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Pest management and vector control
Published in Stephen Battersby, Clay's Handbook of Environmental Health, 2023
Paul Charlson, Stephen Battersby
Ixodes ricinus is involved in the transmission of a large variety of pathogens of medical and veterinary importance, including: Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. causing Lyme borreliosis (Lyme disease);Tick-borne encephalitis virus, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, causing human granulocytic ehrlichiosis;Francisella tularensis causing Tularaemia;Rickettsia helvetica and Rickettsia monacensis;Babesia divergens and Babesia microti responsible for Babesiosis;Louping ill virus and Tribec virus. Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States. It is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected ticks. Typical symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans. If left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart and the nervous system.15
Emerging Diseases
Published in Gary S. Moore, Kathleen A. Bell, Living with the Earth, 2018
Gary S. Moore, Kathleen A. Bell
The disease occurs primarily in the coastal regions of the northeastern United States including Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Maryland, and Massachusetts. It is also being reported in the western states of California, Nevada, Oregon, and in the many mid-western states. The early stages of Lyme disease are characterized by headache, fever, chills, swollen lymph glands, muscle and joint pain, and a characteristic skin rash (erythema migrans). This red rash is usually circular and appears 3–30 days after the tick bite. The rash often appears on the thigh, trunk, groin, or armpits. This rash (or rashes) will expand to include a large area and will often show clearing in the center to give a bulls-eye appearance. Diagnosis of Lyme disease is made difficult in the absence of the typical rash, and serologic tests may be required. Untreated, Lyme disease may progress to arthritis with pain and swelling in the large joints, paralysis of the facial muscles, and meningitis characterized by stiffness in the neck, fever, and severe headache. Lyme disease rarely results in death but chronic Lyme disease can lead to permanent damage to joints or the nervous system.
Disorders of Hearing
Published in Anthony N. Nicholson, The Neurosciences and the Practice of Aviation Medicine, 2017
Linda M. Luxon, Ronald Hinchcliffe
Sensorineural hearing loss in association with bacterial meningitis is well documented, and treatment with antibiotics and adjuvant corticosteroids results in lower rates of mortality, long term neurological sequelae and severe hearing loss (Van de Beek et al., 2003). Tuberculous meningitis is now rare in Western societies, but should be considered in immigrant, debilitated, alcoholic and immunologically suppressed populations (Kotnis and Simo, 2001). Lyme disease is a tic-borne infection with the spirochaete Borrelia burgdorferi. Elevated antibodies to borrelia antigen were found in 17 per cent of patients with a unilateral sudden or fluctuating sensorineural hearing loss, and approximately one-third improved with intravenous penicillin (Hanner et al., 1989). This is a treatable cause of sensorineural hearing loss (Peltomaa et al., 2000).
Seroprevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi in forest workers from inspectorates with different forest types in Lower Silesia, SW Poland: preliminary study
Published in International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 2018
Dorota Kiewra, Mariusz Szymanowski, Grażyna Zalewska, Beata Dobracka, Witold Dobracki, Jacek Klakočar, Aleksandra Czułowska, Kinga Plewa-Tutaj
Borreliosis, also known as Lyme borreliosis (LB) or Lyme disease, is still the most important human tick-borne disease in the world, which occurs globally in more than 80 countries in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, including Europe, North America, part of North Africa, and northern Asia (Rizzoli et al. 2011, 2014; Schotthoefer and Frost 2015). According to the National Institute of Public Health – National Institute of Hygiene, in Poland in 2016 as many as 21,200 new cases were reported (55.2/100,000). LB is a multisystem inflammatory disorder, manifested by a broad range of symptoms. It is caused by Gram-negative bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) covering the complex of about 20 genospecies, among them three (B. burgdorferi s.s., and in Europe mainly B. afzelii and B. garinii) are the most important etiological agents of LB (Rudenko et al. 2011; Schotthoefer and Frost 2015; Durand et al. 2017).
Updated assessment of occupational safety and health hazards of climate change
Published in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 2023
P. A. Schulte, B. L. Jacklitsch, A. Bhattacharya, H. Chun, N. Edwards, K. C. Elliott, M. A. Flynn, R. Guerin, L. Hodson, J. M. Lincoln, K. L. MacMahon, S. Pendergrass, J. Siven, J. Vietas
Tick-borne diseases (with the majority being Lyme disease) more than doubled in the United States and U.S. territories during 2004–2016, with more than 490,000 cases, made up more than 75% of all reported vector-borne disease cases (Rosenberg et al. 2018). In 2019, more than 34,900 confirmed and probable cases of Lyme disease were reported to CDC (CDC 2021a). Although the use of insurance databases is critical for determining the actual number of cases treated each year, Lyme disease is under-reported due to reporting complexities. An analysis of insurance claims data during 2010–2018 estimated that Lyme disease was diagnosed and treated in about 476,000 patients annually (Kugeler et al. 2021).