The governor in our state has recently allocated $50,000 to educate the health professionals about Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. It has been "found" in our state, resulting in 16 people going to the hospital and 2 deaths.
They are suspecting brown dog ticks, and are going to be checking dogs for them, and testing the ticks for RMSF.
I know we have lyme in our state too; and am wondering if brown dog ticks also carry lyme, and if so can you get me a journal article or reference that states this??
I would like to recommend to the governor and/or the health dept to check the ticks for lyme too, but my recommendation should be backed up by literature.
Thanks in advance.....Tina
Posted by lou (Member # 81) on :
Well, I edited my original post because I found that, contrary to previous opinion, the brown dog tick does transmit RMSF. This is a recent discovery:
According to this article, it was previously implicated with ehrlichiosis and babesiosis. Haven't seen any mention of lyme in connection with the tick. My feeling is that the authorities have not looked for everything that might be in these ticks, so your idea of suggesting enlargement of their search is a good one. You never know what you might find.
Posted by timaca (Member # 6911) on :
Thanks Lou, for the article. I e-mailed the author of it, to see if she knows about that.
It seems to me, that if they are checking the dog's ticks for RMSF, it would be nice to check them for lyme too!
I first realized I had late stage Lyme from reading the info at the CDC web site. At that time I also picked up on the fact that Lyme can be transmitted by just about any blood sucking creature...including all ticks and mow-ski-toes. Not nearly likely with the flying bugs, but still possible.
Posted by treepatrol (Member # 4117) on :
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