Dutchess at center of rising tick threat
More ticks, people infected with babesiosis
7:03 AM,
Dec 24, 2012
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John Darcy, 68, of Beacon, has suffered with the tick-borne illness, babesiosis, for more than five years. Darcy, who takes 8,000 milligrams of amoxicillin each day, is feeling better now and has regained the strength needed to pull back his compound bow for deer and turkey hunting. / Spencer Ainsley/Poughkeepsie Journal
Babesiosis and the Blood Supply: LYME DISEASE -- Babesiosis and the Blood Supply. Video by Chrissie Williams
ABOUT THIS SERIES
This is part 8 in a Poughkeepsie Journal series on the prevalence and problems of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. Go to www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/lyme to read previous installments on treatment and testing and to view videos on Lyme disease and babesiosis.But soon he was losing his balance. He lacked the strength even to pull back his bow. He could not dress himself or lift his arm to shave.
As he lost weight and vitality, Darcy was prodded and tested for everything, it seems, but the thing it turned out to be: a burgeoning disease called babesiosis.
“It was never even mentioned,” said Darcy, 68, a retired Beacon IBMer and correction officer, who was also diagnosed with Lyme disease in a one-two tick-borne punch. “I never even heard of the word.”
That may change. Someday, perhaps not so far into the future, the so-called “emerging” malady known as babesiosis may join Lyme disease as another environmental scourge wrought by the tiny and insidious black-legged tick. And Dutchess County is at the crest of this gathering wave.
Dutchess ranks first
In 2011, Dutchess ranked first in New York state and 13th nationally in per-capita rate of the disease, according to statistics released exclusively to the Poughkeepsie Journal by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The county had the nation’s third-highest number of cases, which rose from 4 in 2002 to 53 in 2011.“The Hudson River Valley has eclipsed Long Island for Lyme disease and babesiosis,” said Dr. Alan MacDonald, a long-time Lyme researcher and Long Island pathologist. “You’re up to your neck in ticks that carry babesiosis.”
Babesiosis is a disease, like malaria, most often linked to a protozoan parasite called Babesia microti, though other strains cause illness too. It is usually treated with antibiotics and anti-malarial drugs.
Just why the disease is emerging now – long after Lyme disease hit– may have something to do with what scientists call “reservoirs” of infection: birds and mammals that infect the ticks that in turn bite people.
