Lyme disease in AZ

[Al_HikesAZ]

Just saw a journal article about the discovery of a new Borrelia species in California. http://www.lymedisease.org/news/lyme_di ... s/253.html (ok I am a little behind in my reading of some journals )

So I'm taking the liberty to remind everyone about tick borne diseases in AZ.
http://www.azlyme.org/about_azlda.htm

There are over 25 species of ticks in Arizona that may carry Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Tularemia, Babesia and tick fever, as well as Lyme disease. If the tick that bites you is infected, it can inject Lyme bacteria into your bloodstream within hours of attachment. The bacteria can also invade your brain and nervous system in less than 24 hours.

Lyme disease is totally curable if caught early. In the later stages it is at least manageable.

Lyme disease is under-diagnosed, under-treated, and under-reported. Many people do not remember being bitten by the poppy-seed-sized tick. Doctors often prefer more familiar diagnoses like chronic fatigue, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, or mental illness - Lyme disease mimics many diseases. Too strict interpretation of insensitive tests leaves many people in a diagnostic limbo, getting sicker and without proper treatment. Most cases are not reported, leading to artificially low numbers, less recognition of the true costs of the disease and less funding for research.

Some Lyme Basics
Bartonella is the most common tick-borne disease in the US and Europe, followed by Lyme disease.
Lyme is the fastest growing infectious disease in the US.
It is named after the town Old Lyme, Connecticut and was discovered in 1982..
Is caused by a bacterial infection that is a spirochete.
The bacterium is called Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato.
It is most often acquired from the bite of an infected Ixodes tick.
Early symptoms: Erythema Migrans (EM) rash or a bulls eye rash, fever, malaise, fatigue, head ache, muscle and joint aches in large joints, sore throat and sinus infection.
May be misdiagnosed as many other diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, CFS, FMS, Rheumatoid Arthritis and other neurological diseases.
Difficult to diagnose
Testing is not reliable
Clinical diagnosis
Two standards of care: ILADS (International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society and IDSA (Infectious Diseases Society of America. As of Summer of 2008, the ISDA (which states that chronic Lyme doesn't exist) guidelines have been discredited.
Prevention includes avoiding known tick infested areas, mosquito-tick repellant, completely covering with clothing and checking entire body including hair when home.
Learn proper tick removal, especially do not squeeze the tick during removal.

[JimmyLyding]

I remember never ever ever thinking about ticks in AZ. However, ticks are something that one needs to be aware of here in the Bay Area. I've found about a half-dozen on me, none got to suck my blood, but it's still creepy. I guess it's the cost of doing business out here

[Al_HikesAZ]

I remember never ever ever thinking about ticks in AZ.

I was surprised when I found engorged ticks on our dogs when we lived at 56th St & Cactus. Our dogs had not been out of Phoenix in months. We lived near some horse properties and the ticks had come back on the horses from Northern AZ. Ticks are here.

[outdoor_lover]

I remember never ever ever thinking about ticks in AZ.

I was surprised when I found engorged ticks on our dogs when we lived at 56th St & Cactus. Our dogs had not been out of Phoenix in months. We lived near some horse properties and the ticks had come back on the horses from Northern AZ. Ticks are here.

Trust me when I say this, there are tons of ticks in the metro area. Most are dog ticks, but I think that there are a lot of other tick varieties that are infesting the metro area as well. I see them every day and take a few home occasionally too. I have been fighting a stupid sinus infection for over 2 weeks and will probably get tested although I have not found any embedded in a long time.....

[Jim]

I'm not disagreeing with anyone and I encourage people to inspect for ticks, and especially for the very hard to see deer tick. However, one thing I loved about Flagstaff and the west, since I left the eastern rain forest in 2006, is the complete lack of ticks. I haven't seen a tick out here ever. Not even in grassy areas or in the oak- pine forests. I experienced them when I as back in NJ, and it is a nice reminder of why I don't like thick unburned forests. I may have had lymes in 2000, and those little things are near impossible to see. I guess the bitter cold winters up here are good for something.

[paulhubbard]

I used to foster Basset Hounds (for a rescue organization) and almost every newly rescued dog was infested with ticks. These were all local dogs, mostly found wandering in the deserts just outside of town.

[Canyonram]

Tick-borne diseases are very rare in AZ, probably due as much to our low humidity and high temps as any cold temp extremes (ticks do well in the colder climates and can over winter in places with colder temps than we experience.)

The three tick-borne diseases on the current public health radar include:

Lyme Disease: Very rare in AZ with Mohave County having a low risk and all other AZ counties with 'no-risk'

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: Highest number of victims in AZ with brown dog ticks + neglected dogs living in close communities the problem.
http://www.azdhs.gov/phs/oids/vector/rm ... untain.htm

Tick-borne Relapsing Fever: Two highly publisized outbreaks at North Rim Grand Canyon with rodent-infested cabins as a source. http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/1 ... 9.abstract and http://www.medscape.com/medline/abstract/12135272

The AZ Health Dept. maintains a current update and tally of the different vector-borne diseases here: http://www.azdhs.gov/phs/oids/vector/diseases.htm
Warning: If you read the descriptions you will convince yourself that you have not one, but several, of the diseases listed. (LOL).

Annual updates are provided at the public health 'Vector-borne Disease Conference' with Director Craig Levy and his staff providing a set of presentations available to view online: http://www.azdhs.gov/phs/oids/vector/co ... erence.htm (large file--can take forever to download).
Tick-specific Powerpoint: http://www.azdhs.gov/phs/oids/vector/pd ... k_talk.pdf


If you do have a tick attached, here for the approved method of removal: http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/removal/index.html The days of removing ticks with various methods of torture---burning matches, hot needles, soaking with alcohol, etc--- are no longer considered safe. An attached tick has made direct connection with your blood as if feeds. Anything you do to injure the tick runs the risk of the tick reguritiating into you bloodstream. You must be gentle and coax the tick into releasing the 'latching' mechanism that has locked it into your skin. Once removed, you can proceed with muderous intent. (Don't squish the tick between your nails or crunch it between your teeth---these are Darwin Award behaviors).

More on ticks at the Centers for Disease Control website at http://www.cdc.gov

[Jim]

ticks do well in the colder climates and can over winter in places with colder temps than we experience.

What is this "we" you speak of? Phoenix, the mild desert areas below 3,000', or Flagstaff and the higher elevation areas of the plateau? I recently read an article about the range expansion of the deer tick and Lyme Disease into northern Michigan, becuase the winter temps are getting warmer allowing them to thrive.

[Trishness]

I am from Connecticut and work in the medical field so I remember when Lyme disease reared it's ugly head and became a real health issue in the 1980's and beyond. The CDC has reported possibly 53 +/- cases of Lyme disease in Arizona since the year 2000. Almost all cases of confirmed Lyme disease is reported from the New England States (most notably CT, MA, RI, NY, NH, VT and southern ME) into the DelMarva Peninsula and into Wisconsin and Minnesota.

You can check out the CDC statistics here:
http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/

It is caused by deer ticks Ixodes scapularis) infected with the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. These deer ticks are very small and not noticeable at all. I came off one hike in Devil's Hopyard in East Hampton in the 1980's with at least 15 ticks attached to me. These ticks were very noticeable and I was able to remove them. Deer ticks are the size of a pencil point so can look like a freckle or a blackhead. They are very difficult to find especially in areas like the groin, armpit and back.

Telltale signs of infection is the "bullseye rash".

[Canyonram]

Jim . . . If you really want to pursue the 'Physiology of the Tick' there are several books that deal with the subject. You'll probably have to go to a college library to find a copy since they are not on the current best-seller list.

Bowman (Editor) Biology, Disease, and Control of Ticks
Physiology of Ticks: Current Themes in Tropical Science Series, Volume 1 & 2 Frederick D. Obenchain (Author), Rachel Galun (Author)
Morphology Physiology and Behavioral Biology of Ticks John R. Sauer (Author), Jakie Alexander Hair (Author)

One more recent paper (1996) that looked at the effect of cold temps on the Ixodes sps[/i ] is here: http://www.units.muohio.edu/cryolab/pro ... etal96.pdf

A more recent paper looked at the interplay between a bacteria Anaplasma phagocytophilum carried by Ixodes that imparts an 'anti-freeze effect' that allows them to survive colder temps than expected: http://www.benjamintseng.com/2010/10/of ... -bacteria/

Ticks can persist given the right microclimate---one reason the brown dog tick is a problem in eastern AZ---plenty of domestic dogs, right amount of moisture, protected dog houses and porches to hide under, etc. The West Nile Virus is well established in the Phoenix area even though it is hot desert with minimum rainfall---our microclimates that has introduced neglected swimming pools, gutters, irrigation ditches, sprinkler heads on manicured lawns, etc. has given the Culex sps a viable habitat.

Sever Cold temp is but one of the limiting factors for ticks---habitat, suitable host, place to overwinter, etc. Ticks suvive throughout AZ given the right microclimate conditions. The North Rim of Grand Canyon is home to plenty of ticks and this is probably the most severe cold temperature habitat (besides the top of the San Francisco Peaks) that we have in AZ.

[Jim]

@Canyon :

No, I don't care about ticks on anything more than a passing level. As I stated before, I haven't encountered any in the time I have been out here. I understand that doesn't mean they are not here. Regardless, you made a statement about cold weather and "we", and given that most people from this site are from lower elevations, I asked you what you meant. Despite your long response with links and citations, you didn't answer. I provided the example simply because one person's cold is not the same as another's. If someone else is interested in library sources and learning more about ticks, great, I just wanted to know what you meant when you wrote:

ticks do well in the colder climates and can over winter in places with colder temps than we experience.

since the cold from 8,000' is radically different from 2,000' or less. You are also big on the dog tick, I have been keeping to the Lyme Disease carrying deer tick, which is also much harder to spot than a large dog tick.

I once made a post about roads being bad where I lived in Arizona, and someone chirped back about how great the roads are, how they can't compare to the lousy roads back east after a bad winter, and everything in Arizona is just wonderful because it never gets cold here. He was from Phoenix, and had obviously never been above 6500' in winter. That was why I asked what you meant.

[Canyonram]

By 'we' I meant the entire state of Arizona. We have ticks surviving on the Arizona strip and North Rim of Grand Canyon down into the extreme desert conditions. Cold is not the limiting ecological factor . . . there is even an Antartic tick that preys on seabirds (here's another link): http://www.units.muohio.edu/cryolab/pub ... 7_PZ_2.pdf

[Lthornton]

Hiked the Wabayuma trail today in the South Hualapai Mountains. While eating our sandwiches at the peak my wife found two ticks on her pants. When we got back to the truck, I found 4 attached to my torso. A 5th one was found but had not yet attached itself.

I thought there were no ticks here in AZ. Then tonite I googled it and found this article: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=9 ... 26,8317465

4% of the black legged tick, which is found in AZ only in the high elevations of the Hualapai Mountains were tested and found to have Lyme a disease. The actual numbers were 2 out of 48 and the study was done in 1991.

Not too worried, will watch the places where the critters were attached for a rash.

Great hike! VERY STEEP. Took us 2 1/2 hours to go 2.6 miles with an altitude gain of 1600+ feet. Will post a triplog next week.

[BEEBEE]

When I was still living back east I would carefully check my self after hikes for Ticks when Lyme exploded in the 90's. I have several friends back there who had caught it and some in the very late stages it really did a job on them.

[azbackpackr]

Yes, I have a friend who has it. He's a superb athlete (road biker) but continues to have problems years after infection (which occurred in the Midwest).

[Cultjam]

I used to foster Basset Hounds (for a rescue organization) and almost every newly rescued dog was infested with ticks. These were all local dogs, mostly found wandering in the deserts just outside of town.

By infested I'm sure Paul meant a hundred or so of them. I foster for a local rescue, strays found in town are often infested too.

It's been a warm winter, found a few on one of my fosters this past week, from my yard I'm sure. Frontline time.

[Canyonram]

One of the orginal backpackers, Otzi the Iceman, may have suffered from Lyme disease:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46558926/ns ... e-disease/