3-year-old Pennsylvania boy contracts rare illness from tick bite (Powassan virus)

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.fox6now.com/news/powassan-tick-borne-disease-meningoencephalitis

3-year-old Pennsylvania boy contracts rare illness from tick bite
By Chris Oberholtz
Published August 1, 2022 10:31AM
After a diagnosis of meningoencephalitis and proper IVIG treatment, there would be light at the end of the tunnel in Johnny’s road to recovery. (Jamie Simoson)

Fifteen minutes.

That’s all it took to transmit a rare, dangerous and debilitating tick-borne disease that seriously sickened an energetic, witty and generally healthy 3-year-old Pennsylvania boy.

Jamie Simoson’s motherly intuition pushed her to seek further medical treatment for something her youngest son’s pediatrician assured her was a virus that needed to run its course. However, it was something she later learned required weeks of medical care and came with the possibility of lifelong effects.

The bite that changed everything

Jonny Simoson was swimming in a neighbor’s pool on June 15 when his mom noticed a small speck on his right shoulder blade. It was a tick smaller than a pen point...

 

[Emily]

The mother was very sharp to notice a tick that small! Unfortunately, as in this case, doctors blow off tick illness possibility, so treatment gets delayed. It could have been so much better if this boy had the IVIG earlier.

What I did when I was bitten by a tick earlier this year is to send the live tick to a testing center in Colorado. They identified the tick species and ran a panel of tests and also warned me about alpha-gal, which they cannot test for. Powassan is not on the standard panel, but they can do special testing for that.
CDC does NOT recommend tick tests for diagnosing humans, and I agree, but if your tick is positive you can share that fact with doctors, especially if you have any symptoms. That should nudge them into proper human testing and to get prepared.

https://www.ticknology.org/