Tick-Born Illnesses Increase on the East End

Photo: Lone Star tick/Jason Tann, Flickr Creative Commons

Ticks are nasty little parasites that are a cause of increasing concern on the East End of Long Island. The critters have even become the subject of a New York State task force investigation.

State Senator Kenneth LaValle’s office recently announced that he has secured $150,000 in funding to fight tick-born illnesses on the East End including the four-poster deer program on Shelter Island and in North Haven.

Senator LaValle was also one of the authors of the Senate Majority Coalition Task Force on Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases report on tick borne diseases published in June based on information gathered by the Centers for Disease Control. The report offers recommendations to the public as well as to the New York State Department of Health on how to deal with the increasing prevalence of diseases carries by ticks.

Senator LaValle said, “With the high incidence of these tick-borne illnesses on the East End, we need to work to eradicate the diseases and end the transmission to individuals.”

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. noted, “The extent and severity of the Lyme disease cases on the East End has escalated to the point of a public health crisis. Senator LaValle and I have been working closely with our municipalities to find the most appropriate management strategies. This funding will allow North Haven and Shelter Island to expand highly successful four-poster programs.”

Data from the Centers for Disease Control indicates that the number of Americans diagnosed with Lyme disease each year is around 300,000. This estimate has been sharply revised upward suggesting that the total number of people diagnosed with Lyme disease is roughly 10 times higher than the previously reported number. This new estimate supports studies published in the 1990s indicating that the true number of cases is between 3-and-12-fold higher than the number of reported cases.

Lyme disease is the predominant disease carried by ticks. It was first reported in New York State in 1986. Lyme is a bacterial infection spread through the bite of infected Deer ticks. However, Lyme is not the only disease carried by ticks.

Erlichiosis, babesiosis, tularemia, the a-gal allergy as well as Rocky Mountain Spotted fever are all spread through tick bites according to the Southampton Hospital Tick-Born Diseases Center. The a-gal allergy, short for galactose-α-1,3-galactose intolerance, is a new and potentially deadly consequence of tick bites.

According to a report by Dr. Deborah McGintee, the allergy is manifest by severe itching, redness, and hives all over the body. In severe cases abdominal cramping, vomiting, diarrhea, wheezing, shortness of breath and even loss of consciousness have been reported.

Marc Felix of East End Pest Management said that there is a lot of misinformation about ticks, how to eradicate them from property and what diseases they can carry. He said there are three different kinds of ticks living in Suffolk County: the Deer tick, the American Dog tick and the Lone Star tick.

The Sag Harbor Express interviewed Gerald T. Simons of the Southampton Hospital’s Tick-Born Disease Resource Center who attributed the rise of tick-born illnesses to the lone star tick. “Five or six years ago,” he told the Express, “we would only see a patient with a lone star tick bite on a very rare occasion, but now it seems to be the predominant type we see people being bitten by.”

The lone star tick is reddish brown and easily identifiable by the white spot found on its back. This species rarely spreads Lyme disease, but it is responsible for the increase in Ehrilichia, tularemia and the a-gal allergy.