Annotated Bibliography On Relapsing Fever

In early April 2013 a measles outbreak was discovered in North Carolina. By mid-May the outbreak had been identified in Stokes and Orange Counties via 23 active cases. Every case was linked back to a family that had spent 3 months in India and had not been vaccinated. By the 16th of April the state laboratory of Public Health was able to confirm the diagnosis, with the last known case being confirmed on May 7th. The investigation of this outbreak revealed 4 patients with a confirmed diagnosis that had received one of vaccination of the two part series. The other 19 cases had not ever been vaccinated.

Recent research results suggest that ticks must remain attached to a human for 36-48 hours to efficiently transmit B. burgdorferi so early recognition and removal can be effective in preventing Lyme disease (Cook, 2015). Thus, nymphs represent the greatest risk for infection and have been implicated as the vector in the majority of Lyme disease cases in the United States. Although adults can transmit the disease, nymphs, which are about the size of a poppy seed, are relatively undetectable and significantly less likely to be removed within 48 hours of attachment. As a result, most new cases of Lyme disease occur in the summer months between May and August when nymph activity reaches its peak (Marques,

Your chances of acquiring Lyme disease can be greatly affected by where you live or travel to. Many outdoor activities put you at risk. Since deer ticks feed on mice and white-tailed deer, they are most commonly found in heavily wooded areas. Another risk factor of Lyme disease is having exposed skin. Since ticks attach easily to bare skin, being exposed in wooded or grassy areas will increase your risk. If you are bitten by a tick, the final chance of prevention is to remove the tick quickly and properly. In most cases, to infect it’s host, a tick must remain attached to the skin for at least thirty-six hours. If you safely remove the tick

“RMSF is the most common fatal human tick-borne disease in the United States, with a minimal average of 351 confirmed human cases occurring annually and undoubtedly many more going unreported” (Niebylski et al.).

“Lyme disease got its name from where it was first discovered in Lyme, Connecticut in 1975” (healthychildren.org). “Since then there has been thousands of cases reported of the disease. The ticks live in low and high seasonal temperatures and high humidity” (healthychildren.org). Lyme Disease most common to occur in the Northeast, North-central states, or West Coast. On behalf of the Northeast, I can tell you that ticks are everywhere in this region. They like to live in tall grasses and woody areas. “The small insects more than often latch onto the foot or lower leg and crawl up the body, and travel up the body with a destination of the head. On their normal hosts, ticks also usually crawl up; they want to blood feed around the

Chances of being bitten by a nymph (young deer tick) are greater during mid May to mid August. Generally, they are the size of poppy seeds. Adult ticks are greater during March to mid May and mid August to November. Once it gets below freezing many of the ticks won’t survive. If a tick is found on the body you must remove it immediately. In most cases the tick must be attached for 36 hours or more before the bacteria can be transmitted (“Lyme Disease (tick borne borreliosis, Lyme arthritis)”). Contrary to popular belief, Lyme disease doesn’t spread from one person to

What became known as Texas tick fever probably arrived in North America sometime in the seventeenth century carried by cattle brought by Spanish colonists from the West Indies. It was transmitted by the cattle tick which required 200 or more frost free days per year for survival. Therefore, its spatial extent was the southern states. Initially, southerners were not terribly concerned about the disease since cattle was rarely a primary economic investment in the southern United States. Antebellum Texas was an exception since it dominated the national cattle industry. By the 1850s farmers in states such as Missouri were turning back cattle drives from Texas for fear of infecting their herds. In some instances there were violent confrontations, assaulting and even killing some of the cowboys. Eventually northern states intervened to protect their herds, instituting quarantine laws against southern cattle. In 1892 the federal government delineated a quarantine line that followed the northern border of permanent fever infestation. The accompanying regulations stated that cattle could only be moved to northern markets between

Lyme disease, or lyme borreliosis, is an emerging infectious disease transmitted by ticks. Lyme disease is considered an emerging infectious disease because it’s incidence has increased over the past 20 years, and it was not identified until 1975 in the United States (CITE). Lyme disease is the most commonly reported vector-borne disease in the United States. Lyme disease causes symptoms similar to that of influenza, and includes headache, chills, fever, lethargy, and muscle pain in the initial stages. A bulls-eye shaped rash at the site of the tick bite can also occur in those infected, but not all infected persons develop the rash. The rash typically develops three to thirty days after the person is bitten. Later

POWASSAN VIRUS: POTENTIALLY FATAL TICK DISEASE THAT CAN BE TRANSMITTED IN MINUTES REPORTED IN MAINE

According to Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt (a world renowned Lyme expert), Lyme disease is considered the plague of the century due to the large number of people with chronic Lyme disease and the associated co-infections. The number one symptom of Lyme is chronic fatigue. People can have Lyme for a very long time and not be properly diagnosed because current laboratory testing comes up short with being able to detect it. One of the main reasons for this is because chronic Lyme does not live in the blood but rather in the tissues. It is an intracellular organism meaning it lives inside the cell. Lyme has different shapes: spirochete (like a spring), cyst with a hard shell, and acellular (without an outer cell membrane). Lyme likes to set up a sanctuary in the body such as in the brain, teeth (such as under a root canal or in a cavitation), vertebrae, breast tissue, and lymph nodes. It looks for a place where it can be protected and the body is vulnerable preferably in fatty tissue or under a biofilm. While traditionally Lyme disease is considered a tick-borne disease, recent findings have discovered that it is an insect-borne disease that can get transferred

In recent news, there have been a large number of cases associated to Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) which have impacted a number of American Indian communities in Arizona. (CDC/IHS, Newsweek).

Indiana is considered to be a moderate risk state. Some of the states with a higher risk factor are along the upper east coast, Midwest, and western states. These areas seem to have a larger section of woods where the ticks like to hang out. Children seem to develop the disease more than adults. This is probably from being outside and playing

Thesis Statement: “According to the Center of Disease Control, Lyme disease is the most commonly reported vector borne illness in the United States”(Lyme Disease: Data and statistics, 2016).

Borrelia burgodoferi is transmitted into humans and mammals by the Ixodes scapularis known as the deer tick or blacklegged tick. The disease cannot be transmitted from person to person contact. Pets can cause an increased rate of infected ticks to a home but cannot transmit the disease to their owners. The ticks have a 2 year life cycle that includes larval, nymphal, and adult stages. It is during the nymphal and adult stages that the disease is transmitted.

Using extra caution to avoid ticks during the months April through August is recommended by covering up and wearing pants and long sleeves if going hiking or spending time near wooded areas. Using bug spray with Deet is good protection. Inspect yourself when coming inside and shower. Also, inspect pets before letting them