsAgain -- this time in the New Yorker:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/01/130701fa_fact_specter?currentPage=all
At least four pathogens, in addition to the Lyme bacterium, can be transmitted by the black-legged tick: Anaplasma phagocytophilium, which causes anaplasmosis; Babesia microti, which causes babesiosis; Borrelia miyamotoi, a recently discovered genetic relative of the Lyme spirochete; and Powassan virus. Some of these infections are more dangerous than Lyme, and more than one can infect a person at the same time. Simultaneous infection, scientists suggest, may well enhance the strength of the assault on the immune system, while making the disease itself harder to treat or recognize.
“I am not sure why we act as if we know the answers,” Brian Fallon told me. Fallon, a psychiatrist who has studied the neurological impact of Lyme for years, is the director of the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center, at Columbia University. “The evidence that something more complex is going on is tantalizing and substantial.”