New Tick-Borne Disease Discovered
The B. Miyamotoi has been found in the same deer tick species that transmit Lyme disease. The Yale researchers believe that 3,000 Americans per year get infected through tick bites, compared with about 25,000 who get Lyme disease.
Excerpted from International the Business Times ( Posted: 09/20/2011)
Researchers have discovered a new tick-borne disease that may be infecting some Americans today, reported the New York Times.
The disease is caused by Borrelia miyamotoi, a spirochete bacterium that is related to Borrelia burgdorferi, the carrier of Lyme disease. The miyamotoi spirochete was discovered in Japan in 1995, and was first believed to be confined to those islands. In 2001, Dr. Durland Fish found it in about 2 percent of the deer ticks in the Northeast and Upper Midwest. There was also proof that mice could pick it up from tick bites.
The B. Miyamotoi has been found in the same deer tick species that transmit Lyme disease. The Yale researchers believe that 3,000 Americans per year get infected through tick bites, compared with about 25,000 who get Lyme disease.
A diagnostic test to determine whether anyone in the U.S. has become sick because of the bacterium has yet to be developed. It has been found that the same antibiotic treatment used in Lyme disease also cures infection by B. Miyamotoi.
For the complete article: http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/216710/20110920/new-tick-borne-disease-discovered.htm
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