Lyme disease cases on the rise in West Virginia

Lyme disease cases are on the rise in West Virginia, compared to the same time a year earlier, state and local health officials said.
As of July 24, there were 288 cases reported. This is up from 274 cases from the same period last year.
“West Virginia recorded a comparatively high incidence of human Lyme diseases cases in 2018,” said Eric Dotseth, a public health entomologist with the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services.
Lyme disease, also known as Lyme Borreliosis, is an infectious disease caused by bacteria spread by ticks that can usually be found on the white-footed mouse. The most common tick in West Virginia is the deer tick. The lone star and American dog ticks are also found in the state.
In Monongalia County, 43 cases of Lyme disease was reported last year, ranking the county third among the state’s 55 counties. Marion County had 26 cases, ranking it eighth and Preston was 11th on the list with 22 cases, state health officials said. Hancock County in the northern panhandle had the largest number of cases with 83. Berkeley County was second with 46, while Harrison County was fourth with 39.
Dr. Diane Gross, regional epidemiologist at the Monongalia County Health Department and associate professor of Epidemiology at West Virginia University, said much of the reason Lyme is on the rise is increased public awareness.
“People are more likely to go get diagnosed,” she said.
So how is Lyme disease transmitted?
Ticks tend to be close to the ground and can usually be found on a blade of grass. They stand on their hind legs — a mature tick has eight of them — waiting for a host, either human or animal to walk by, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The ticks, albeit a nymph or fully grown adult, usually works its way up the body and can sometimes be stopped by the waistband in a pair of pants, Gross said.
The average lifespan of a tick is two years, some can live as long as three years, added Jamie Moore, manager of Monongalia County Health Department’s Threat Preparedness program.
“Take the necessary precautions and check your scalp,” he said. “I check mine every day.”
Besides tucking pants into socks, other tick precautions include treating clothes with permethrin, an insecticide that can be purchased at most stores, he said.
“Clothes can be washed several times before it wears off,” he said.
Pets, meanwhile, should be checked around the tail, ears, eyelids, under the front legs, as well as between the back legs and toes. Also, check under the animal’s collar, the CDC said.
The tick will either stop, or keep migrating up the body until it finds a crevice, or a place where the skin is thin and there is a good blood supply.
The CDC said it can take 10 minutes to two hours for a tick to prepare to feed. When it does, it will grasp the skin and cut into the surface and insert a feeding tube into the host where it can stay attached three to 10 days.
The tick will suck blood for several days. Gross said it takes up to 24 hours — and sometimes as long as 36 hours — before the tick can transmit a disease. Besides Lyme, a tick can transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever, babesiois, anaplasmosis and ehrlichosis.
“You have to check yourself daily and remove it as soon as you can,” Gross said.
Complicating matters is the fact Lyme disease is hard to diagnose because it mimics the symptoms of other diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s, chronic fatigue syndrome and lupus, to name a few.
Adult ticks are the most active in March through May and can be active any time the temperature gets above freezing.
Most humans are infected through the bites of immature ticks called nymphs. Nymphs are two millimeters in size and hard to see. They feed during the spring and summer months.
The most common sign of Lyme disease in a human is an expanding area of redness on the skin — like a bullseye — that begins at the site of a tick bite about a week after it occurred.
Other Lyme disease symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, muscle aches and joint pain.
If left untreated, Lyme disease can lead to heart-block, dementia-like vasculitis and stroke.
The best way to remove a tick is to do so slowly with a pair of tweezers, Gross said. Ticks do not wash off.
Gross said around 75% of people diagnosed with Lyme develop a rash. In some cases, people can recover on their own.
Gross said early-stage Lyme disease is treated with antibiotics. The average age of a Lyme disease patient is 30, the CDC has said.
“Take precautions,” Moore said. “Don’t let them rule your life.”