Tick diseases on the rise in North Carolina, UNC public health experts say
July 22, 2010 | |
Lurking on a leaf or at the tip of a blade of grass, blood-thirsty ticks wait for their next meal to approach.
Clinging to vegetation with their front legs outstretched, they wait for a sign – a whiff of carbon dioxide, a vibration, a shadow – that means an animal or person is near. Once attached to a host, ticks spend several days or weeks feeding and then drop off. But before they go, they can infect the host with serious illnesses.
That concerns Marcia Herman-Giddens, DrPH, who has watched North Carolina’s tick disease rates rising in recent decades. Herman-Giddens is president of the Tick-Borne Infections Council of North Carolina, which advocates for better education, research and control of the diseases. She is also adjunct professor of maternal and child health at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Herman-Giddens points to data on diseases such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which grew from 78 to 515 cases statewide between 2000 and 2008, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a potentially fatal illness that can cause fever, chills, aches, nausea and a rash. Reported cases of Lyme disease have remained relatively steady since 1990. But in March, state officials declared for the first time that the disease was a known threat in Wake County, N.C. Similar declarations have been made in Wilkes, Wilson, Pitt and Carteret counties. Herman-Giddens blames the rise in tick diseases on growth in the state’s population of white-tailed deer, a favorite tick host. Suburban development in central North Carolina has broken forest land into patches of borders and wooded areas where the deer thrive. Herman-Giddens said white-tailed deer were so rare when her children were young that her family was thrilled when they saw one in the early 1970s. “It was very exciting,” she said. “It was an exotic animal.” Since then, the deer population has grown to more than one million statewide, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation. At the same time, the state has been invaded by the aggressive lone star tick. That tick’s favorite host is the white-tailed deer. “When my children were growing up, ticks weren’t a big deal,” Herman-Giddens said. But after she stepped in a nest of tiny larval lone star ticks and got an estimated 200 bites during a hike near her Chatham County home, she gave up walking outdoors in the woods during tick season. “That tick is getting worse and worse,” she said. Tick Tips
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Written by Sara Peach, for UNC Health Care
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.
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