http://news.msn.com/science-technology/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-tick-borne-infection
What you need to know about the new tick-borne infection
By Eli Epstein of MSN News
Borrelia miyamotoi is a recently-discovered and hard-to-detect tick-borne illness related to Lyme disease that also causes flu-like symptoms.
Doctors believe a newly-discovered, hard-to-detect tick-borne illness has the potential to baffle doctors who may confuse it for Lyme disease.
Getty Images
Like Lyme disease, Borrelia miyamotoi is also spread outdoors by deer ticks. Researchers believe the new bacteria may infect a few thousand Americans every year, according to Health Day.
They estimate that one percent of the population where Lyme disease is widespread, especially in parts of the Eastern Seaboard, may have been exposed to Borrelia miyamotoi, the Boston Globe reported.
Deer tick-borne diseases
- Lyme disease and Borrelia miyamotoi are among bacterium carried by deer ticks which depend on white-tailed deer for reproduction. The female deer tick needs a three-day meal of blood from a deer before she can reproduce and lay eggs.
- White-tailed deer are common east of the Rocky Mountains, thus tick-borne illnesses are more prevalent in eastern parts of the United States.
Borrelia miyamotoi vs. Lyme disease
- Both maladies plague patients with flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache and muscle aches, but unlike Lyme, Borrelia causes a relapsing fever that dwindles and then returns. It also does not cause a rash that's common among Lyme disease patients. This makes it more difficult to diagnose.
- Borrelia miyamotoi also cannot be detected by the standard test for Lyme disease, which concerns doctors. “The problem is that the diagnosis is going to be missed, because doctors aren’t going to think about Borrelia miyamotoi because they don’t know about it," Dr. Brian Fallon at Columbia University told CBS New York.
- Unlike Lyme, female tick carriers of Borrelia miyamotoi carry on the pathogen to the next generation, according to the Boston Globe. Deer ticks are born uninfected with Lyme and get the disease from an animal host, the Globe reported.
What's being done
- Scientists have developed a test for Borrelia miyamotoi. The infection can be treated using the the same antibiotics doctors use to treat Lyme disease. They're advising doctors to start considering the new infection when testing for tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease and anaplasmosis.
- If you've been outdoors, have someone perform a full body check on you to scan for ticks. It usually takes 24 hours for the tick to feed on your body.
- When outside, use insect repellant. Also wear pants and tuck them into your socks.
History of Borrelia miyamotoi
- While scientists have known about the bacteria Borrelia miyamotoi for decades, they've only begun spotting it in humans in the past few years, according to Health Day. It was tied to 46 sick people in Russia last year, some of whom suffered relapsing fevers, according to the Globe.
- A watershed report in the Annals of Internal Medicine has brought the new infection to the forefront of the medical discussion. The paper describes two elderly patients — one from New Jersey, the other from Massachusetts— who began experiencing flu-like symptoms and were initially thought to be suffering from anaplasmosis. Both patients' blood was sent to a Massachusetts lab that specializes in tick-borne diseases. Instead of finding anaplasmosis, it found Borrelia miyamotoi, which was confirmed by researchers at Tufts, the Globe reported.
Related: Tick safety for kids
New tick-borne illness?
