CDC warns of rise in tick-borne illnesses
Becoming an ‘urban threat’
Instances of Lyme disease are on the rise — and not just in the woods.
A new study set to be published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Emerging Infectious Disease journal says, “Tickborne diseases are an emerging urban threat” that can “cause a major public health burden” in cities.
The study’s authors surveyed 24 public parks in New York City and found at least one black-legged tick — the type that transmits Lyme and other tick-borne diseases — in 17 of them.
“Initiatives that increase urban green space have clear benefits for human well-being, climate change mitigation, and wildlife conservation,” the authors wrote. “However, our study calls attention to the need to understand the drivers of tick distribution and densities within urban green spaces in the United States.”
Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said you can get a tickborne illness in your own backyard.
“There’s been an increase in the prevalence of Lyme over the past decade, for sure,” Kuritzkes said of the incidence of the disease in Massachusetts.
With the tick population increasing, cases of the infection are now seen year-round, not just in the summer and early fall, Kuritzkes said. And those ticks, which often attach themselves to deer, are no longer confined to the woods — and are now cropping up in public parks and even backyards.
“You don’t have to go off into the woods to encounter the ticks. If people have backyards in areas where deer cross through, or even being in a park, people can easily be exposed to Lyme,” Kuritzkes said.
As of March, Massachusetts counties had 89 emergency department visits by patients diagnosed with a tick-borne disease so far this year, according to the state Department of Public Health.
The CDC receives about 30,000 reports of Lyme disease annually, but estimates put the true number of cases at about 300,000 per year.
Kuritzkes has some tips to keep you safe from ticks both in the woods and your own backyard:
Wear long pants and socks. Use bug repellent. After being outside, check your body for ticks.
If you do find a tick — especially if it’s become engorged from drinking blood — call a doctor, who will be able to prescribe an antibiotic treatment.
“Many people will recover even without treatment, though we recommend treatment,” Kuritzkes said. “It is virtually always curable.”