In the United States, alarms have been raised over the past few years over the exponential increase in cases of people being bitten by humans ticks with severe symptoms. In the last few days there has even been one death after a sting by a great ape in the northeastern state of Maine. The victim lost his life after contracting Powassan virus from an infected tick on a deer, squirrel or marmot. The news was reported by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the organization that deals with public health in the US state. As reported by the newspaper Il Messaggero, i doctors confirmed the fears expressed by the media. “The ticks are active and searching for a host to bite right now – said Nirav Shah, director of the CDC – I urge the people and visitors of Maine to take steps to prevent such incidents.”
But what is frightening is the data cored from thathealth organization American. We went from 44 cases of tick bites hospitalized between 2011-2015 to 134 between 2016-2020. Even diseases transmitted by great ape bites have inevitably increased sharply: from 22,527 in 2004 to more than 50,000 in 2019. Just a quarter of an hour is enough for the transmission of the Powassan virus from the tick to the victim and everything happens much faster than other pathologies caused by the bites of these small animals, such as the well-known Lyme disease. In any case, it is good to clarify that the virus is not transmitted from person to person.
The other downside is that many of those bitten by infected ticks will develop multiple ticks symptoms more or less severe: fever, headache, nausea, vomiting and feeling tired. In severe cases, the virus affects the brain more, causing infections such as encephalitis or meningitis, which can even lead to death. Until now, there are no drugs useful to cure the effects of the virus, and there are none vaccination. Those hospitalized in serious condition are treated according to the disease they develop. For this reason, the CDC has launched an appeal urging Maine citizens to pay close attention to prevention to avoid tick bites.