Post by trinitydobes on Aug 12, 2011 19:41:27 GMT -5
Babesiosis, a tick-borne disease, a growing concern this summer
IF breeders are overpopulating the world with dogs then why are shelters importing diseased dogs from other countries???
Obviously this puts our dogs at risk as they bring in new diseases.
Dobs4ever
Babesiosis, a tick-borne disease, a growing concern this summer
By Gerald Rogovin
There is growing concern again this summer about tick-borne diseases among public health officials and scientists from the Cape and Islands to Western Massachusetts and along the Northeast coast.
Click here for the PDF version of the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension's tick ID wallet card.
Babesiosis, described by Bill Clark, director of the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension as "a protozoa like malaria" carried by deer ticks, has expanded its presence from our region in the past several months.
Simultaneously, funds to detect and treat the disease have almost dried up in Massachusetts.
"Local doctors tell us that babesiosis is relatively common around here," Clark said. At one time, according to Dr. George Heufelder, director of the Barnstable County Department of Health & Environment, "the Cape and Islands was the epicenter of the disease. But no more. It's found in areas where Lyme disease is endemic." Today that means
the coasts of Rhode Island, Connecticut and Long Island, Eastern Massachusetts and New York State.
The disease, according to The New York Times, has become more common in these areas. Reporting on a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it disclosed a 20-fold increase in babesiosis cases in New York State's Hudson Valley.
Larry Dapsis, Coordinator of Barnstable County's Deer Tick Program and Entomologist, has some suggestions on how to protect yourself from tick-borne diseases.
TO PROTECT YOURSELF: When you come in from outdoors, carefully inspect your body and your clothing. Wearing light-colored clothing makes it easier to see ticks. Throw your clothing into a dryer for 15-20 minutes to kill any hitchhikers.
- If you spot a tick attached to your body or clothing, remove it with narrow, or pointy tweezers.
- Consider treating your clothing with a repellent/pesticide containing the active ingredient permethrin. Product names include Permanone and Sawyers Repellent-treated clothing that can last up to 70 washings is available from commercial suppliers.
TO PROTECT YOUR PETS: When you get your pet in from outdoors, carefully inspect it for ticks, and remove those you find.
- You can buy products that can protect for extended periods. They include Frontline, Advantage and Advantix, among others.
- A vaccine is also available for dogs.
TO PROTECT YOUR YARD: Remove piles of brush, firewood and leaves from the edge of the house. Mice like this habitat; mice also carry ticks.
- Consider mowing low, brushy vegetation at the edge of your yard. A pesticide sprayed on the yard's perimeter can can serve as a protective strip.
- Avoid placing chairs, tables, swing sets and other furniture against the edge of adjoining woods.
Its spread poses a particular threat to the blood supply because there is no widely used screening test for babesiosis, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Some people infected with the disease have no symptoms. Others experience those associated with Lyme disease -- fever, fatigue, chills, aching muscles, malaise. Like the flu. It can last a few days, or several months. The FDA has reported victims of the disease being hospitalized. Some have died.
Surveys by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health taken in April and May recorded the highest incidence of babesiosis in Barnstable, Nantucket and Dukes (Martha's Vineyard) Counties. The average victim was a 62-year-old male. Anaplasmosis, another tick-borne disease common to the region, hit hard among males in their late 50s. Lyme disease, the third of the unholy trinity, occurred most commonly among children 5-9 and adults 65-69.
State Public Health Veterinarian Dr. Catherine Brown confirmed Dr. Heufelder's estimate of the spread of the disease. "Over the last 5-10 years, we have seen more and more cases of babesiosis in people outside the Cape and Islands, even though the Cape still experiences significantly more cases on a population basis," she said.
The three diseases totaled more than 4,000 cases last year, despite the hot, dry summer, historically unwelcoming to ticks, she added.
Notwithstanding so gloomy an outlook, about all that keeps the state in the fight against tick-borne diseases is what is happening in this region. Barnstable County's employment of Larry Dapsis, County Deer Tick Program Coordinator and Entomologist, and the final year of a three-year grant from the Federal Environmental Protection Agency appear to be the only available funding.
The EPA grant was continued to the end of 2011 only with extensive lobbying by area health officials. Even MDPH funding dried up. Nationally, most studies are being done by universities, state blood programs (because babesiosis has turned up in blood transfusions), the CDC and the FDA, judging from information gleaned from the Internet.
Despite the narrowing focus of this research and testing, its importance can be seen in our region. Dapsis and the late Dave Simser, his predecessor at the Extension Service, have been tracking babesiosis since 2007 in a program involving feeders set up in wooded areas. Deer are lured to a feeder placed so that the animal rubs against posts containing pesticides that kill the ticks carried by the deer. The findings in this effort and in another involving field mice have been fed into prevention and education programs promoted by county services that have increased community awareness of tick-borne diseases.
The Extension Service and the 12-year-old Cape and Islands Tick Disease Task Force, both offspring of Barnstable County, have been almost the only voices calling attention to the onset of babesiosis in the state. Dr. Brown described their efforts as "critical to the awareness of tick-borne diseases" existing here and across the state.
Headed since its establishment by Truro biologist Brenda Boleyn, the task force has tried to inform and educate the public, regional and state public health officials about the
consequences of tick bites. Developments in the state Legislature in recent weeks suggest that the word has begun to spread.
Click here to see the very informative tick identification chart at www.TickEncounter.org.Five bills and budget amendment introduced by the House Post Audit and Oversight Committee have reached the governor's desk. They are considered by many to offer the best chance in recent years to get support for research, testing and treatment of tick-borne diseases in Massachusetts.
The comprehensive approach calls for financial grants to the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester to establish an institute to deal with the three diseases.
"If the legislation passes, and the Governor signs those bills, we will take a huge step forward," said Dr. Heufelder.
But the "if" still remains.
www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index ... in?blog=53
IF breeders are overpopulating the world with dogs then why are shelters importing diseased dogs from other countries???
Obviously this puts our dogs at risk as they bring in new diseases.
Dobs4ever
Babesiosis, a tick-borne disease, a growing concern this summer
By Gerald Rogovin
There is growing concern again this summer about tick-borne diseases among public health officials and scientists from the Cape and Islands to Western Massachusetts and along the Northeast coast.
Click here for the PDF version of the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension's tick ID wallet card.
Babesiosis, described by Bill Clark, director of the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension as "a protozoa like malaria" carried by deer ticks, has expanded its presence from our region in the past several months.
Simultaneously, funds to detect and treat the disease have almost dried up in Massachusetts.
"Local doctors tell us that babesiosis is relatively common around here," Clark said. At one time, according to Dr. George Heufelder, director of the Barnstable County Department of Health & Environment, "the Cape and Islands was the epicenter of the disease. But no more. It's found in areas where Lyme disease is endemic." Today that means
the coasts of Rhode Island, Connecticut and Long Island, Eastern Massachusetts and New York State.
The disease, according to The New York Times, has become more common in these areas. Reporting on a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it disclosed a 20-fold increase in babesiosis cases in New York State's Hudson Valley.
Larry Dapsis, Coordinator of Barnstable County's Deer Tick Program and Entomologist, has some suggestions on how to protect yourself from tick-borne diseases.
TO PROTECT YOURSELF: When you come in from outdoors, carefully inspect your body and your clothing. Wearing light-colored clothing makes it easier to see ticks. Throw your clothing into a dryer for 15-20 minutes to kill any hitchhikers.
- If you spot a tick attached to your body or clothing, remove it with narrow, or pointy tweezers.
- Consider treating your clothing with a repellent/pesticide containing the active ingredient permethrin. Product names include Permanone and Sawyers Repellent-treated clothing that can last up to 70 washings is available from commercial suppliers.
TO PROTECT YOUR PETS: When you get your pet in from outdoors, carefully inspect it for ticks, and remove those you find.
- You can buy products that can protect for extended periods. They include Frontline, Advantage and Advantix, among others.
- A vaccine is also available for dogs.
TO PROTECT YOUR YARD: Remove piles of brush, firewood and leaves from the edge of the house. Mice like this habitat; mice also carry ticks.
- Consider mowing low, brushy vegetation at the edge of your yard. A pesticide sprayed on the yard's perimeter can can serve as a protective strip.
- Avoid placing chairs, tables, swing sets and other furniture against the edge of adjoining woods.
Its spread poses a particular threat to the blood supply because there is no widely used screening test for babesiosis, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Some people infected with the disease have no symptoms. Others experience those associated with Lyme disease -- fever, fatigue, chills, aching muscles, malaise. Like the flu. It can last a few days, or several months. The FDA has reported victims of the disease being hospitalized. Some have died.
Surveys by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health taken in April and May recorded the highest incidence of babesiosis in Barnstable, Nantucket and Dukes (Martha's Vineyard) Counties. The average victim was a 62-year-old male. Anaplasmosis, another tick-borne disease common to the region, hit hard among males in their late 50s. Lyme disease, the third of the unholy trinity, occurred most commonly among children 5-9 and adults 65-69.
State Public Health Veterinarian Dr. Catherine Brown confirmed Dr. Heufelder's estimate of the spread of the disease. "Over the last 5-10 years, we have seen more and more cases of babesiosis in people outside the Cape and Islands, even though the Cape still experiences significantly more cases on a population basis," she said.
The three diseases totaled more than 4,000 cases last year, despite the hot, dry summer, historically unwelcoming to ticks, she added.
Notwithstanding so gloomy an outlook, about all that keeps the state in the fight against tick-borne diseases is what is happening in this region. Barnstable County's employment of Larry Dapsis, County Deer Tick Program Coordinator and Entomologist, and the final year of a three-year grant from the Federal Environmental Protection Agency appear to be the only available funding.
The EPA grant was continued to the end of 2011 only with extensive lobbying by area health officials. Even MDPH funding dried up. Nationally, most studies are being done by universities, state blood programs (because babesiosis has turned up in blood transfusions), the CDC and the FDA, judging from information gleaned from the Internet.
Despite the narrowing focus of this research and testing, its importance can be seen in our region. Dapsis and the late Dave Simser, his predecessor at the Extension Service, have been tracking babesiosis since 2007 in a program involving feeders set up in wooded areas. Deer are lured to a feeder placed so that the animal rubs against posts containing pesticides that kill the ticks carried by the deer. The findings in this effort and in another involving field mice have been fed into prevention and education programs promoted by county services that have increased community awareness of tick-borne diseases.
The Extension Service and the 12-year-old Cape and Islands Tick Disease Task Force, both offspring of Barnstable County, have been almost the only voices calling attention to the onset of babesiosis in the state. Dr. Brown described their efforts as "critical to the awareness of tick-borne diseases" existing here and across the state.
Headed since its establishment by Truro biologist Brenda Boleyn, the task force has tried to inform and educate the public, regional and state public health officials about the
consequences of tick bites. Developments in the state Legislature in recent weeks suggest that the word has begun to spread.
Click here to see the very informative tick identification chart at www.TickEncounter.org.Five bills and budget amendment introduced by the House Post Audit and Oversight Committee have reached the governor's desk. They are considered by many to offer the best chance in recent years to get support for research, testing and treatment of tick-borne diseases in Massachusetts.
The comprehensive approach calls for financial grants to the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester to establish an institute to deal with the three diseases.
"If the legislation passes, and the Governor signs those bills, we will take a huge step forward," said Dr. Heufelder.
But the "if" still remains.
www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index ... in?blog=53