LMonty
Advisory Board, Administrator, In Memoriam
Just learned that there may be a local "outbreak" of what the diagnosed victims are being told is Tick Fever.
Symptoms include aching all over, muscle pain and stiffness, fevers, sometimes up to 103, severe headache, mild abd pain and nausea, loss/decease of appetite and/or weight. Eye pain, mostly when moving the eyes. Basicly, all the flu symptoms with occ dry cough but the cough is not a prominent symptom. Lasts up to a week.
Two neighbors within a mile on our road have MD confirmed diagnosis of this, with lab tests to back it up on the one that was hospitalized, and a report from the other that had left the area to go home and was diagnosed tick fever after lab testing ( I spoke personally to the female neighbor who was hospitalized, the other info comes second hand from a telephone call to a different neighbor). The female neighbor reports she was tested for flu and found negative.
Last week I had all the symptoms, lasting a week. Two days ago my husband came down with it, he's currently got a fever over 101 and has all the symptoms. IF thats what DH and I have, I would conclude that 4 adults with symptoms from 3 out of 4 households in approx a mile stretch of road from an insect vector might be significant.
We had a severe ice storm this past winter, and there are tons and tons of wood debris still down on everyones property. Most are still cleaning up debris. Most of us use wood heat. Since ticks are often found on decaying wood, the increased handling of it by all involved is something I'm speculating might be an increased risk of human exposure to disease carrying ticks. Weather and increased habitat may be factors in increased tick populations.
Quick seach on Tick Fever turns up several possible diseases that may be the culprit. I lack the name of which of the diseases that ticks carry that these folks were diagnosed with, as they remember only being told it was Tick Fever. There are several possibilites under that umbrella. I lack enough info to feel comfortable sending a report to ProMED, info I have above is too nebulous to report.
SO I am posting a "RFI" here, hoping our Emerging Disease newshounds might catch something on this. If you do, please post it here, maybe we can amass enough info to get some idea of whats going on, or even enough to alert ProMed if the situation does appear significant. With the out of season spread of H1N1, cases may be folded under the flu or viral symdrome umbrella and missed diagnosis may be occuring due to MDs not being aware of the appearance of this in the area. Thanks in advance
Laura
Symptoms include aching all over, muscle pain and stiffness, fevers, sometimes up to 103, severe headache, mild abd pain and nausea, loss/decease of appetite and/or weight. Eye pain, mostly when moving the eyes. Basicly, all the flu symptoms with occ dry cough but the cough is not a prominent symptom. Lasts up to a week.
Two neighbors within a mile on our road have MD confirmed diagnosis of this, with lab tests to back it up on the one that was hospitalized, and a report from the other that had left the area to go home and was diagnosed tick fever after lab testing ( I spoke personally to the female neighbor who was hospitalized, the other info comes second hand from a telephone call to a different neighbor). The female neighbor reports she was tested for flu and found negative.
Last week I had all the symptoms, lasting a week. Two days ago my husband came down with it, he's currently got a fever over 101 and has all the symptoms. IF thats what DH and I have, I would conclude that 4 adults with symptoms from 3 out of 4 households in approx a mile stretch of road from an insect vector might be significant.
We had a severe ice storm this past winter, and there are tons and tons of wood debris still down on everyones property. Most are still cleaning up debris. Most of us use wood heat. Since ticks are often found on decaying wood, the increased handling of it by all involved is something I'm speculating might be an increased risk of human exposure to disease carrying ticks. Weather and increased habitat may be factors in increased tick populations.
Quick seach on Tick Fever turns up several possible diseases that may be the culprit. I lack the name of which of the diseases that ticks carry that these folks were diagnosed with, as they remember only being told it was Tick Fever. There are several possibilites under that umbrella. I lack enough info to feel comfortable sending a report to ProMED, info I have above is too nebulous to report.
SO I am posting a "RFI" here, hoping our Emerging Disease newshounds might catch something on this. If you do, please post it here, maybe we can amass enough info to get some idea of whats going on, or even enough to alert ProMed if the situation does appear significant. With the out of season spread of H1N1, cases may be folded under the flu or viral symdrome umbrella and missed diagnosis may be occuring due to MDs not being aware of the appearance of this in the area. Thanks in advance
Laura