New tick borne illness discovered in Wisconsin, Minnesota
Excerpted from TMJ4 ( Posted: 08/03/2011 )
ROCHESTER, MN – The symptoms hit Eau Claire resident Joe Rapacz suddenly, just days after working in his garden:
“I was feeling more run down than I thought I should be and it was just getting worse and worse,” he said.
Rapacz is one of 25 people in Wisconsin and Minnesota infected with a newly discovered tick borne illness, a bacterium never seen in humans before.
Now studies are under way at the Mayo Clinic:
“This new bacterium causes a disease in humans called
This strain of bacterium is so new it doesn’t even have a name yet.
It’s been detected in same deer tick that transmits lyme disease. But how this new bacterium arrived in Minnesota and Wisconsin remains a mystery. Its closest relatives are bacteria found in mice in eastern Europe and Asia.
“So what it’s doing in Minnesota and Wisconsin we don’t really know,” said Dr. Pritt.
For the complete article and video: http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/126725658.html
Lyme Handbook 