Ehrlichiosis Blog

New Tick-Borne Illness Infects Midwesterners

Posted 3 Aug 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 3 – First they spread Lyme disease, and then babesiosis. Now, deer ticks carrying a newly identified bacterium are infecting residents of the midwestern United States with a disease called ehrlichiosis, and experts say it will likely appear in other areas of the country. The still unnamed bacterium, which causes fever, body aches and fatigue, has been identified in 25 people in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but has probably infected many more, researchers said in a new study. "So far we have tested thousands of patients from around the United States, and we have only found it in the blood of patients from Wisconsin and Minnesota," said lead researcher Dr. Bobbi Pritt, director of the Clinical Parasitology and Virology Laboratories at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "We have also found it in ticks. Specifically, in the ticks called Ixodes scapularis, also known as the ... Read more

Related support groups: Lyme Disease, Ehrlichiosis, Babesiosis