Rare Tick Borne Disease Cases Starting to Ramp Up In Northeastern States

By Wyatt Stevens

Babesiosis is defined as, “a rare, sometimes severe, disease caused by the bite of a tick infected with Babesia microti, a microscopic (tiny, not seen without a microscope) parasite that infects red blood cells” by health.ny.gov. This disease has been around for awhile and really started to pick up cases within the past 10 or so years. The effects of this disease tend to be very similar to the flu. You have the traditional fever, chills, loss of appetite, chills and most other effects. It targets the red blood cells which makes it so potent. 

Numbers are something that speak for themselves. Through the researching process there were some crazy numbers which I felt should be shared to really understand this disease. In 9 years there were 16,456 cases in 37 states. The most notable states that saw increases were the northeastern states, which pertains to me and the people in my family, so it made it that much more interesting. In the northeast, Vermont's cases went up a total of 1,600% which is a crazy jump. That is almost 180% per year. The next biggest state was my home state which is Maine. Maines cases jumped up a total of 1,420% over that 9 year period. It went from 9 cases to 138 cases. That is not quite as high as Vermont, but still almost 160% per year. Other states that had a huge rise in cases were as follows; New Hampshire and Connecticut. These numbers are very worrisome for people who love the outdoors and live in these states.

I really wanted to dig deep into what you can do to try and prevent tick bites as well as what I do. To prevent tick bites, I recommend just a traditional spray like bug spray but they make specific ones for ticks. That along with wearing tight clothes and multiple layers should make it so you avoid ticks while in the woods. If you are like me you like the woods and being in them a lot, but with diseases like this floating around it can definitely make it a little worrisome. Always make sure that you check yourself after you get out of the woods in a very detailed fashion so that you literally get every crevice on your body. Not only do these ticks bite and give you this Babesiosis, but lyme disease can also come. Later on there will be talks about the differences, but I wanted to give some tips on what you should do to prepare and ultimately avoid getting bitten by these nasty little insects. 

Piggybacking off of what was said a couple lines up, I said how ticks give lyme disease and babesiosis. Although they are similar in many ways, there are a couple differences. First, the major similarity is flu-like symptoms. This is super common. Differences are as follows, in lyme disease you usually are able to see a little red circle like a bullseye pattern around the area that will indicate lyme disease. For babesiosis, your red blood cells can be destroyed. They say that in very severe cases you can have organ failure, blood clots, death, and other illnesses. Lyme disease is much more common and can be easily treated with antibiotic treatment and go away within a couple weeks, babesiosis on the other hand can be harder to treat because you do not know you have it, then last up to 1-9 weeks maybe even longer if you do not catch it. You may not have symptoms if you are affected which is pretty scary to think about… having a potentially deadly disease and not catching it early then it getting much worse and living with that for that long could be really bad.