"With a Tick Boom, It’s Not Just Lyme Disease You Have to Fear"

"Everybody knows about Lyme disease. But experts say the Northern United States may be in for a bad tick season this summer, raising concerns about Lyme and other scary tick-borne diseases, including the Powassan virus, which causes encephalitis and can leave people with permanent neurological damage.

“This spring definitely seems worse than others I remember,” said Dr. Catherine Wiley, chief of general pediatrics at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. “People are coming in from the yard with numerous ticks on them.”

When we think of ticks, we tend to think of deer, but Richard S. Ostfeld, a senior scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., said it’s really all about mice. He has been studying white-footed mouse population ecology for the past 25 years. Every four or five years, he said, there’s a bumper acorn crop, so more mice survive the following winter, breed and reach what he called “mouse plague levels” in the summer."

Perri Klass, M.D. reports for the New York Times July 3, 2017.

SEE ALSO:

"Ticks Are Spreading In Alaska, Wildlife Officials Say" (AP)

Maine: "Tick Season 2017 Is, In Fact, As Bad As You Think" (WCSH)

"In The Battle Against Ticks And Lyme Disease, Scientists Look To The Skies" (Bangor Daily News)