Tick illness explodes in the tristate area
Illnesses from mosquito, tick, and flea bites have tripled in the United States from 2004 to 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control in a new report.
In cases of disease transmitted by tick bites, Pennsylvania outstrips all other states, with 73,600 cases in the state during those years. That's more than twice the number for Connecticut, where Lyme disease began with a cluster of cases in 1975.
The states with the next-highest rate of tick-borne disease are New York, with 69,313 cases, and New Jersey, with 51,578 cases.
The CDC attributes to the explosion of cases to global warming and to commerce and travel, which moves mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and infected travelers around the world.
The United States is not fully prepared, says the CDC. More than 80 percent of vector control organizations report needing improvement in 1 or more of 5 core areas, such as testing for pesticide resistance.
Almost everyone has been bitten by a mosquito, tick, or flea. These can be vectors for spreading pathogens (germs). A person who gets bitten by a vector and gets sick has a vector-borne disease, like dengue, Zika, Lyme, or plague. Between 2004 and 2016, more than 640,000 cases of these diseases were reported, and 9 new germs spread by bites from infected mosquitoes and ticks were discovered or introduced in the US. State and local health departments and vector control organizations are the nation’s main defense against this increasing threat.
Tick-borne disease by stateThe Centers for Disease Control provided numbers of cases for each state from 2004 through 2016:
Alabama, 2,451
Alaska, 117
Arizona, 546
Arkansas, 7,094
California, 1,408
Colorado, 167
Connecticut, 36,727
Delaware, 8,486
District of Columbia, 720
Florida, 1,848
Georgia, 1,427
Hawaii, 0
Idaho, 186
Illinois, 3,685
Indiana, 1,560
Iowa, 2,046
Kansas, 1,164
Kentucky, 1,098
Louisiana, 170
Maine, 12,856
Maryland, 22,166
Massachusetts, 50,234
Michigan, 1,493
Minnesota, 26,886
Mississippi, 539
Missouri, 6,537
Montana, 182
Nebraska, 481
Nevada, 131
New Hampshire, 13,710
New Jersey, 51,578
New Mexico, 128
New York, 69,313
North Carolina, 9,075
North Dakota, 319
Ohio, 1,358
Oklahoma, 4,670
Oregon, 505
Pennsylvania, 73,610
Rhode Island, 7,095
South Carolina, 1,143
South Dakota, 200
Tennessee, 5,950
Texas, 2,140
Utah, 198
Vermont, 6,161
Virginia, 16,454
Washington, 300
West Virginia, 1,964
Wisconsin, 33,255
Wyoming, 140
American Samoa, 0
Puerto Rico, 0
U.S. Virgin Islands, 0
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