ScienceDaily
(Nov. 12, 2012) — An emerging tick-borne disease that causes symptoms
similar to malaria is expanding its range in areas of the northeast where it
has become well-established, according to new research presented November 12 at
the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
(ASTMH).
Researchers
from the Yale School of Public Health reported that from 2000 to 2008, cases of
babesiosis -- which invades red blood cells and is carried by the same tick
that causes Lyme disease -- expanded from 30 to 85 towns in Connecticut. Cases
of the disease in Connecticut, where it was first reported in 1991, also have
risen from 3 to about 100 cases per year.
The
findings on babesiosis presented at the ASTMH annual meeting were accompanied
by discussions of a range of other investigations into newly emerging
tick-borne diseases, which include afflictions that can cause fatal encephalitis,
an inflammation of the brain.
"Today's
findings underscore the shifting landscape of tick-borne diseases, whose rapid
emergence can challenge the best efforts of science and medicine to diagnose,
treat, and prevent their occurrence," said Peter Krause, MD, a researcher
at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut.
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